Latest / THE WORLD'S BEST PREACHER / Disruptive Conversations with Raamel Mitchel - The Potter’s House of Dallas

Transcript

Disruptive Conversations with Raamel Mitchel - The Potter’s House of Dallas · THE WORLD'S BEST PREACHER

0:05
Speaker 1: I think the question that technology has always had for
0:11
Speaker 1: those for those that are working here, and that is, you.
0:14
Speaker 2: Know, how where do we bring the value?
0:17
Speaker 1: I think if you see technology in general and AI
0:20
Speaker 1: more specifically purely as a threat, I think you're missing
0:23
Speaker 1: the opportunity.
0:23
Speaker 3: We're all having to retool ourselves and disrupt our thinking
0:28
Speaker 3: shameless blood to change the way that we think about
0:31
Speaker 3: the jobs we retain much less the jobs we need.
0:35
Speaker 3: Universities are rethinking and churches are rethinking it, and businesses
0:39
Speaker 3: that don't have disruptive thinking are being left out of
0:43
Speaker 3: the narrative. Hello, everybody, I want to welcome you to
0:52
Speaker 3: another disruptive conversation that I'm having with an influencer and
0:56
Speaker 3: a person of great influence within the Microsoft Empire. We're
1:02
Speaker 3: going to be talking about a wide plethora of subjects
1:07
Speaker 3: from a very unique perspective. I think you're going to
1:09
Speaker 3: be enthrall by what Ramel Mitchell brings to the table.
1:15
Speaker 3: He's brilliant, he's bright, but I'm going to let him
1:18
Speaker 3: introduce himself and give us a little bit of his
1:21
Speaker 3: academics background in his current role with Microsoft. Welcome Ramel,
1:25
Speaker 3: We're glad to have you.
1:27
Speaker 1: Well, it's great to join you here today and having
1:31
Speaker 1: a conversation, a disruptive conversation, thinking disruptively. We are in
1:37
Speaker 1: that age of disruption and transformation, and so the timing
1:41
Speaker 1: for this is it's absolutely perfect. So thank you again.
1:45
Speaker 1: Ramel Mitchell, the Global director for the Microsoft Like Partner
1:49
Speaker 1: Growth Initiative, an initiative, i would.
1:52
Speaker 2: Say, even.
1:54
Speaker 1: Disruptive and of itself where we're looking at building and
1:58
Speaker 1: helping to grow black technology companies in the US.
2:02
Speaker 2: And around the world.
2:03
Speaker 1: Microsoft's mission is to empower every individual and organization on
2:07
Speaker 1: the planet to achieve more, and every day we have
2:11
Speaker 1: teams of individuals and throughout the throughout the US, throughout
2:17
Speaker 1: the globe that are really focused on that on that mission,
2:21
Speaker 1: and so it's a it's definitely an honor and a
2:24
Speaker 1: privilege to have this conversation with you here. You'd asked
2:28
Speaker 1: about a little bit about my background. I've been with
2:30
Speaker 1: Microsoft for about twenty years, just actually over twenty years
2:35
Speaker 1: I think last month, and so I've enjoyed an amazing
2:40
Speaker 1: opportunity at a wonderful company to have these type of
2:43
Speaker 1: conversations with individuals and organizations, but also through that journey
2:50
Speaker 1: have been able to travel and reach and have really
2:54
Speaker 1: intriguing experiences as well, all all to impact individuals and
3:01
Speaker 1: organizations and communities. In terms of my educational background of
3:08
Speaker 1: proud graduate of Tuski University majored in electrical engineering, minored
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Speaker 1: in physics and enjoyed that experience there, and then attended
3:20
Speaker 1: Georgetown University McDonald School of Business and then also in
3:26
Speaker 1: a joint program a Saudi Business School in Barcelona. And
3:29
Speaker 1: so it's been wonderful to see seeing that you know,
3:32
Speaker 1: to see the world and have these types of conversations
3:35
Speaker 1: and all make it relevant for the type of work
3:38
Speaker 1: that we're trying to drive.
3:40
Speaker 3: And I don't think that I have ever met anybody
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Speaker 3: who graduated from Tuskegee and ended up at a Saudi
3:45
Speaker 3: in Barcelona. I was excited about it because Tuskegee is
3:51
Speaker 3: also my mother's all my matter, So yeah, so I
3:56
Speaker 3: deeply relate to the Tuskegee narrative and what it brings
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Speaker 3: to the table. And then to end up at a
4:02
Speaker 3: Saudi in Barcelona is absolutely amazing. I'm wondering a little
4:07
Speaker 3: bit how those wide range of global experiences shapes the
4:15
Speaker 3: way you.
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Speaker 1: Think you know, I think it plays a fundamental role
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Speaker 1: all of these. I'm from Dallas, Texas, so a kid
4:23
Speaker 1: growing up in Dallas, Texas and oak Cliffe, graduating from
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Speaker 1: Tuskegee University, going to George House, seeing the world various countries,
4:33
Speaker 1: what have you, having conversations with thought leaders and officials
4:39
Speaker 1: and policymakers and tech CEOs, and has really shaped how
4:46
Speaker 1: I view this world.
