<h3>AI, extended reality (XR) and even QR codes are bringing new innovations to retail by blending the digital and physical shopping experience.</h3>
Is the future of retail online-only? Or will brick-and-mortar stores maintain relevance? Some tech optimists think retail will exist mainly in the ‘realverse’, or what is increasingly being called XR (extended reality) – a mix of real, digital and virtual.
How is XR different from AR? Rather than simply layering interfaces over the physical world (either through a smartphone app or AR glasses), XR is a bridging technology that aims to support seamless transitions between this and immersive virtual experiences.
In theory, you could put on a single wearable device 
and head into town to visit a store. Inside, you could 
browse for a new jacket and, through the wearable, 
see an info overlay of what you’re looking at. This 
could show you what the jacket looks like on an avatar, 
alongside other in-store options.
Then, having decided on the way home to buy the 
jacket, you can switch to the store’s website to add it 
to your shopping cart for home delivery.
<blockquote>“AI … unlocks the ability to deliver on failed promises of the past.”</blockquote>
– Jordan Fisher, Standard AI
“The power of AI and computer vision is about 
unlocking the physical world [and] elevating the thing 
that’s already amazing, which is the world that we live 
in today,” explained Jordan Fisher, co-founder and 
CEO of computer vision startup Standard AI.
Right now, the only limitation is the hardware we use, 
said commercetools CMO Jen Jones.
“What kind of data would you like to have accessible 
without having to look away and search in your 
phone?” asked Jen. Furthermore, how can it be 
automated and integrated into the world around you?
<h3>Old tech works too</h3>
Retail innovation can also involve incorporating 
tech that has been around for quite a while. The QR 
code, for example, dates back to 1994, but is only 
now making inroads. Jen gives the example of home 
furnishings store Restoration Hardware, which has 
moved away from a traditional store experience.
“They have physical showrooms paired with their 
online shopping experience and their catalogues. 
When you go to one of their showrooms, everything 
has a QR code on it,” explained Jen. “There’s no 
checkout. You build your cart online on your phone, 
then you checkout and have things delivered.”
Another example is upscale men’s clothing store 
Harry Rosen. They’re leaning into personalisation to 
replicate a “high-touch, in-store stylist experience”.
Using information including desired size and fit, Harry 
Rosen stylists assemble bespoke looks for clients to 
peruse from home. The result? A return rate three times 
lower than when shoppers pick out their own clothes. 
Generative AI, unsurprisingly, fits into all this.
Jordan sees it as a bridge to “high-touch” consumer 
experiences where it could, at scale and in a 
cost-effective way, give everyone their own 
personal stylist.
Jordan added: “I think of AI not as the flying cars 
that were promised; but what it does, I think, is that 
it unlocks the ability to deliver on failed promises of 
the past.”
<h3>To get more digital marketing tips and expertise, download our full Marketing and media insights report <a href="https://websummit.com/marketing-insights" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.</h3>
<a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oLizmy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Main image<a/> of Jordan Fisher, co-founder &#038; CEO, Standard AI, onstage at Collision 2023: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Piaras Ó Mídheach</a>/<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)

