Latest / The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast / Translating Ethics: Trust, Compliance & the Culture of Responsibility - EP03
Transcript
- 0:07Welcome to the In Between Trust Podcast, the podcast at the
- 0:11intersection of tech and trust. What does it mean to lead with
- 0:15responsibility and systems that automate more than we
- 0:18understand? Today's guest is Paula Sapir,
- 0:22legal expert and ethical AI strategist working at the
- 0:25forefront of governance, compliance, and organizational
- 0:29culture. In this episode, we explore why
- 0:32trust requires both control and care and how compliance can
- 0:36become culture, the role of regulation as an enabler, not a
- 0:41blocker of innovation, and how language, empathy, and local
- 0:45champions help ethical principles stick.
- 0:49This is a conversation about alignment, integrity, and what
- 0:52it takes to govern AI with human clarity.
- 0:58I'm so happy to have your parlor at the in between podcast and I
- 1:03would drive dive right into the questions, if you don't mind.
- 1:05That was great. Perfect.
- 1:07And first of all, it would be great to just get a bit of a
- 1:11context of what your paths have like spanned through because
- 1:15you've been active in like law, media, public policy, but now
- 1:19basically like in the middle of ethical AI.
- 1:22And I was wondering like what thread has connected all of that
- 1:26for you, like in the topics and also the conversation that
- 1:29you've had and what drew you toward the governance of
- 1:32technology? Yes, I'd be happy to go through
- 1:36that. So I actually have a very non
- 1:38traditional background for somebody working in tech because
- 1:40my background is actually in the humanities.
- 1:43My bachelor's degree was in French literature, European
- 1:46cultural studies, and Near Eastern studies.
- 1:50Part of that I think is related to the fact that I grew up
- 1:52bilingually. My mom is German, my dad is
- 1:54British, so I've also always been interested in different
- 1:58languages and cultures. But at some point I realized
- 2:01that code is actually also just another language that can be
- 2:03learned that is increasingly shaping how we live, work, and
- 2:06communicate with each other. So ultimately I realized that my
- 2:10passion was actually translation, and in particular,
- 2:13how to translate legal and ethical principles into
- 2:16technical design and day-to-day organizational practice.
- 2:20How interesting. And now that like within the
- 2:22podcast, we talk mainly about trust.
- 2:25And I do think that particularly also in the tech environment and
- 2:28the ethics part, it is becoming even more crucial.
- 2:32So how would you define trust? Like not from a conceptually,
- 2:37but from something that you must build, you must implement and
- 2:40you also must feel in terms of like the requirements to protect
- 2:44it. And so in German we have the
- 2:46saying trust is good, but control is better.
- 2:49And trust and control might seem contradictory at first dance,
- 2:53right? So if I can control something, I
- 2:55don't need to trust it. But trust does not arise from
- 2:59thin air. It is based on processes.
- 3:02It is based on institutions and the experiences that we have
- 3:05around those processes and institutions that we experience
- 3:08them as reliable. In fact, I always think about
- 3:11pharmacies in this context. So I don't actually know what's
- 3:14in an aspirin when I take it. I also only have a very vague
- 3:17understanding of how it works. But when I buy aspirin in a
- 3:20pharmacy, I trust that what I'm buying is actually working in
- 3:24the way that's intended and that I won't poison myself in the
- 3:27process when I take it. Now of course, there have been
- 3:29plenty of scanners in the Pharmaceutical industry as well
- 3:31that I do not want to downplay in any way, but companies have
- 3:35been punished for these scandals as well.
- 3:37So I believe we will be witnessing something similar in
- 3:40the field of AI. And this is something we should
- 3:42be striving towards. That we build institutions and
- 3:44processes that build trust. That when we purchase and
- 3:48interact with AI systems, we can trust that they act and work in
- 3:51a way that is reliable. And if they don't, that
- 3:54companies will be sanctioned for that behaviour such that
- 3:56ultimately, umm trust is not, umm, something insular, but an
- 4:01ecosystem that different institutions can contribute
- 4:03different aspects. To I fi, I find that so
- 4:06fascinating because like the ecosystem part is like something
- 4:10that connects topics and also organizations within itself.