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Speaker 2: One first and foremost.
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Speaker 1: I would say it's this, Even though we are facing
4:53
Speaker 1: huge challenges globally, locally regionally, what have you We see it,
4:58
Speaker 1: we read the headlines where they may be, There's still
5:01
Speaker 1: a substantial amount of optimism that I have. There's a
5:06
Speaker 1: substantial amount of optimism that I have because I think
5:09
Speaker 1: I've been able to see the human spirit come alive
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Speaker 1: in different locations, whether you're in Bangalore, whether you're in
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Speaker 1: Bangkok right, whether you're in Detroit, or whether you're in Dallas.
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Speaker 1: Across the globe, it's been so refreshing and energizing to
5:26
Speaker 1: see creativity and innovation come to play, where people from
5:31
Speaker 1: our perspective are taking technology and creating amazing products to
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Speaker 1: help their communities, to solve challenging problems, to think about
5:41
Speaker 1: the world differently.
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Speaker 2: Right we're not just in this moptic space.
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Speaker 1: We can think really broadly about the challenges that we face,
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Speaker 1: and I think one of the things that I've learned
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Speaker 1: is that there's so much opportunity to grow and develop
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Speaker 1: into touch and reach other people that we've never had
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Speaker 1: in human history.
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Speaker 3: You know, recently, at one of the previous Gage summits,
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Speaker 3: one of the topics that came up definitely was focused
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Speaker 3: around technology and what each country was going to do
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Speaker 3: to focus on various aspects of technology so that each
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Speaker 3: country is not running over top of itself to recreating
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Speaker 3: the wheel. They kind of begin to segmentize and prioritize
6:29
Speaker 3: various aspects of technology for which they were going to focus.
6:34
Speaker 3: But every country is recognizing that this is a paradigm
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Speaker 3: shift of mammoth proportions global consequences that brings an interconnectality
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Speaker 3: that we have not seen since the Worldwide Web, and
6:52
Speaker 3: all of a sudden several years ago, there was a
6:55
Speaker 3: book when the Worldwide Web came out saying that the
6:58
Speaker 3: world is flat, and all of a sudden, they flattened
7:01
Speaker 3: the playing field. It changed the way we did business,
7:04
Speaker 3: It changed the way we do medicine, and changed the
7:06
Speaker 3: way we did everything. When you start looking at this
7:09
Speaker 3: era of artificial intelligence, but beyond chat, GPT and the
7:16
Speaker 3: things that people are popular really using right now, what
7:20
Speaker 3: changes and impact do you think that it's going to
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Speaker 3: have on society and how do we prepare for it? Yeah?
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Speaker 1: I think you know, I love Thomas Friedman and the
7:28
Speaker 1: World Is Flat.
7:29
Speaker 2: He actually I think did like the World is Flat two?
7:31
Speaker 1: Right, he wrote like two volumes of that book because
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Speaker 1: the world had gotten flatter, right since he wrote in
7:37
Speaker 1: that short period of time. So there are a couple
7:39
Speaker 1: things here, right when we think about the evolution of
7:42
Speaker 1: technology and what's happened, right, when we think about the
7:45
Speaker 1: evolution of industry.
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Speaker 2: You know, there was a book a few years ago
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Speaker 2: that was called the Fourth.
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Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution, and AI was part of that, right, Artificial
7:54
Speaker 1: intelligence was part of that. The impact that computing power
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Speaker 1: would make and the impact that it we'll have on
8:03
Speaker 1: nearly everything, right, And I think that's where we are.
8:06
Speaker 2: You're right that we're.
8:08
Speaker 1: In this new age where we have the ability to
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Speaker 1: use computational power to identify problems in health healthcare, to
8:23
Speaker 1: address issues as it relates to transportation, to think about
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Speaker 1: how we sustainably manage our agriculture.
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Speaker 2: We have the ability to.
8:36
Speaker 1: Think about what is energy to point oh really mean
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Speaker 1: an energy transition, personalized education, who we are So it's
8:45
Speaker 1: a really interesting time. We've never been there. So the
8:49
Speaker 1: way that oftentimes think about it is like this. You know,
8:53
Speaker 1: we had the World Wide Web, it was out right,
8:56
Speaker 1: and then what.
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Speaker 2: Lit that up? What lit that up was being able
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Speaker 2: to utilize a browser right right when you when you.
9:04
Speaker 1: Had this browser? What really lit up the browser?
9:07
Speaker 2: What? What?
9:07
Speaker 1: What was the next phase? The ability to search right
9:11
Speaker 1: that that came along. There's there are these transitions that
9:14
Speaker 1: take place. Then we have mobile computing right as a
9:17
Speaker 1: subset where you're where you have computing power in your
9:22
Speaker 1: pocket all day long, right where you have more computing power.