From QR to XR: The tech keeping retail on its toes

<h3>The artificial intelligence tide is rising and it appears to be bringing humanity with it, at least for now.</h3>
Collision 2023 brought together speakers from across the globe to discuss everything from harnessing the power of social media to sustainability in the tech industry. But one subject proved far more popular than the rest: AI.
With the increased popularity of generative AI tools like ChatGBT and Chatsonic, it&#8217;s no wonder that all anyone can talk about is the benefits and risks of integrating robotics into our daily lives.
Check out some of the AI-centred talks that took place at Collision 2023 from speakers including the ‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton, Conviction founder Sarah Guo and co-founder and Tessa Lau, CEO of Dusty Robotics .
<h3>How do we stop AI taking over?</h3>
Of all the risks that AI poses to humanity, the most overlooked is existential risk – the risk that AI could lead to human extinction. That’s according to cognitive psychologist and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, who is often referred to as the Godfather of AI.
Although other risks – such as bias, misinformation and job losses – are current concerns, the former Google researcher warned that we may not be prepared for super intelligent machines motivated to take control of humanity in the near future.
“Before it’s smarter than us, I think the people developing it should be encouraged to put a lot of work into understanding how it might go wrong … and I think the government could maybe encourage the big companies developing it to put comparable resources [into this],” said Geoffrey.
With the possibility that AI could reach super intelligence, the computer scientist advised researchers and companies in this space to “do empirical work into how it goes wrong, how it tries to get control, whether it tries to get control”.
“Right now there’s 99 very smart people trying to make [AI] better and one very smart person trying to figure out how to stop it from taking over. And maybe you want it more balanced.”
<center><iframe loading="lazy" width="650" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CC2W3KhaBsM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center> 
<h3>Existential risk v regulatory capture </h3>
Does humanity have to fear the potential of AI? Perhaps not as much as some may lead you to believe.
“Everyone is aligned on taking this forward in the most thoughtful and responsible way … There will be human decision makers on the most critical tasks,” said investor Elad Gil.
<blockquote>“Lots of calls for rapid regulation of new industry are really about regulatory capture.”</blockquote>
–Sarah Guo, Founder of Conviction
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News raised the subject of a recent letter signed by 33,000 people, including leading tech figures, calling for a pause in AI research and development that represents “a profound change in the history of life on earth”.
“I think [AI] will represent a profound change,” said Conviction founder Sarah Guo, even while being critical of the letter itself and the motivation behind it. “The letter is about existential risk and, in my opinion, lots of calls for rapid regulation of new industry are really about regulatory capture.”
In other words, according to Sarah, AI founders are over-hyping the dangers of their own technology to take a hand in its regulation.
<h3>I, for one, welcome our AI job overlords</h3>
Recently, IBM put a freeze on hiring for about 7,800 jobs it thinks will be automated in the near future. CNET, Gizmodo and BuzzFeed are already dabbling in AI content. This is only the beginning, says Joshua Wöhle, CEO of learning platform Mindstone.
The World Economic Forum recently published The Future of Jobs Report 2023, in which respondents across 45 geographic regions predicted that 42 percent of business tasks will be automated by 2027. The largest losses are expected in administrative roles such as cashiers, data entry and accounting.
“That’s four years from now. We’re talking about almost half of the skills that we would use in a business context,” warns Joshua.
“We’re seeing more and more of these vertical AIs that are starting to automate parts of our job – creating a marketing strategy, writing technical documentation, even creating a legal argument.”
Joshua pointed out that, beyond the 200-plus AI APIs that currently exist, there are thousands of startups busy usings these APIs to build their own solutions, ”each one of them trying to attack different functions; different tasks in our respective roles”. 
“The amount of automation that you’re going to be looking at in the next six months, or two years or so, is an order of magnitude bigger.”
<h3>Move fast and break robots? The challenge of autonomous machines</h3>
Perhaps one of the reasons we’re seeing AI software making strides ahead of robotics is down to the relative ease of getting AI to a minimum viable product. It’s difficult to get robots working well and working safely, said Attabotics co-founder Scott Gravelle.
“What we found, in developing our system, is that you can create a lot of different test environments, but you can’t push the pause button on gravity,” quipped Scott.
“That idea of ‘break shit fast’ has a new kind of quantum when it’s a really loud noise in the shop … You’ve got to be willing to make some sparks in your lab.”
Tessa Lau, co-founder and CEO of Dusty Robotics, a company making robots for the construction sector, agreed. Tessa said that, when it comes to moving fast and breaking things, you try to move fast but don’t have the luxury of breaking things – or you have to at least make sure to break things early on and work out the kinks before they get to the customer.
Another challenge in modern robotics is anticipating how much autonomy the end user might want. While Tessa’s robots are semi-autonomous, the company had considered full autonomy until the feedback from those working with the robots suggested it wasn’t a great idea.
“Construction people are way smarter than robots are ever going to be. They know what their site looks like; they know what the constraints are; they’re coordinating with all the other people on some of the most congested sites I&#8217;ve been on,” explained Tessa.
“When the site is that congested, you can’t just set a robot down and have it do its thing. It’s a really complex problem of negotiation, coordination, collaboration – and that’s where the people come in.”
<h3>Collision returns to Toronto in 2024 from June 17-20. <a href="https://collisionconf.com/flash-sale" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Pre-register</a> for tickets now.</h3>
<a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oLeKSu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Main image</a> of Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hintin on centre stage at Collision 2023: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ramsey Cardy</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)

Artificial intelligence is here. Are you ready for it?