- 4:14But then again, you also mention of how companies or
- 4:16organizations can build up on those foundations within
- 4:20themselves as well and form like ecosystems and you but like
- 4:24basically at ADDA, you help create like the company policy
- 4:27template and also you looked into the AI literacy course that
- 4:32is aligned with the EUAI act. And I was just wondering like
- 4:35what did you find most challenging about like
- 4:38translating those ethical like intense, but also the
- 4:43requirements that are needed to form like practical tools?
- 4:47So ethical principles can often seem excruciatingly vague.
- 4:50What does it actually mean to be fair, to be transparent, to be
- 4:54accountable? Oftentimes people struggle to
- 4:57translate those principles into their day-to-day work.
- 5:01So again, I think it's important for organizations to translate
- 5:05ethical principles into something actionable.
- 5:07So for instance, that fairness means that similarly situated
- 5:10people aren't treated differently.
- 5:13Customer relationship management that mine, that might mean ABC
- 5:17and recording, this might mean XYZ.
- 5:19While it's important that an organization defines legal and
- 5:23ethical principles at a leadership level, it's equally
- 5:27important to translate those principles into practice,
- 5:29practice at a business level. And going through that poses can
- 5:32actually be really rewarding and inclusive as an experience.
- 5:35So for instance, at some point I worked together with an
- 5:38organization that was in the process of developing a company
- 5:41policy on Responsibly I. And essentially what they did is
- 5:44to bring together different people in the leadership across
- 5:48business units who then workshop those principles together.
- 5:51In a wild Cafe, a post, there were different stations for each
- 5:54ethical principle than as privacy, security.
- 5:58And the group would split up and then rotate from one station to
- 6:02the next. So at the first station, you
- 6:03would define the questions you have about that principle.
- 6:06Then you rotate to the next station, you refine the previous
- 6:09group's questions, you wrote it to the next station.
- 6:11You start answering those questions.
- 6:13So step by step, you gain a better understanding of how
- 6:16different business leaders might view those principles, what
- 6:19questions they might have about them and how they would go about
- 6:21answering them. So ultimately what that ends up
- 6:24doing is that you develop common frameworks in a common language
- 6:27around them that can then help create empathy in an
- 6:30organization, but also help that organization develop action of a
- 6:34plans around how to implement them into practice.
- 6:37So that was a beautiful thing to witness and actually created a
- 6:39sense of community in the organization that exceeds the
- 6:43sort of like exercise itself as well.
- 6:45Fascinating. And I like you just mentioned
- 6:47that you found it rewarding. And I was just wondering, like
- 6:50what you describe also building up empathy and the common
- 6:53understanding, was that the rewarding part or was there
- 6:56something else that you like particularly experienced when
- 7:00like building those communities of like bringing those people
- 7:03together in A room? It was precisely the effect of
- 7:07creating a community that transcends boundaries within an
- 7:11individual department, which ultimately I think is what you
- 7:16need if you are striving to create a culture around
- 7:20compliance. So compliance in and of itself
- 7:23is anchored in law. You know, there are certain
- 7:26regulations that organizations have to abide by and employees
- 7:29have to embody those principles somehow.
- 7:32But there's often no risk that these compliance exercises
- 7:36divide into a kind of like checkbox task.
- 7:39You know, every year there's a list of sort of like compliance
- 7:42trainings. You have to go through employees
- 7:43do them. And then there might be an
- 7:46impulse to say, OK, we're done with compliance.
- 7:48And I will admit I will be the first one to admit myself.
- 7:51Like I work in compliance. I don't enjoy taking compliance
- 7:53trainings myself. There's nothing worse that you
- 7:55can say. It's like, oh, we all get to do
- 7:56like a GDPR training. So I think the the trick is
- 8:01really to go beyond compliance. Just think about the kind of
- 8:06culture you want to create as an organization.
- 8:08What do you want to create as a culture where employees are
- 8:11aware that their business is a social actor that has an impact
- 8:17on people around them such that they have the desire to assume
- 8:21responsibility over the product, say development Apply.
- 8:24I particularly love your like view on the culture aspect and
- 8:28also combining it with something that might seem rigorous like
- 8:32compliance sometimes can be perceived.
- 8:34But then again I was wondering what is your take on how like
- 8:38the compliance aspect also from a personal or employee
- 8:42perspective can differ or needs to be implemented and to
- 8:48different be differentiated from true responsibility?