9:25
Speaker 1: I love when you you know, if you ever talk
9:27
Speaker 1: to you like these you know, Apollo astronauts, what they'll
9:31
Speaker 1: say is that, you know, we have four K of
9:33
Speaker 1: memory on the on the ego caps and when we landed, right,
9:36
Speaker 1: I think.
9:36
Speaker 2: That's what what they had some whay around there.
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Speaker 1: We have more computing power in our in our in
9:41
Speaker 1: our phones in our hands every day then for the
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Speaker 1: than what humanity has had for the majority of the time, right,
9:49
Speaker 1: and so we right now, as we think about artificial intelligence,
9:53
Speaker 1: we are just at the tip of the iceberg. It
9:56
Speaker 1: is beyond uh, just natural language processing. It's beyond thinking
10:03
Speaker 1: about you know, how we're writing essays or doing research
10:08
Speaker 1: reports or that.
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Speaker 2: The real core of.
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Speaker 1: It is being able to use that compute power to
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Speaker 1: address some of the major problems, some of the major issues.
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Speaker 2: That have plainness.
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Speaker 1: And that's where we are. We have an opportunity to
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Speaker 1: do that today, and that opportunity it can extend to
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Speaker 1: every community, in every individual.
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Speaker 3: Well, bear in mind, take me slowly. You know, you're
10:34
Speaker 3: talking to a guy who grew up watching the Jetsons.
10:37
Speaker 3: I'm I'm sure you even know what that was. But
10:41
Speaker 3: I grew up watching the Jetsons. So this is kind
10:43
Speaker 3: of almost like science fiction has climbed out of my
10:47
Speaker 3: TV said, and not only jumped into my phone as
10:51
Speaker 3: you talked about, not only jumped into the cloud as
10:54
Speaker 3: we have yet to talk about, not only has jumped
10:57
Speaker 3: into the metaverse, but has also jumped in to my
11:01
Speaker 3: HVAC system. Everything, everything in my house is connected in
11:07
Speaker 3: some way with technology, in ways right down to my car,
11:12
Speaker 3: everything else is connected to it. I just recently left
11:16
Speaker 3: the Lakenna Impact Form in Florida, and one of the
11:22
Speaker 3: hot topics here were centered around the extreme advancements that
11:26
Speaker 3: surgeries can be done without the doctor even being in
11:29
Speaker 3: the same city, and that technology has changed the way
11:34
Speaker 3: knee surgeries are done, ne replacements are done, and all
11:37
Speaker 3: of that is robotical, and all of that has helped us,
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Speaker 3: and we're living longer and we're living better, and those
11:44
Speaker 3: things are very, very exciting. But I also worry a
11:48
Speaker 3: little bit, maybe because of my age and background. I
11:52
Speaker 3: went through the Industrial Revolution. I saw how the job
11:56
Speaker 3: markets changed. I saw how a lot of people failed
12:00
Speaker 3: through the system and still have not recovered as it
12:03
Speaker 3: relates to job opportunities, people like you who have the
12:06
Speaker 3: background that you do and the academics that you do.
12:09
Speaker 3: And incidentally, I did a little research on you. You
12:11
Speaker 3: also came from a family who also had similar mathematics
12:17
Speaker 3: engineering backgrounds, and you make sense that you would be
12:21
Speaker 3: incubated into the place that you're in. But you're in.
12:24
Speaker 3: But to the person who came from flap Jack County
12:28
Speaker 3: and their father pushed to broom and they're having to
12:31
Speaker 3: compete in contemporary societies, do you have some worries about
12:36
Speaker 3: underserved communities falling through the cracks because the labor force
12:41
Speaker 3: is changing, Robots are taking jobs, technology is at the
12:46
Speaker 3: checkout counter, the grocery shore, and everywhere else economically. What
12:50
Speaker 3: do we do to offset that or is there anything
12:54
Speaker 3: that we can do to.
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Speaker 1: Offset Yeah, that's you hit the nail on the head
12:58
Speaker 1: here in terms of like the real you know, part
13:00
Speaker 1: of the real impact here that's being made. And and
13:04
Speaker 1: I did watch O reruns of the of the Jetsons,
13:08
Speaker 1: and they never go out, uh so, so.
13:11
Speaker 2: We and if you think about that, you think about what.
13:15
Speaker 1: The Jetsons had, Right, I'm gonna come back to you
13:18
Speaker 1: your question. They're using video screens to to talk to
13:21
Speaker 1: each other at great distances. They had robots that were
13:26
Speaker 1: cleaning their house. They conducted meetings remotely or hybridly.
13:33
Speaker 2: They had their air.
13:35
Speaker 1: Conditioning units and everything else before they got home already.
13:41
Speaker 2: Kind of taking care of their house.
13:42
Speaker 1: Right, what we would actually call the we might be
13:45
Speaker 1: able to call this the age of the Jetsons for
13:47
Speaker 1: for some reasons, Right, and if you think about the
13:51
Speaker 1: the advancements that are being made and and and in
13:55
Speaker 1: vehicles and or what in transportation again, it might reinforce that.