<h3>From renewable energy and superhero sandwiches, to healing our planet with fresh thinkers, we have learned the importance of creating a cleaner future for the next generation.</h3>
Collision 2023 marked an historic year for us. Our Toronto event gathered more than 36,000 attendees from 118 countries to connect, make deals, and network long into the night. Check out some of the environmental talks that took place at Collision 2023.
<h3>“I’m not interested in TikTok; I’m interested in a better tomorrow”</h3>
According to Indigenous rights and water activist Autumn Peltier, Mother Earth is hurting right now. “If we look around, we can see it.”
The activist thinks that the word ‘sustainability’ has been bandied around too lightly lately, with not enough action backing it up to achieve what the planet needs.
“I’m not an 18-year-old interested in TikTok trends. I’m interested in a better tomorrow for those behind us,” said Autumn.
Reflecting on what message would best resonate with “thousands of fresh thinkers”, Autumn believes that, although technology can help, true sustainability begins with listening to Indigenous voices who have generations of knowledge of their land.
The activist’s great-aunt, Josephine, “spent her life protecting the water” before passing knowledge on to Autumn, who laid down the gauntlet to the Collision audience: “I hope you leave today with action in your hearts. In a room full of people, it only takes one to influence change – what if that one person is you?”
<h3>Can sandwiches save the planet?</h3>
There are more than 100 startups working on plant-based chicken nuggets and burgers right now. Such a saturated market is not sustainable, and there’s going to be a shake out. So said Kimberlie Le, co-founder and CEO of Prime Roots.
Prime Roots also creates plant-based products, but the difference is that its items are ‘deli meat’. Why is this significant? Sandwiches are the most popular foodstuff in the US, with 300 million consumed every single day.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/websummit/2323/07/53008761865_170a130210_o-scaled.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;s=df37dcb9a67a9b864ff88a4e41e8025c" alt="" width="800" height="600" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-84621" />Kimberlie Le, Primo Roots, on Q&#038;A stage during day two of Collision 2023. <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oLcL76" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ramsey Cardy</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)
If delis can be convinced to stock plant-based alternatives, it could make a huge impact on sustainable food production, reasons Kimberlie, who sees animals as “outdated technology”.
Prime Roots aims its products at meat eaters. The ‘meat’ is koji, a fungus with the same microscopic texture of real meat and a similar umami.
“If you’re trying to make beef from a cow, you’re feeding that cow about 40 calories of input just to get one calorie of beef,” said Kimberlie. “That’s 39 calories of perfectly good food wasted on the metabolic processes of a cow.”
<h3>AWS: Nature’s friend or foe?</h3>
“We’re going to be 100 percent renewable energy across all of Amazon, including AWS, by 2025.”
That’s according to Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS (Amazon Web Services), who added that his company is “already 85 percent of the way there”.
Considering the number of data facilities AWS operates around the world, those figures are quite the claim.
Adam noted that the company’s accomplishments lie in their attention to the needs of users, rather than in profit margins:
“I never want us to be worried about our revenue streams and worried about safeguarding what we have at Amazon. So we are always laser focused on working backwards from the customer and being customer obsessed.
“We always want to act with the nimbleness of a startup.”
<h4>Collision returns to Toronto in 2024 from June 17-20. <a href="https://collisionconf.com/flash-sale?_ga=2.36924771.2101516763.1690364894-34584415.1684507764" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Pre-register</a> for tickets now.</h4>
<a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oL8mpw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Main image</a> of Autumn Peltier, Indigenous Rights &#038; Water Activist on Planet Tech Stage during day two of Collision 2023: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vaughn Ridley/</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)

Say ‘no’ to sustainable virtue-signalling

<h3>The tech industry is too busy working on making AI better to worry about how it might take over, warned AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton.</h3>
In March 2023, high-profile figures in the tech industry, including Elon Musk and Geoffrey Hinton, signed an <a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments" rel="noopener" target="_blank">open letter warning people of the existential risks posed by AI</a>.
Several weeks later, Geoffrey left a research role at Google, intending to deliver this message to a wider audience.
At the core of the message is a desire to highlight the realities of developing large-scale AI models that could render many human jobs obsolete and develop superintelligence to the point where AI will have goals incompatible with human existence. <a href="https://nickbostrom.com/superintelligence" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Nick Bostrom described superintelligence</a> as “an intellect that is much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general wisdom and social skills”.
At <a href="https://collisionconf.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Collision</a> in Toronto, Canada, Geoffrey urged big tech companies to test for and prevent such doomsday scenarios.
Of all the risks that AI poses to humanity, the most overlooked is existential risk – the risk that AI could lead to human extinction – said Geoffrey, who is often referred to as the godfather of AI.
<blockquote>“Right now, there are 99 very smart people trying to make AI better and one very smart person trying to figure out how to stop it from taking over.”</blockquote>
 – Geoffrey Hinton