- 8:51So oftentimes what I find helpful on the one hand is to
- 8:55take a step back and remember that there's a reason why laws
- 8:59were developed in the way that they were to begin with.
- 9:01So for instance, Germany has very high standards for data
- 9:07protection. Oftentimes we complain about
- 9:10that at a business level, but we shouldn't forget that there are
- 9:12historical reasons why this is such an important value in
- 9:16German cultures, having undergone a succession of
- 9:18dictatorships that were really exploitative about personal data
- 9:23and have done horrible things with that.
- 9:25And so it's important to understand their reasons why
- 9:26these laws and protections were implemented and why it's
- 9:30important to uphold them. At the same time, I think we
- 9:34ultimately as as businesses want to develop better products and
- 9:38services, right? I think that's what we sell in
- 9:40the market. And then I think we framing the
- 9:42conversation about compliance such that it's less about
- 9:45meeting a legal requirement, that's one aspect of it, but
- 9:47more about building better products and services that
- 9:49better care to the communities that we're trying to serve.
- 9:51I think that's also a way to reframe the conversations
- 9:54instead of like doing a compliance training, perhaps
- 9:56it's a hack week exercise that essentially strives to create a
- 10:01better product that will ultimately lead to a more
- 10:03successful company. And I like the business aspects
- 10:06are like truly important to also incentivize or also enable, you
- 10:10know, to be felt also incorporated into exactly what
- 10:14you describe like a bigger picture, also like evolving over
- 10:18time. But then again, when you look
- 10:20into like other business areas or maybe also academia or
- 10:24governance, for example, from your perspective and also
- 10:27experience in collaborating in those areas, what are biggest
- 10:30gaps right now in like how institutions think about and the
- 10:35way that they incorporate compliance?
- 10:37Maybe also the accountability of how they use technology within
- 10:41the organization, especially also when it comes to the
- 10:44activation of AI tools within infrastructure.
- 10:48So I think the biggest gap that we confront is often times that
- 10:52individual institutions have an imports to act in isolation.
- 10:55So we have academia on one end, we have business on the other
- 10:58hand, civil society somewhere in between.
- 11:00And I strongly believe we need a much more integrated approach.
- 11:03They need to be much more open and more regular exchanges
- 11:05between academia, civil society, tech and regulators.
- 11:09In Europe in particular, what I've often experienced is a kind
- 11:12of outright hostility between different institutions, and I
- 11:17don't think that's productive at all.
- 11:18Ultimately, I think we need to work with and not against each
- 11:21other if we are to implement responsible and accountable tech
- 11:24solutions in society in a sustainable manner.
- 11:27But that means that all parties need to come together and need
- 11:31to put themselves into the shoes of the respect of other
- 11:34institution, like the kind of incentives and constraints that
- 11:36they face and empathize with them.
- 11:39In Germany, call it the OM among strategy, the embracing
- 11:42strategy, and I oftentimes find that a lot more successful than
- 11:47sort of just being confrontational for the sake of
- 11:49it. With reference to like
- 11:52businesses or intersections within different organizations.
- 11:56But then again, there are also, you know, topics that somewhat
- 11:59seem differ at some way. And I do also experience that
- 12:03there is some friction between like the data protection aspect
- 12:07and the enablement of like intelligent systems.
- 12:11But how do you see it? Do you see rather like look at
- 12:13it from a friction point of view or do you also dive into how to
- 12:18create those synergies between both of them?
- 12:21So I challenge as core tenets of data protection at several
- 12:25levels for sure. First, data protection laws
- 12:28generally require organizations to be transparent about data
- 12:31processing at the point of collection.
- 12:34But a lot of the AI that is currently being deployed already
- 12:38was trained on vast amounts of data without individuals
- 12:42necessarily having any say on whether they want their data or
- 12:45whatever they produced to be used in that way, which in turn
- 12:49points a second area of tension, namely data minimization and
- 12:52purpose limitation. So AI systems, again, I trained
- 12:55on a vast amount of data that was originally collected for a
- 12:57different purpose than training AI systems.
- 12:59So here's, well, I think we need to find practical solutions to
- 13:03bridge that gap. And then finding in terms of
- 13:05accountability, there are synergies in the sense that both
- 13:08data protection and AI laws strive towards explainability,
- 13:11but some AI systems are inherently opaque.
