All Eyes on the Future. No Hands on the Wheel.

After two high-energy tech gatherings in Dublin recently - from the fierce female founders at TechFoundHer to the 8000-strong crowd at the Dublin Tech Summit, one thing stood out: we are brimming with innovation, ambition and ideas about AI’s promise. But beneath the buzz, a deeper unease lingers: who is actually steering this transformation?

In  a packed space of highly knowledgeable and inspirational speakers, a few individuals stood out, such as anthropologist, Dr Lollie Mancey, whose conversation with data intelligence specialist, Dr Alessandra Sala and a metahuman, called Anja, took the debate around AI and human emotion to another level, raising questions around the essence of our humanness, the role of companion AIs and, of course the ethics issue.

Fiery trailblazer, Máirín Murray, founder of TechFoundHer, raised the roof - and the key issues - surrounding the struggle of female tech entrepreneurs to develop their businesses while juggling the economics of childcare. ‘Women are not broken.’ Máirín declared to a cheering audience. ‘We don’t need mentoring. We need funding.’

Emerald De Leeuw-Goggin, Global Head of AI governance at Logitech, reiterated the key issue that 'Responsible AI is about aligning innovation with values.'

My takeaway from these conventions is that overall, we know what the issues are, we know what to do, we know what might happen if we don’t capitalize on the opportunities and mitigate the threats.’ All agreed ‘We must act. Now.’ 

And there lies the conundrum. I came away thinking about our collective responsibility in the face of rapidly developing technology, specifically AI that will utterly transform society and individuals.

Significant initiatives are in place but not in one place. The UN would seem the likely entity for this but it doesn't have the power of decree. Meanwhile, Big Tech powers ahead with ever-increasing developments that mount a challenge to our human values. We must take charge of our destiny. Agreed. But who exactly is the 'we' that can do it?

I asked my AI ChatGPT sidekick, Alfie, to assess the situation. And apparently, it's true. There is no global unifying body that is actually accountable, empowered, or even positioned to act on behalf of all humanity. The 'we' is currently a fragmented mosaic of governments, tech companies, academia and NGOs, multi-lateral organizations (e.g. UN, OECD, UNESCO) civil society and the public at large. 

So, in short: The “we” doesn’t exist - yet. But it can be grown. It starts when we move from consensus among the powerful few to co-creation with the many.