13:59
Speaker 1: But your point and your question here, I think is
14:02
Speaker 1: a point one is the necessary one to ask, and
14:05
Speaker 1: that is how will this impact at the end of
14:08
Speaker 1: the day, people, people that have jobs that have traditionally
14:14
Speaker 1: been been showing up and working for for years. And
14:18
Speaker 1: with every with every industrial revolution, with every change, with
14:23
Speaker 1: every transition, we've had to identify opportunities for growth, and
14:28
Speaker 1: we've had to identify opportunities to to ensure that that
14:33
Speaker 1: people are beinging broad along right this journey. And I
14:37
Speaker 1: think there's a huge opportunity for us now.
14:40
Speaker 2: It's a necessity.
14:41
Speaker 1: I think it's a necessity that that each one of
14:45
Speaker 1: us we have to really understand and educate ourselves right
14:50
Speaker 1: number one first and foremost, that there is a that
14:53
Speaker 1: there's a different type of education that's coming along. If
14:56
Speaker 1: you see uh I think if you see technology in
14:59
Speaker 1: general on a I more specifically purely as a threat,
15:02
Speaker 1: I think you're missing the opportunity. I think if you
15:07
Speaker 1: uh ce c AI as something that's hey, look, it's
15:10
Speaker 1: just going to take away my job, I think that
15:12
Speaker 1: you have to think more broadly about well, what are
15:14
Speaker 1: you doing and where else can you add uh, at value.
15:19
Speaker 2: What value you're bringing?
15:20
Speaker 1: I think the question that technology has always had, uh
15:25
Speaker 1: for for those for those that are working here, and
15:28
Speaker 1: that is, you know, how where where do we bring
15:31
Speaker 1: the value? And I think there's a really there's a
15:34
Speaker 1: real there's a necessity for us to think about how
15:39
Speaker 1: we utilize our time, how we utilize our creativity, how
15:42
Speaker 1: we utilize our genius, how we utilize our passions so
15:46
Speaker 1: that we can do what we're what we what we
15:49
Speaker 1: can do in a way that uh, you know.
15:53
Speaker 2: Automated systems or robots or what have you can't.
15:57
Speaker 1: They should be complimenting oftentimes the genius that we bring
16:01
Speaker 1: to the table. But it's it is happening, you know.
16:06
Speaker 1: One of the things that particularly in my prior role,
16:10
Speaker 1: focused on a lot on STEM education, helping students and
16:15
Speaker 1: those that are transitioning in the workforce understand the power
16:19
Speaker 1: of technology and still understanding coding some of these other
16:23
Speaker 1: pieces here so that you hav a mindset and that
16:27
Speaker 1: you're ready and that you're prepared for the possibilities.
16:32
Speaker 3: We have stuck our foot into the water a little
16:34
Speaker 3: bit there. We've been having steam program steaming summer camps,
16:39
Speaker 3: just trying to introduce the mentality to inject into the
16:46
Speaker 3: arteries of our community a different way of thinking about
16:49
Speaker 3: things that I think is very important. You and I
16:52
Speaker 3: have danced around. It's so funny because I talked about
16:55
Speaker 3: the obstacles. You talked about the opportunities, and neither term
16:59
Speaker 3: is mutual exclusive. Every obstacle is an opportunity. It depends
17:03
Speaker 3: on how you're looking at it and how you deal
17:07
Speaker 3: with it as you talk about ways in which we
17:11
Speaker 3: can offset the obstacle and create the opportunity so that
17:15
Speaker 3: we have upward mobility, particularly amongst underserved people, but not
17:19
Speaker 3: limited to I think all people are gruppling with how
17:23
Speaker 3: do I keep up older people? You know, no matter
17:26
Speaker 3: their education, their wealth. This is taking it away from
17:33
Speaker 3: a PhD in music or arts. It's gone into a
17:37
Speaker 3: whole different realm where we're all having to retool ourselves
17:42
Speaker 3: and disrupt our thinking shameless plug to change the way
17:45
Speaker 3: that we think about the jobs we retain much less
17:49
Speaker 3: the jobs we lose. Universities are rethinking it, churches are
17:52
Speaker 3: rethinking it, and businesses that don't have disruptive thinking are
17:57
Speaker 3: being left out of the narrative. If if you were
18:00
Speaker 3: running a business, if you were leading the pack for
18:04
Speaker 3: a small business or a mid size fortune five hundred company,
18:10
Speaker 3: even what would you be focusing on to staff up
18:16
Speaker 3: on in order to remain at the cutting edge of
18:19
Speaker 3: the drastic change that it's still yet unpredictable that's going
18:23
Speaker 3: to be made. You know.
18:25
Speaker 1: I think every company, that the greatness of every company
18:27
Speaker 1: starts with, starts with two things. One the idea and
18:31
Speaker 1: the others the people. I think when you think about
18:33
Speaker 1: your talent, the way that you source, recruit, strength, and
18:38
Speaker 1: grow your talent is so critical now it's so critical.