- 13:14So then I think it's the responsibility of institutions
- 13:18to establish and test in a verifiable way how reliable
- 13:23those AI systems are and also implement processes for human
- 13:26oversight and responsibility. Because it will ultimately be
- 13:29us, the human beings behind the systems, who have to decide and
- 13:33also defend ourselves for the choices that we make.
- 13:36For instance, which AI systems are appropriate for what
- 13:38purpose? What role they played in taking
- 13:42decisions that may have a material effect on people's
- 13:44lives? So in a way, even though we
- 13:47implement more and more intelligent systems into our
- 13:50work and day-to-day life, that does not observe us of
- 13:52responsibility. Quite to the contrary, it raises
- 13:55the bar for human oversight and accountability.
- 13:57And that's interesting because you've now said that, like,
- 14:00institutions are responsible to, you know, embracing the
- 14:05oversight aspect and like 1 angle of it that truly is also
- 14:08like discussed widely at the moment is like the regulations
- 14:12aspect. And there is like a strong like
- 14:16opinion that voices it as like restriction.
- 14:20But from your experience, like is it possible to use regulation
- 14:23also as a tool for trust and like if So, what would it look
- 14:28like to like set up the governance for such an enabler
- 14:31and experience it like as an enabler rather than a
- 14:34limitation? I absolutely believe that
- 14:36regulation can and should be used as a tool to build trust
- 14:41and facilitate innovation. And I witnessed this at an
- 14:43organizational level every day. If employees do not know how to
- 14:47use AI system safely, if they're unsure what kind of data can be
- 14:50used and what AI system for what purpose, because they're
- 14:53concerned about data protection or information security, they
- 14:55will not use AI systems to the extent they theoretically could.
- 14:59And there might actually be a disparate impact in there as
- 15:01well. So for instance, a couple of
- 15:03months ago, a study was referenced in The Economist that
- 15:07suggested that women in particular were less likely to
- 15:11use AI systems if they fed for instance, that they should be
- 15:15doing the work themselves, that they were somehow cheating if
- 15:17they're using an AI system or if they weren't sure how to use
- 15:20that system appropriately. It's it's called the so-called
- 15:23good girl syndrome. So organizations should be aware
- 15:26of the fact that if they do not create clear rules around how AI
- 15:31systems can be developed and deployed, they might not be used
- 15:33to the extent that is possible and that is also beneficial to
- 15:37businesses. So clear rules and regulations
- 15:40at both the sort of like legal level and the organization level
- 15:43can actually facilitate AI adoption.
- 15:46I think the biggest issue that we face with AI regulation today
- 15:49is not necessarily the legal principles themselves, but that
- 15:55the regulator is lagging behind in terms of issuing guidelines
- 15:59for implementation. And then we also face a very
- 16:03fragmented regulatory landscape in Europe in the sense that we
- 16:07have different regulatory bodies issuing guidance around the same
- 16:11laws. They might have different
- 16:12interpretations of the law. We're already witnessing that,
- 16:15for instance, at a data protection level where different
- 16:17data protection authorities in Germany have different opinions
- 16:19as to whether large language models contain or constitute
- 16:23personal data. Uh, this adds to the confusion.
- 16:27Um, and so I think, uh, there are certain structural, uh,
- 16:30issues that need to be resolved that have less to do with the
- 16:33laws than with the way that they're implemented.
- 16:36And you've now mentioned, for example, like the good girl
- 16:39bias, but then again, you've also touched upon like a bias
- 16:42data source. And I do see that as one of a
- 16:46friction point within organizations that they don't
- 16:49necessarily reflect upon their data governance strategy to
- 16:52enable kind of the way that they counter those biases within
- 16:56organizations. Is there like an, a best
- 17:00practice that you can refer to of how to also counter fire it?
- 17:05And if so, so how could leaders learn from it and incorporate it
- 17:10into their context of the organization?
- 17:12So I think one part of that is to not start with AI and also
- 17:19not to see AI as an end in and of itself.
- 17:21You actually need to do a lot of cleaning up before you can use
- 17:26AI systems effectively. So it's important not to skip
- 17:30all the work underlying AI systems that need to be done,
- 17:33however, in order for them to work.
- 17:34So to be sure that you have an integrated and transparent
- 17:39database that is representative for the purposes to which you're
- 17:42using it. And we've seen these fallacies
- 17:45and big data in the past where we assume that just if we have
- 17:48like a lot of data, we don't need to think about causation
- 17:50anymore because correlations will speak for themselves.