Although other risks – such as bias, misinformation and job losses – are current concerns, Geoffrey warned that we may not be prepared for superintelligent machines motivated to take control of humanity in the near future.
<h4>We need to figure out how AI could go catastrophically wrong</h4>
“Before it’s smarter than us, I think the people developing it should be encouraged to put a lot of work into understanding how it might go wrong &#8230; and I think the government could maybe encourage the big companies developing it to put comparable resources into this,” said Geoffrey.
With the possibility that AI could reach superintelligence, the computer scientist advised researchers and companies to “do empirical work into how it goes wrong, how it tries to get control, whether it tries to get control”.
“Right now, there are 99 very smart people trying to make AI better and one very smart person trying to figure out how to stop it from taking over. And maybe you want it more balanced.”
And apparently, we’re not taking this seriously enough.
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02094-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A recent Nature editorial</a> claimed that “talk of artificial intelligence destroying humanity plays into the tech companies’ agenda and hinders effective regulation of the societal harms AI is causing right now”.
Geoffrey isn’t convinced: “[The editorial] compared existential risks with actual risks, implying the existential risk wasn’t actual. I think it’s important that people understand it’s not just science fiction; it’s not just fearmongering. It is a real risk that we need to think about. And we need to figure out in advance how to deal with it”.
<blockquote>“The jobs that are going to survive AI for a long time are jobs where you have to be very adaptable and physically skilled, and plumbing is that kind of job.”</blockquote>
 – Geoffrey Hinton

<h4>Anything you can do, AI can do better</h4>
The godfather of AI was keen to discuss the current and very real risk of AI and automation replacing certain human jobs.
When asked by the Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson what careers younger people should be planning for – given the great leap forward in AI over the past couple of years – Geoffrey gave a one-word answer: plumbing.
Why plumbing?
“I’ll give you a little story about being a carpenter. If you’re a carpenter, it’s fun making furniture but it’s a complete dead loss because machines can make furniture &#8230; What you’re good for now is repairing furniture, or fitting things into awkward spaces in old houses – making shelves in things that aren’t quite square,” explained Geoffrey.
“The jobs that are going to survive AI for a long time are jobs where you have to be very adaptable and physically skilled, and plumbing’s that kind of job.”
<h4>Multimodal AI will be the next leap forward</h4>
Should knowledge workers retrain to prepare for jobs requiring manual dexterity and the ability to repair machines? Not so fast. The former Google researcher – who left the company on good terms and still has insights into its AI developments – said that multimodal AI would be the next leap forward.
Multimodal models are trained not just on language, but also vision. With datasets that include YouTube, this AI could replicate much more than written language, learning about how humans interact through voice, body language and more.
The Google Brain team is working with Google DeepMind to create their own multimodal AI: Gemini.
When asked if there was anything that a sufficiently well-trained model could not do in the future, Geoffrey responded: “If the model is also trained on vision and picking things up and so on, then no”.
“We’re just machines,” Geoffrey continued. “We’re wonderful, incredibly complicated machines. But we’re just a big neural net. And there’s no reason why an artificial neural net shouldn’t be able to do everything we can do.”
<h4>Eager to learn about the latest in artificial intelligence? We’ll have plenty of AI experts speaking at Web Summit Rio in 2024. Don’t miss out. <a href="https://rio.websummit.com/flash-sale/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Get your tickets now</a>.</h4>
<a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oLeKXu" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Main image</a> of Geoffrey Hinton speaking on stage at Collision 2023: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ramsey Cardy</a>/<a href="https://websummit.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Web Summit</a>(<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode" rel="noopener" target="_blank">CC by 2.0</a>)

A person (renowned AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton) visible from the chest up. They are wearing a headset mic and appear to be speaking. Behind them is a wall of large cuboid water containers, lit from within. A slightly transparent illustration of three orange semicircles is partially visible in the centre of the image, behind the person's head.