18:43
Speaker 1: Are you what's what's the mindset and the culture that
18:47
Speaker 1: you're creating within the organization? The culture, the cultural organism,
18:50
Speaker 1: the culture of organizations over the last two or three
18:53
Speaker 1: years has changed, Right, We've been talking about hybrid for instance, right,
18:58
Speaker 1: which is another digital information impact on the business. AI
19:02
Speaker 1: is a digital transformation impact on the business. So what
19:05
Speaker 1: what does an organization, small, medium, or large need to
19:08
Speaker 1: think about? One, they need to think about the type
19:11
Speaker 1: of people that they're that they're hiring, that they're training,
19:13
Speaker 1: and that they're growing, that they're developing so that they
19:15
Speaker 1: can meet the demands of the market. Two, I think
19:19
Speaker 1: they that that if I'm if I'm a small medium business,
19:23
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about how do I leverage this technology to
19:26
Speaker 1: one reduced costs, improve efficiencies, go after new market, look
19:31
Speaker 1: at total addressable market in different spaces right, look at
19:34
Speaker 1: white space opportunities, eliminate redundancy in terms of like the
19:39
Speaker 1: functions that I might be driving, so that I can
19:41
Speaker 1: focus on the vision of the company, I can focus
19:45
Speaker 1: on growth, I can focus on the core priorities of
19:50
Speaker 1: the company. And I think whether you're a small, medium,
19:53
Speaker 1: large enterprise, multi multinational, global corporation, we're all kind of
19:58
Speaker 1: going through this this thought process right now right in
20:02
Speaker 1: terms of the type of talent that's needed to take
20:06
Speaker 1: advantage of the opportunities that tomorrow will hold. And then two,
20:11
Speaker 1: ensuring that the type of technology that we're leveraging aligned
20:15
Speaker 1: to the goals and practice of the business.
20:18
Speaker 2: And so that's where that's hope.
20:21
Speaker 3: We started a company called good Soil, which is focused
20:25
Speaker 3: on developing entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses up
20:33
Speaker 3: to the next level. Most minority businesses, about ninety four percent,
20:38
Speaker 3: have less than to employees, so we're trying to get
20:41
Speaker 3: them to think very differently as they go forward. From
20:45
Speaker 3: hustling to harvest to really getting down into the thrust
20:50
Speaker 3: of what they're trying to do in business, and we're
20:51
Speaker 3: trying to train them to do that more proficiently. What's
20:54
Speaker 3: exciting to me about AI is that it creates a
20:58
Speaker 3: bigger opportunity from marketing, and creates a bigger opportunity to
21:03
Speaker 3: get you out of the office, from doing paperwork, for research,
21:06
Speaker 3: for data acquisition, those sorts of things I think are
21:10
Speaker 3: really really good, and also put you on a global
21:13
Speaker 3: stage where you cannot your customer doesn't have to live
21:16
Speaker 3: across the streets from you, but can live around the
21:19
Speaker 3: world from you and create all those opportunities. I think
21:23
Speaker 3: that's an exciting way to look at doing business going forward.
21:28
Speaker 1: I love that point. And not only does it do that,
21:31
Speaker 1: it does this. It takes you. When you say, when
21:34
Speaker 1: you think about this from a global standpoint, your company,
21:37
Speaker 1: whether that's a one two five person shop for instance,
21:41
Speaker 1: can think about themselves not just as a local company
21:44
Speaker 1: that's in this city or that city, or what have you,
21:46
Speaker 1: or that neighborhood.
21:48
Speaker 2: They could be a global organization.
21:51
Speaker 1: When you think about the processes, when you think about
21:53
Speaker 1: all right, I need to communicate and connect with my customer.
21:58
Speaker 2: Well, there's you know, transcript services.
22:01
Speaker 1: And translation services that are provided in real time.
22:07
Speaker 2: That's coming along.
22:08
Speaker 1: Right. When you think about who you have part of
22:13
Speaker 1: your like your ecosystem, whether it's your partner ecosystem, or
22:16
Speaker 1: whether it's your tech providers or your customers in general,
22:20
Speaker 1: we are at a really unique stage where we can
22:24
Speaker 1: engage and provide unique service based on your domains, based
22:30
Speaker 1: on your needs.
22:31
Speaker 2: You know, in.
22:32
Speaker 1: Education, for years we talked about personalized education, and in
22:36
Speaker 1: healthcare we talked about personalized healthcare.
22:38
Speaker 2: Right. That means creating a health solution.
22:42
Speaker 1: For you because of who you are, your needs, your
22:46
Speaker 1: you know, your your profile per se right, your health
22:51
Speaker 1: profile specifically for you. We can do that in so
22:54
Speaker 1: many different areas. So if I was going back to
22:57
Speaker 1: your question, if I.