- 17:53And there are a lot of like pretty funny websites out there
- 17:55as well that demonstrate how different things correlate that
- 17:58are absolutely nothing to do with each other, like the
- 18:00suicide rate for the amount of cream cheese that is consumed,
- 18:04crazy stuff like that. So it's just important to know
- 18:07that AI systems are only as successful as the data with
- 18:11which they are fed. So it's important to have
- 18:13qualified staff that continually can assess to what extent the
- 18:17data is fit for purpose, that has appropriate data science
- 18:20training and but that also interacts regularly with
- 18:23business and legal teams such that you have these regular
- 18:25exchanges that ensure you're taking a holistic approach to AI
- 18:29governance and implementation. And we've now like looked a bit
- 18:33into the data governance and also structural kind of way.
- 18:37And what other kind of questions do you think organizations
- 18:41currently should ask themselves before they start or maybe
- 18:44before they also enlarge the deployment of AI within their
- 18:49structures and workflows? So beyond the technical
- 18:52infrastructure, there are also obviously human resources to to
- 18:56think about. So we briefly touched upon
- 18:58previously that the AIAC now has a requirement of AI literacy in
- 19:03the sense that all organizations developing, deploying in the EU
- 19:06have to ensure that their staff have a sort of understanding of
- 19:11how AI systems work and to be aware of their opportunities
- 19:15with some possible harms. So I think one failure mode is
- 19:19to select throw AI into the mix and hope it works out.
- 19:22It's important to take employees along on that journey and also
- 19:26not only address their questions, but also fears that
- 19:29they might have around what that might do to their jobs.
- 19:32Humans can have a tendency to be very resistant to change,
- 19:36particularly if they're unsure how that change will impact
- 19:39them. So I think it's important to
- 19:40have very transparent conversations about how AI will
- 19:43necessarily transform the workplace, but what measures
- 19:47organizations are also taking to take those employees along.
- 19:50And I think upskilling training, these are like excellent
- 19:54personal growth opportunities as well, where the organization's
- 19:57goals and sort of like an individual's growth path might
- 20:00actually align with each other. The upskilling part, I do think
- 20:04is something that a lot of organizations currently like
- 20:08look into, but also try to understand of how they can put
- 20:13together their employees in like new ways of working and also
- 20:17like social frameworks that are required.
- 20:19And like one of your strengths, but also the work that you do is
- 20:23like translating those complex ethical compliance, regulation
- 20:27legal topics into exactly those formats.
- 20:29So and what does it take to operationalize like a value in a
- 20:34way that it sticks across teams and organizational roles,
- 20:39sectors and maybe even languages?
- 20:41Yeah, I think the language point is actually the important one.
- 20:44It's extremely important to meet people where they are and learn
- 20:46to speak their languages in terms of the organizational unit
- 20:49that they're in, the discipline, the kinds of incentives with
- 20:53which they are grappling to. And this ultimately means first
- 20:56and foremost, listening and being empathetic to the
- 20:58challenges people and organizations might actually
- 21:01face when trying to translate legal and ethical principles
- 21:03into practice. There.
- 21:05I think it's actually helpful to have local champions.
- 21:08So for instance, AI ethics evangelists in each business
- 21:12unit that are passionate about this topic that can also then
- 21:14help take their their colleagues along.
- 21:17Interesting. And how do you identify those
- 21:19evangelists and maybe also enable them within organizations
- 21:23because I can, you know, both could be challenging for large
- 21:27scale organizations. And then again, small scale
- 21:30organizations maybe even don't have the resources or capacities
- 21:33to provide the room space or even time to look into or serve
- 21:39as some sort of accelerator for the whole organization.
- 21:43Yes, I think it's important to create spaces where employees
- 21:47can come together and discuss the kind of like concerns or
- 21:52questions they have in an open manner.
- 21:53Such create open forums have also brown bag launches around
- 21:57different aspects of the ethics of AI.
- 21:58And then I think you'll realize pretty quickly that some people
- 22:01show up regularly not particularly passionate about
- 22:04them. Then it's important to enable
- 22:07those people to continue living out those passions because
- 22:09that's exactly what you want in an organization's intrinsically
- 22:12motivated employees that care about driving the organization
- 22:16forward, but also doing the right thing.