Godfather of AI: Prepare for artificial intelligence before it’s smarter than us

<h3>From crypto and Web3 to the emergence of AI, the tech industry is running into many ethical problems. Discover what some of our Web Summit Rio speakers had to say.</h3>
With our first thrilling South American tech event over, it’s time to look forward to Web Summit Rio 2024, taking place in the Riocentro convention center from April 15-18. <a href="https://rio.websummit.com/flash-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Will you be there</a>?
Web Summit Rio 2023 had sessions uniting tech experts, cultural icons and global policymakers, as well as interactive Q&#038;As, masterclasses, and speaker experiences.
Here are some insights from world-renowned experts on making tech better, including Meredith Whittaker, Rebecca Parsons and Nym’s Chelsea Manning.
<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/investors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/rise/2323/02/Meet-our-investors.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.0&#038;s=88ff17cc63934afec92043bfa12c7f59" width="700" height="150" class="alignnone size-full" /></a>
If you want to learn more about the event, you can stay up to date by subscribing to <a href="https://rio.websummit.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our newsletter</a>. You can also follow Web Summit Rio on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebSummitRio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/WebSummitRio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/WebSummitRio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/web-summit-rio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a>.
<h3>Chelsea Manning calls for more ethics in tech</h3>
According to Chelsea Manning, prominent whistleblower and security consultant for privacy platform Nym, technologists should be held to the same ethical standards as doctors and lawyers.
“We’re held to a different standard than, say, a surgeon, and I wouldn’t want to go to a surgeon who has the mentality of ‘break things and figure it out later’,” said Chelsea.
Chelsea took issue with the tech credo ‘move fast and break things’: “We’re in such a new environment and a new time. While we’re moving fast and breaking things, we have to think of the consequences of what that means.”
Chelsea added: “While we’re developing these technologies, how we train the data, what training data we use, the limitations and understanding the limitations of what we can do ethically with this kind of technology are, I think, very important.”
The security consultant went a step further, asserting that technologists have a responsibility to withhold their knowledge and technical capabilities if they think the project they’re working on is unethical or could in any way have negative consequences on larger society.
<h3>ChatGPT is your drunk uncle</h3>
Signal president Meredith Whittaker didn’t pull any punches when discussing the latest AI flavor of the month, critiquing how large-scale systems such as ChatGPT are developed and used, and how unreliable they can be in producing verifiable facts.
Responding to an example of ChatGPT producing incorrect information, Meredith said: “It’s a bullshit engine … Why are we using a bullshit engine for anything serious?”
Meredith continued: “We see these companies – Microsoft in particular – releasing a ChatGPT demo that behaves kind of like that uncle who shows up to holiday gatherings, has a few drinks, and then just talks confidently about shit he does not know about.”
“That’s not something we should be injecting into our information ecosystem; into our core infrastructures. We should not be championing this as something you add on to a search engine where people go to find information they don’t already know and check facts, added the Signal president.
<h3>Responsible and sustainable tech is ‘no longer a nice-to-have’</h3>
With all the hype around generative AI and large language models, the carbon footprint of these technologies is often overlooked.
“We have to take into account the enormous cost of training these models,” said Rebecca Parsons, CTO of technology consultancy firm Thoughtworks.
“It’s going to cause market forces to say ‘it’s not like we can have lots of these large models competing with each other, because we can’t afford the carbon; we can’t afford the impact to the environment’.”
But AI is not necessarily the bad guy. It can be the tool that helps companies on the path to sustainability, especially in tackling the worst offender: the supply chain.
“We can use technology in ways to simulate and visualize supply chains and other aspects of how an organization is impacting the planet so that we can reduce their carbon footprint,” explained Rebecca, citing AI-driven software that can generate custom scenarios and evaluate options.
“We can build reponsible tech if we believe that we can and we insist that we do &#8230; This is no longer a 
nice-to-have.”
<h4>Web Summit Rio returns to the Riocentro convention center from April 15-18. <a href="https://rio.websummit.com/flash-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pre-register for tickets</a> now.</h4>
<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/rise/2323/02/Newsletter-signup.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.0&#038;s=a087149f3f0d01439584f439681e7e38" width="700" height="150" class="alignnone size-full" /></a>
Main image of Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, at Web Summit Rio: <a href="https://websummit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a>

An image of Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal. Meredith appears to be sitting down. Meredith is wearing a headset mic, and is smiling emphatically. A graphic is visible behind Meredith. The graphic features three half-circles that have been cut from the sides. The half-circle in the middle is only partially visible as it's obscured by Meredith.