22:58
Speaker 2: Was a company, I'd be thinking about how do I
23:01
Speaker 2: leverage this as a tool as a mechanism for.
23:07
Speaker 1: Me to engage my customers in the market, again in
23:10
Speaker 1: ways that I have new ways that my competitors haven't.
23:13
Speaker 3: I certainly agree with that. I didn't mean to interrupt
23:16
Speaker 3: you give me I certainly agree with that. One of
23:19
Speaker 3: the things that I'm pondering about through some of the
23:22
Speaker 3: companies that I own, is that you can geil target
23:26
Speaker 3: more effectively, aggregate information and specify who you are targeting
23:32
Speaker 3: who has an interest in what you have. Globally, with
23:37
Speaker 3: artificial intelligence, you can really zone in rather than wasting
23:42
Speaker 3: dollars going out to people who have no interest in
23:44
Speaker 3: what you have. For the person who has a limited budget,
23:47
Speaker 3: you can bullseye right specifically on people that are doing
23:51
Speaker 3: amazing things. While we talk about the opportunities, one of
23:55
Speaker 3: the obstacles is digital ethics. And I'm not sure that
24:00
Speaker 3: the ethics are keeping up with the digitization of the
24:03
Speaker 3: way that we do business. I'm not sure that Congress
24:06
Speaker 3: is keeping up with digital ethics. Do you think that
24:10
Speaker 3: companies can be trusted to develop their own ethics regarding
24:15
Speaker 3: this issue? And even if they can, even if they can,
24:18
Speaker 3: are we creating the same scapel that does the surgery
24:25
Speaker 3: can commit a murder? How do we harness this artificial
24:30
Speaker 3: intelligence so that it doesn't fall into the hands of
24:33
Speaker 3: terrorists or people who are wanting to create bombs or
24:37
Speaker 3: wanting to shut down our grid systems? How much thought
24:41
Speaker 3: and maybe there's a lot more being done about it
24:43
Speaker 3: than I know how much where are we on digital
24:46
Speaker 3: ethics and who's the police officer that's controlling what's going
24:51
Speaker 3: on here?
24:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you have asked I think one of the
24:55
Speaker 1: most important questions, if not the most important question related
25:00
Speaker 1: to AI and technology in general.
25:02
Speaker 2: Right.
25:02
Speaker 1: I think technical ethics is something that that is absolutely
25:05
Speaker 1: needed and.
25:06
Speaker 2: It comes in a number of different forms.
25:08
Speaker 1: One, uh, there's this ethical conversation in terms of how policy,
25:13
Speaker 1: how a corporation, how a company of business should think
25:16
Speaker 1: about leveraging AI.
25:17
Speaker 2: Right, when we think about data privacy, data.
25:19
Speaker 1: Protection, what role does that play when you think about AI,
25:23
Speaker 1: when you think about who your profile being, your voice,
25:28
Speaker 1: your uh, you know, being able to own that, who
25:32
Speaker 1: has the access to that? And there there are some
25:35
Speaker 1: examples on on on YouTube of of some some artists
25:39
Speaker 1: right now.
25:42
Speaker 2: I won't go into detail on them, but but there
25:46
Speaker 2: you're talking about we are we we know? Right, So
25:50
Speaker 2: what are the ethical implications of that? I think we
25:53
Speaker 2: have to think about that.
25:54
Speaker 1: So that's one piece there's but the other the other
25:58
Speaker 1: part of that question around policy and so governments, state, local,
26:06
Speaker 1: federal governments, national governments need to think about this, right
26:11
Speaker 1: in terms of what type of regulations will be necessary,
26:16
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, working with private sector, working
26:18
Speaker 1: with public sector, working with theologians, I think is an
26:21
Speaker 1: important piece in creating a layer of ethical practice as
26:29
Speaker 1: relates to AI. That's going to be necessary as we move,
26:32
Speaker 1: as we move into the next two years, five years,
26:35
Speaker 1: ten years.
26:35
Speaker 2: And you see this across the board.
26:37
Speaker 1: You see Microsoft raising a voice in terms of ethical
26:41
Speaker 1: practice of the utilization of AI. And you know, one
26:46
Speaker 1: of our chief leaders here, that's Myth, has been a
26:50
Speaker 1: key leader across the across the globe in this area.
26:53
Speaker 2: That voice is so important.
26:55
Speaker 1: We see others from about the industry saying, hey, look,
26:59
Speaker 1: we do need to think about AI. There's an interest
27:02
Speaker 1: their publics here that I think as well. Tools and
27:06
Speaker 1: Weapons by Brad Smith and Age of AI.
27:10
Speaker 2: A Kiss adds, and.
27:12
Speaker 1: They talk about kind of the perils and they you know,
27:15
Speaker 1: a lot and the opportunities. But you know, we're in
27:20
Speaker 1: an interesting time, in an interesting age, and for us
27:25
Speaker 1: to move forward this question of ethics and what you're
27:28
Speaker 1: doing every Sunday, every day in every business that you
27:32
Speaker 1: have and every and.