- 22:19And if you enable those people to thrive, you will also then
- 22:23take other colleagues and employees along.
- 22:25That's, I think like a core aspect of building this culture
- 22:28around responsibility that I think is so incredibly important
- 22:32and, and the age of AI that we're entering.
- 22:34I couldn't agree more. And I do think that one of the
- 22:37central aspects that organizations need to provide us
- 22:39like trust into those capabilities.
- 22:42So those persons to be like the accelerator or to also enable
- 22:47them in a way that they can serve in their role also in
- 22:51their how they speak with the like the organizational context,
- 22:55as you said, like from a language point of view.
- 22:57But what other kind of like roles or capabilities do you see
- 23:01that we need in the future when we look into like building trust
- 23:05with an organization? So maybe also building trust
- 23:08into particular roles while they expand their knowledge into
- 23:13teams and organizations or maybe even partnerships and beyond.
- 23:17So AI governance is certainly a growing field and essentially
- 23:20requires a range of business, technical, legal and ethical
- 23:24skills. So it's a daunting field, but
- 23:26also very exciting. And I think implicit in that is
- 23:29also the notion that interdisciplinary thinking will
- 23:33become increasingly important at the same time, one skill set
- 23:37will never grow old, and in fact might become more and more
- 23:39important in this sort of like AI enabled environment.
- 23:43And that's the ability to communicate clearly and to
- 23:46empathize. And actually, I think AI might
- 23:49be able to help with that. So for instance, prompt
- 23:52engineering is becoming an increasingly important skill,
- 23:54which essentially means the ability to give an AI system
- 23:58clear instructions, to communicate with an AI system in
- 24:01a way that it understands what you're trying to get it to do.
- 24:04But of course, the ability to communicate clearly and to
- 24:07articulate what you want and what you need is also a core
- 24:10human need and skills. So perhaps, and that's my hope,
- 24:15the fact that we are now forced to articulate ourselves clearly
- 24:19when speaking to AI might also have the positive effect that we
- 24:22can articulate ourselves more clearly when talking to other
- 24:25humans. So perhaps AI can sharpen some
- 24:28of the human skills we need as well.
- 24:31I love that because it also could serve as like an enabler
- 24:35for a new kind of relationship, right?
- 24:37Because you can look into the way that we also as a Society of
- 24:41human beings form connection in itself.
- 24:46And I do wonder and would be curious to learn from you, what
- 24:50kind of relationships do you see evolving now and especially over
- 24:55also over time and when we look at us as like a society, but
- 25:00maybe after beyond run that and look across institutional
- 25:04organizations. So the philosopher and media
- 25:08theorist Marshall Mcluhan actually already posited in the
- 25:101960s that technologies were extensions of the South, and in
- 25:15an age of both mobile devices and AI, this theory will
- 25:19probably be taken to the extreme.
- 25:21On the other hand, I think those sort of human computer systems
- 25:26might actually actually also help raise awareness that we
- 25:29live in ecosystems more broadly that transcend human bodies,
- 25:34which hopefully also creates A renewed appreciation of our
- 25:37environment too. Because one ethical principle
- 25:41and imperative that is currently not featured in the public
- 25:44conversation around AI ethics enough is sustainability and
- 25:47protecting our environment, particularly considering how
- 25:49energy intensive some AI systems can be.
- 25:53So that might be actually one of the most important guiding
- 25:57principles for the future. How we can ensure that the
- 26:00environment in which we live can actually like years, what we
- 26:06need to continue living in the kind of way that we want to
- 26:10going forward, which in turn can also spur a lot of innovation in
- 26:13terms of more energy efficiently.
- 26:16I I'm optimistic in the sense that I strongly believe that
- 26:19humans will always find good solutions if they are confronted
- 26:23with the problem with that obviously also requires raising
- 26:26awareness that there is a problem now.
- 26:28Diving into the intersection of like sustainability and AI could
- 26:32be a whole nother episode. But as we're coming to a close
- 26:35with this one, I do want to put it on hold and hopefully have
- 26:40you another time with us and wanted to close with some in
- 26:44between moments like something that you could answer in like a
- 26:47short sentence or maybe just also a feeling that you had.
- 26:51In particular, when was a moment when you saw trust break and
- 26:55something important in March for yourself?