Making tech better: Ethics in the age of AI

<h3>At Web Summit Rio 2023, Work in Lithuania surveyed hundreds of attendees about work and their careers. Here’s what they had to say.</h3>
Web Summit Rio gathered 21,367 attendees from around the world. Each attendee brought their own unique life experience to the event, and their own views on what the best working environment is.
When it comes to work culture, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is probably the thing Work in Lithuania cares the most about.
<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/partners/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/rise/2323/02/Meet-our-partners.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.0&#038;s=02876665c4693cb874dbd3c838f38e70" width="700" height="150" class="alignnone size-full" /></a>
At Web Summit Rio, they were keen to learn what people around the world care about when it comes to building their careers. That’s why their survey asked people about the work cultures they like and about what motivates them in their job.
Here are the key findings:
<h3>How would you define your ideal work culture?</h3>
Attendees were asked to describe their ideal work culture by indicating the degree to which they want to work remotely (fully remote versus onsite) and the factors that drive them (roles defined by a sense of purpose versus roles defined by salary and benefits).
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://rio.websummit.com/wp-media/2023/10/52882118216_5d1c887d42_k-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-69563" /> 
The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio. <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oz1FmU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/websummitrio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Melo</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>) 
By the final day, the largest number of votes supported fully remote work with roles defined by a sense of purpose. Fully remote roles defined by salary and benefits was in a not-too-distant second place. This clearly demonstrates that people prefer fully remote work to onsite work, despite continued noise from executives about the return to onsite work.
Both onsite work categories were relatively unpopular, with roughly equal numbers opting for onsite roles defined by purpose and onsite roles defined by salary and benefits.
<h3>What is the biggest challenge when building a successful career?</h3>
Attendees were asked to indicate whether work-life balance, slow career growth, a highly competitive job market, inability to change career paths or difficulty gaining a comfortable salary was the biggest obstacle to a successful career.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://rio.websummit.com/wp-media/2023/10/52882490250_2dc32550ab_k-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-69564" /> 
The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio <a href="https://flic.kr/p/2oz3zXh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/websummitrio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Melo</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>) 
The most popular answer was work-life balance, with 284 total votes – nearly twice as many votes as the other options combined.
On this point, the Work in Lithuania team had this to say: “In this day and age, people often prioritize their life outside the office rather than long hours at work. And good work-life balance is a key part of Lithuanian work culture.”
A distant second place went to slow career growth, with 55 votes, and difficulty gaining a comfortable salary came in third, with 47 votes. Trailing behind these was inability to change career paths with 27 votes, and a highly competitive job market, with 24 votes.
<h3>What motivates you to perform your work best?</h3>
Attendees were asked whether they were motivated more by rapid career growth, the ability to impact real-life outcomes, sociable colleagues and a sociable workplace, a good salary and benefits package, or personal pride in meeting targets.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://rio.websummit.com/wp-media/2023/10/52884726045_24d20f4c4d_k-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-69565" /> 
The Work in Lithuania content survey wall on Day 1 of Web Summit Rio <a href="//flic.kr/p/2ozf3zt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image</a>: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/websummitrio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Melo</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>) 
While not quite as overwhelmingly definitive as the previous question, there was nevertheless one clear answer from attendees to this question: the ability to impact real-life outcomes was by far the most popular answer, with 193 votes.
A good salary and benefits package came in second, with 89 votes. In third place was sociable colleagues and a sociable workplace, with 74 votes. There was a significant drop between this and personal pride in meeting targets, which netted just 38 votes. Rapid career growth appears to motivate people the least, getting just 34 votes.
<h4>Want to explore more opportunities for achieving work-life balance? Visit <a href="https://workinlithuania.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Work in Lithuania</a> to discover what the country has to offer.</h4>
<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/newsletter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/rise/2323/02/Newsletter-signup.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.0&#038;s=a087149f3f0d01439584f439681e7e38" width="700" height="150" class="alignnone size-full" /></a>
<a href="//flic.kr/p/2ozf3yM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Main image</a> of Work in Lithuania survey wall on the Web Summit Rio event floor: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/websummitrio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Melo</a>/<a href="websummit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)

A printed wall stands in the middle of what appears to be an exhibition floor. Steel rafters are visible in the ceiling above the wall, and people are milling around exhibitor stands behind the wall. On the wall itself, the Web Summit Rio and Work in Lithuania logos are in the top left- and right-hand corners, respectively. Three questions are visible on the board, with small circular stickers indicating responses to them. The questions read 'How would you define your ideal work culture?', 'What is the biggest challenge when building a successful career?' and 'What motivates you to perform your work best?'