27:33
Speaker 2: And everything you say, I think it is so important
27:37
Speaker 2: for for for humanity as we move forward. This is
27:42
Speaker 2: this is the question.
27:44
Speaker 1: We could probably I know we're only talking thirty minutes here,
27:47
Speaker 1: but we could probably spend an hour an hour and
27:50
Speaker 1: a half specifically on ethics.
27:54
Speaker 3: I guarantee you Coul's been an hour and a half
27:56
Speaker 3: because I'm very interested in the subject. I found it
27:59
Speaker 3: very fairy. Let's jump personal for just a moment. With
28:02
Speaker 3: a few minutes we have left from a seventeen year
28:06
Speaker 3: old boy who starts working at Raytheon and enters into
28:10
Speaker 3: a career that goes to Microsoft that continues to explode.
28:15
Speaker 3: Can you talk about, first of all, it's amazing that
28:18
Speaker 3: at seventeen you were already knew who you were, knew
28:23
Speaker 3: where you wanted to go. There's been a consistency from
28:27
Speaker 3: your education throughout your career that you seem to have
28:32
Speaker 3: a compass, a GPS system that guided you that you,
28:36
Speaker 3: as far as I know, have not deviated from. Have
28:40
Speaker 3: there been moments of disruption in your life? I don't
28:44
Speaker 3: mean personally but professionally where you had to think disruptively
28:51
Speaker 3: and can you talk about a time that you've been
28:53
Speaker 3: disruptive in your thinking and how did that work for you?
29:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely, if you are, if you are in a career
29:06
Speaker 1: for any length of time, whether that's five weeks, five years,
29:11
Speaker 1: twenty years, fifty years, you're there, you're going to experience
29:15
Speaker 1: a level of disruption, and and I have experienced uh disruption.
29:20
Speaker 1: One of my one of my one of my first
29:23
Speaker 1: pieces of disruption was actually after I came to Microsoft,
29:29
Speaker 1: the you know we uh I hired about twenty twenty
29:34
Speaker 1: students from university. I was one of those twenty, and
29:38
Speaker 1: then shortly into the program, the program changed a few
29:42
Speaker 1: weeks a week. We had to be agile. Agile in
29:46
Speaker 1: terms of that the market that we're in, technology moves
29:49
Speaker 1: at such a pace that things changed quickly.
29:53
Speaker 2: We have to be agile.
29:55
Speaker 1: And so in my career there have been moments and
29:57
Speaker 1: times that that that's happened really quickly.
30:00
Speaker 3: You know.
30:01
Speaker 1: One of the I'd be remiss if I didn't just
30:03
Speaker 1: reference one of my my former managers UH here at Microsoft,
30:07
Speaker 1: and it's uh.
30:08
Speaker 2: She was a woman that left just recently.
30:13
Speaker 1: But one of the things she would always say to
30:16
Speaker 1: our team, and it was our corporate citizenship team, she
30:19
Speaker 1: would always say, hey, look, you.
30:21
Speaker 2: Know, things change.
30:22
Speaker 1: We always have the head of the change. We have
30:25
Speaker 1: to be prepared for the change. Enjoy and appreciate this
30:29
Speaker 1: moment now, but understand that change is inevitable. And uh
30:37
Speaker 1: and and I think that's the that's the the motus.
30:41
Speaker 2: Operande, that that that I kind of live. Uh. The
30:46
Speaker 2: it's it's fun. It's been an interesting journey. It's been
30:51
Speaker 2: full of.
30:52
Speaker 1: Of highlights and it's it's been it's had some pitfalls.
30:57
Speaker 2: But I think going back to daven in North Star,
31:00
Speaker 2: I think kind.
31:00
Speaker 1: Of a vision when you know where you're going and
31:03
Speaker 1: you can course correct. When you can course correct, it
31:08
Speaker 1: can allow you to even though you might get off
31:11
Speaker 1: course a little bit, it can allow you to understand
31:14
Speaker 1: where your vision is, where you're going, what your ultimate
31:16
Speaker 1: purpose is, and go and you don't feel the pitfall.
31:20
Speaker 3: You said something, and I think it is the crowning
31:24
Speaker 3: moment of the interview. How do you recover from a fall?
31:30
Speaker 3: I think so many people, entrepreneurs, married, corporate people, hit
31:36
Speaker 3: a snag somewhere and they think that it is doomed.
31:41
Speaker 3: And yet you said we should anticipate these disruptions, even failures.
31:49
Speaker 3: What did you say to yourself? You don't have to
31:52
Speaker 3: get ultrapersonal unless you want to, But what did you
31:55
Speaker 3: say to yourself at your lowest moment. They got you
31:58
Speaker 3: back in the game. And I'm asking you this not
32:03
Speaker 3: just to know what you said to yourself, but to
32:06
Speaker 3: give the language to the people who are listening, who
32:09
Speaker 3: might be in a tough spot right now. What do
32:12
Speaker 3: you say to yourself? They get you back on target again.