- 26:58Is there something that you could see or remember that
- 27:01definitely also required that? Many, many years ago feels like
- 27:06an eternity go. In 2013, I was in the middle of
- 27:09writing my master's thesis, and I wrote my master's thesis about
- 27:13transatlantic privacy governance.
- 27:15And then all of a sudden in the middle of that process, the
- 27:18Snowden revelations broke, which obviously significantly
- 27:21undermined trust in the transatlantic relationships and
- 27:24also concerns about the relationship between tech
- 27:27companies and the states. This in turn drove the impetus
- 27:31behind some of the most significant laws that shape
- 27:34digital societies today, most notably the EU General Data
- 27:37Protection Regulation. But at the same time, laws need
- 27:40to be tailored to purpose. So we are currently witnessing
- 27:43large movements towards deregulation on either side of
- 27:46the Atlantic because laws are like the effectiveness of those
- 27:49laws themselves are being questioned.
- 27:52That also demonstrates that that laws and ends themselves that
- 27:55they might need to revive as well, but that we need to make
- 27:58sure that they address real ethical challenges nimbly and
- 28:00appropriately, such that business as a society have
- 28:04continued to have incentives to to abide by them and and prevent
- 28:06the kind of scandals that we then saw in the past.
- 28:09Thank you for sharing. I do think that I can see that
- 28:12this was like a point where you were diving into also the
- 28:17importance of like realization. Another question, short answer,
- 28:23is there like a legal or ethical principle that keeps you
- 28:26grounded? And generally I embrace explain
- 28:29ability. So both in my sort of like
- 28:31personal and professional life, I try to act in a way that I can
- 28:34then after the fact, understandably explain why I
- 28:39reached a certain conclusion. And even if somebody might not
- 28:42agree with that conclusion, I had a reasonably good argument
- 28:46behind. That doesn't always work that
- 28:48way, but that's something that I strive towards for sure.
- 28:51Love it and say I believe that you used to hold but no longer
- 28:55do given like the acceleration of our time.
- 28:58So I used to actually believe myself that business is somewhat
- 29:02operate separately or even an opposition to society.
- 29:04So I grew up in a very left wing liberal household.
- 29:08But I realized that myself transitioning from academia into
- 29:12a business environment, that businesses are ultimately also
- 29:14just made-up of people, right? And give people meaning as well
- 29:18by virtue of the kind of work they perform.
- 29:21Hence, again, it's my strong belief that we need to work with
- 29:25businesses and the people that make up those businesses and not
- 29:27against them to ensure everybody's aligned towards
- 29:31developing and deploying AI responsibly.
- 29:33Amazing. And lastly, is there a hope that
- 29:36you hold for how AI could governed be governed with care?
- 29:41So ultimately it's in all of our interests that we can benefit
- 29:46from innovation while at the same time minimizing harm.
- 29:49So I am an optimist at heart. I, I strongly believe in the
- 29:52intrinsic goodness of people. And if we enable people to do
- 29:56the right thing, the vast majority of people will do so.
- 29:59So of this I am convinced. And that also makes me hopeful
- 30:02that we will find institutions and processes that people will
- 30:06follow to ensure that we can develop and deploy AI
- 30:10responsibly and sustainably. And to close this like session
- 30:14and also like a truly inspiring conversation with you.
- 30:17Thank you for sharing all your experience with us.
- 30:20I wanted to know if like if trust is something that we
- 30:24practice and not promise, what does it mean to be a trust
- 30:27builder in a time of automated systems and accelerating
- 30:32complexity? Is there anything that you could
- 30:34give us with that we can take with us and also incorporate
- 30:39into our daily life? It's simple in theory, but
- 30:43difficult in factors to do, and that's to lead by example.
- 30:48Ultimately, people follow people.
- 30:49So if you, as a leader in your business, act with integrity and
- 30:53assume responsibility yourself, people will follow on.
- 30:57Everything else will fall into place.
- 30:58So I think starting with ourselves and to see how we can
- 31:03embody the principles that we're trying to convey, that's the
- 31:06most important first step. And again, the West will fall
- 31:09into place. I think it's the best way to
- 31:11close this conversation. Thank you so much for being at
- 31:14the end between Trust Podcast, Paula, and for all the insights
- 31:19that you gave with us. And I look forward to having you
- 31:21at some other point again. I would love that.
- 31:23Thank you so much for having me.