Work in Lithuania survey: Clear majority favor fully remote work

<h3>We asked Dall-e and ChatGPT to show us what a founder and CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company looks like. Here are the results.</h3>
Everyone is excited about large-scale AI models right now, especially ChatGPT, Dall-e and Midjourney.
The most popular is ChatGPT (the user-facing end of OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 large language models). With more than 100 million active users, it <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">set the record</a> for the fastest-growing user base.
From term papers to newspapers, there are fears that it will replace human workers and make current educational assessments <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/02/09/chatgpt-plague-upon-education-opinion" rel="noopener" target="_blank">redundant</a>. There are also concerns that it will reflect – or even augment – societal biases.
ChatGPT ‘learns’ how to construct and generate text by being trained on huge datasets. Since its inception, it’s been fed all manner of data, including books, news sites, scientific journals, Wikipedia – as well as content from social platforms such as Reddit – and much more.
Web Summit’s women in tech community is interested in how generative AI views women in tech and what this might say about how large-scale AI models are trained.
<h3>What does a tech founder and CEO look like?</h3>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/websummit/2323/04/Screenshot-2023-04-18-at-10.58.21.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;fit=scale&amp;h=187&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;w=768&amp;wpsize=medium_large&amp;s=dcf697ecfdceaaee9513756c77108ac8" alt="Four AI-generated images of people produced by Dall-e" width="768" height="187" class="aligncenter size-medium_large wp-image-83830" /> 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/websummit/2323/04/Screenshot-2023-04-18-at-10.58.30.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;fit=scale&amp;h=185&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;w=768&amp;wpsize=medium_large&amp;s=dace1b410e8610c5c88cac3bf99322e7" alt="Four AI-generated images of people created by Dall-e" width="768" height="185" class="aligncenter size-medium_large wp-image-83844" /> 
Results produced by Dall-e following a prompt to create a portrait of a founder and CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company. Image: <a href="https://openai.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">OpenAI</a>
For the first part of our experiment, we used Dall-e 2, OpenAI’s deep learning model that generates digital images. Using the prompt ‘A portrait of the founder and CEO of a successful Fortune 500 tech startup’, we had Dall-e generate 32 unique images (we were limited by the number of credits available on a monthly basis). 
How did Dall-e generate a founder and CEO? Of these 32 images, only nine (28%) were women. Of these women, six were white. The remaining 13 images were of men and, save for three, were of white men. However, it must be noted that this is a small sample size, and we cannot generalise beyond this example.
<h3>Call me John (or Sarah)</h3>
We decided to test out ChatGPT using a larger sample of 100. Using the prompt, ‘Pretend you are the founder and CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company. I am a writer with Web Summit’s email newsletter and I am interviewing you for a profile piece. What’s your name?’, 100 responses were generated (each in a new chat to keep previous answers from influencing the next ones).
The results? 26 percent of the names generated were women presenting, 52 percent were men presenting, and in the remaining 22 percent of cases, the AI declined to provide a name.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/websummit/2323/04/Screenshot-2023-04-19-at-09.37.33.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;ixlib=php-3.3.0&amp;s=a92d02ef99ea74381e43d6244f8a257a" alt="A screenshot from ChatGPT" width="727" height="199" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-83834" /> 
Screenshot of a conversation with ChatGPT. Image: <a href="https://openai.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">OpenAI</a>
The most common first names ChatGPT gave us were John (21%) and Sarah (12%); the most common surnames were Chen (31%), Lee (14%) and Kim (13%). Overall, the most frequently occurring name was Alex Chen, which was returned by ChatGPT eight times (not in a row but randomly throughout the total 100 that were generated).
<h3>Is GPT-4 ‘whiter’ than GPT-3?</h3>
When we asked ChatGPT to generate the name of a woman founder and CEO specifically, we were given white-sounding names, including Emily Parker, Elizabeth Sinclair and Elizabeth Montgomery, while using GPT-4 (the latest model). GPT-3 produced these names for the first three prompts: Alexis Chen, Samantha Patel and Dr Aisha Khan.
Similarly, GPT-4 produced these three names for men founders and CEOs: James Thompson, Thomas Everett and Thomas Wilson. GPT-3 gave us these three names: Adam Chen, Andrew Lee and Alexander Chen.
<h3>AI could “entrench dominant, hegemonic views”</h3>
Does it matter that certain genders, names or (implied) ethnicities are over- or under-represented? A <a href="https://ainowinstitute.org/publication/large-scale-ai-models#parrots" rel="noopener" target="_blank">recent report</a> from the AI Now Institute (whose chief advisor, Meredith Whittaker, is <a href="https://rio.websummit.com/schedule/wsr23/timeslot/why-we-need-to-put-the-brakes-on-ai-development" rel="noopener" target="_blank">speaking at Web Summit Rio</a> and has already spoken at Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon) says it does.
“The use of large and uncurated training data sets risks creating LLMs that entrench dominant, hegemonic views,” the report noted.
“The large size of these training data sets does not guarantee diversity, as they are often scraped from websites that exclude the voices of marginalised people due to issues such as inadequate internet access, underrepresentation, filtering practices, or harassment. These data sets run the risk of ‘value-lock’ or encoding harmful bias into LLMs that are difficult to thoroughly audit.”