32:16
Speaker 3: When life has been disrupted.
32:20
Speaker 1: How do you turn this into an opportunity? How do
32:24
Speaker 1: you turn this into an opportunity? Every day we have
32:26
Speaker 1: an opportunity to My worst day is someone else's dream.
32:30
Speaker 1: My worst day is someone else's dream somewhere. When you
32:36
Speaker 1: think about that, your toughest day, when you walk into
32:40
Speaker 1: an office, maybe you lose your job, you maybe you
32:44
Speaker 1: have your health when you walk away, someone dreams about
32:48
Speaker 1: that moment. I think about that in terms of you
32:52
Speaker 1: have to be optimistic to move forward. It's easy to
32:56
Speaker 1: it's easy to let the circumstances, which is only a
33:01
Speaker 1: limited amount of time. It's a very limited amount of
33:03
Speaker 1: time that you have that circumstance when you think about
33:06
Speaker 1: the longevity and the course and the arc of your life.
33:09
Speaker 1: So I think about that vision we talked about, you know,
33:12
Speaker 1: having that north star that's so important even on the
33:16
Speaker 1: worst day, being able to laugh and smile.
33:21
Speaker 2: About that because you have the opportunity to do it.
33:24
Speaker 2: I you know, I studied, we talked to ethics. I
33:27
Speaker 2: studied a little philosophy when I was in college. One
33:29
Speaker 2: of the one of my favorite stories is of Sisyphis.
33:33
Speaker 1: And Sisyphis is this guy that was banned uh do
33:37
Speaker 1: U and destined to push this rock up a hill,
33:41
Speaker 1: just this.
33:41
Speaker 2: Rock up the hill, and Camu was describing Sissyphis, and
33:44
Speaker 2: Sisyphis would move this rock. His face was in.
33:48
Speaker 1: The rock, and we would get it all the way
33:50
Speaker 1: to the top of the hill, and then the rock
33:52
Speaker 1: would roll down, and then Sisyphus would look.
33:56
Speaker 2: In despair and walk towards that rock and push it
33:59
Speaker 2: back up.
34:01
Speaker 1: And I think about those moments as I think about
34:05
Speaker 1: my answers, is as I think about my families, I
34:07
Speaker 1: think about the struggles. I don't have the right to
34:09
Speaker 1: give up. You don't have the right to give up.
34:13
Speaker 1: You weren't put here to give up, you didn't work
34:15
Speaker 1: put here to quit. It's a tough day. Tomorrow might
34:18
Speaker 1: be better, tomorrow might not be better. But take that
34:22
Speaker 1: opportunity to see. And so I think that's been my philosophy.
34:27
Speaker 1: Having people around me that support that and then just
34:29
Speaker 1: having that embedded in my heart.
34:31
Speaker 3: I don't think we can talk that. I think if
34:34
Speaker 3: people walk away with this conversation, I know if you're
34:38
Speaker 3: like me, I want to keep talking to Ramel for
34:42
Speaker 3: the rest of the day because he is so full
34:44
Speaker 3: of information. But that last point of inspiration might be
34:49
Speaker 3: the bullet you need to defeat the obstacle that you
34:53
Speaker 3: face and to seek out the opportunity that exists in
34:57
Speaker 3: every obstacle and become a disruptive thinker. As a man
35:01
Speaker 3: thinketh in his heart, so is he. It is not
35:05
Speaker 3: the problem that defeats you, it's the mentality about the
35:09
Speaker 3: problem that ultimately defeats you. You can't control the problem,
35:14
Speaker 3: but you can control how you think about it. And
35:16
Speaker 3: I think that Ramel dropped a huge nugget on us
35:22
Speaker 3: when he said look for the opportunity in every obstacle,
35:25
Speaker 3: in every bad day, and reminded us that our worst
35:29
Speaker 3: day is somebody else's dream. Ramel, I cannot thank you
35:33
Speaker 3: enough for taking time out of your schedule to share
35:36
Speaker 3: with us. It's been enlightening, motivating, stimulating, inspirational and powerful.
35:43
Speaker 3: And thank you for being who you are and representing
35:46
Speaker 3: all of us in a field where we are underrepresented.
35:50
Speaker 3: We need to see your face to know that it
35:54
Speaker 3: is possible for a niche to be carved out in
35:57
Speaker 3: this field where it is is where we are so underrepresented.
36:02
Speaker 3: So thank you so much for being one of our
36:05
Speaker 3: great heroes in this technological space.
36:10
Speaker 2: Thank thank you again.
36:12
Speaker 1: Just so honored to be here, and thank you for
36:14
Speaker 1: all that you're doing in the conversations you're having.
36:16
Speaker 3: Thank you you're there. You heard it from the man himself.
36:22
Speaker 3: I hope it's inspired you. I hope it's motivated you,
36:24
Speaker 3: and I hope it has helped you to be a
36:27
Speaker 3: disruptive thinker.