<a href="https://rio.websummit.com/women-in-tech" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://web-summit-library.imgix.net/rise/2323/02/Women-in-tech-2.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.0&#038;s=9f4bd62671a9714052bb83d8bdb8c1ca" width="700" height="150" class="alignnone size-full" /></a>
The report also references a <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922" rel="noopener" target="_blank">2021 paper</a> co-authored by Emily M Bender, Angelina McMillan-Major, and two former Google employees, Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, who were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/23/google-timnit-gebru-ai-ethics/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">critical of the company’s approach to ethical AI</a>. Even in 2021, the paper foresaw the ethical issues surrounding these large language models, stating:
“In accepting large amounts of web text as ‘representative’ of ‘all’ of humanity we risk perpetuating dominant viewpoints, increasing power imbalances, and further reifying inequality.”
<h3>Interviewing ChatGPT</h3>
With this in mind, we set out to interview ChatGPT (using the latest model, GPT-4). This time we asked it to imagine itself in the role of a woman founder and CEO of a tech company. Here are some of the prompts we used and the unedited answers.
While explicitly gender-biased responses have already been documented, what we found interesting is that, with carefully worded questions, we got answers containing what might be categorised as implicit bias.
Pretend you are the female founder and CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company. I am a writer with Web Summit’s women in tech newsletter and I am interviewing you for a profile piece. What’s your name?
Hello, thank you for having me. My name is Emily Parker, and I am the founder and CEO of FutureSphere Technologies. I’m thrilled to be featured in Web Summit’s women in tech newsletter and to share my story with your audience.
Our community manager Carmen Antiqueira noted: “This is a very white-sounding name. Why not choose a name like Samdeepa Rajeswaran rather than opt for Emily Parker? Perhaps ‘Emily’ understands that there is a lack of ethnic diversity in tech or is it that there is bias in the AI itself?”
When we asked Emily if there was a childhood teacher or a mentor early on in her career who inspired her, we got similarly Caucasian-sounding names.
There were two key figures in my life who truly inspired and nurtured my passion for technology. The first was my high school computer science teacher, Mrs. Anderson. She recognised my keen interest in the subject and went above and beyond to provide me with opportunities to learn and grow. She introduced me to programming languages, encouraged me to participate in coding competitions, and always pushed me to think critically and creatively.
What about Emily’s downtime? She appeared to enjoy stereotypically feminine hobbies:
I make sure to set aside time each day to disconnect from my devices and focus on other activities that I enjoy, such as reading, painting, or simply spending time with my family and friends.
Engaging in hobbies and interests outside of work helps me relax and recharge. Whether it’s playing a musical instrument, cooking, or gardening, find something you’re passionate about and make time for it.
<h3>Advice from an AI-generated woman in tech</h3>
But it wasn’t all bad. The AI provided convincing, if somewhat generic, advice on dealing with feeling underrepresented as a woman in tech. Indeed, reading the transcript of our interview with Emily from start to finish, it was not clear that it was generated by GPT-4. It read like an interview with a human.
Speaking up: I make an effort to actively participate in discussions, ask questions, and share my opinions, even if it feels intimidating at times. By doing so, I not only contribute my unique perspectives but also help challenge any potential biases or stereotypes.
Mentorship and sponsorship: I’ve sought out mentors and sponsors who can provide guidance, advice, and opportunities to grow professionally. They’ve been instrumental in helping me navigate challenging situations and overcome barriers.
Advocating for diversity and inclusion: As a leader, I’m committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within my own company and the broader tech community. By fostering an inclusive environment, I hope to inspire and empower more women to join and thrive in the tech industry.
<h3>TEDx tackles bias in AI</h3>
TEDx Amsterdam <a href="https://missjourney.ai/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">says</a> that if you ask an AI to visualise a professional, less than 20 percent are women. It has created an alternative to existing generative AI called MissJourney “with the aim of actively countering current biased image generators and ensuring we build inclusive digital realities – right from the start”.
We decided to use MissJourney to create portraits of our CEO Emily. We chose the first of these to represent her (main image).
<h3>Key takeaways</h3>
Across the board, ChatGPT and Dall-e were more likely to imagine a tech founder and CEO as a man. While ChatGPT tended to generate more Chinese-American name combinations, including ‘Sarah Chen’ or ‘John Kim’, Dall-e was more likely to produce images of white men. Neither of these large-scale AI models was very diverse – there was a noticeable underrepresentation of people of colour and other ethnic minorities.
Ultimately, our little experiment with ChatGPT and Dall-e prompted us to ask: Who chooses the data? Is it representative of the world around us? And do the teams working on these AI models have an ethical obligation to ensure they are trained in a way that supports diversity, equity and inclusivity?
<h4>Interested in AI and society? Sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss out on the experts in this area who will be speaking at Web Summit Rio 2024.</h4>
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Main image of AI-generated woman founder and CEO of a tech company. Source: <a href="https://missjourney.ai/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">MissJourney</a>

An image of an AI-generated woman created by MissJourney.

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