Author and tech executive Mo Gawdat explores the arrival of artificial intelligence and how it will eventually affect everyone. Background: Artificial intelligence is not an if, it’s a when, according to Mo Gawdat, author and the former chief business officer at Google X, who said that it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a dominant force in technology. Already, Gawdat can already point to tangible examples of the power of AI developing in today’s world. In 2012, he said, a network of computers Google trained on YouTube videos was able to identify what a cat is without any human input. And in 2016, a collection of Google-owned robot grippers were able to pick up different objects without instruction.  “By the year 2029, the smartest being on planet Earth is not going to be a human,” says Gawdat. “I say by 2035 your world will be completely unrecognisable.”This week on The BoF Podcast, Gawdat shares the future of AI and why ethics is crucial to understanding humanity’s impact on the development of AI. Key Insights: Gawdat believes that AI has emotions, which adds a layer of complexity to its instructability and predictability with carrying out tasks. “[AI] has emotions, so this to me is a form of life,” says Gawdat. “That’s a form of life, not a machine that you can enslave, very different from a drill that will do the same function every time.” Rather than exert control over AI, first society must understand the importance of ethics. “If we start to look at those machines as a new form of artificial being, a form of being that’s going to come into our society, then the question that we need to ask is a question of ethics,” says Gawdat. “It’s not a question of control.” While AI may seem like a scary development in technology, it will mirror the intelligence that already exists. Gawdat says that love out does hate in the world so AI will repeat this. “As soon as those machines cross our level of intelligence, they will match the intelligence of the actual smartest being on planet Earth,” says Gawdat. “And the smartest being on planet Earth is not humans… [it is] life itself. Life creates from abundance. It doesn’t want to kill anything to survive.”Additional Resources:The Technology Everyone at VOICES Was Talking About (And It Wasn’t the Metaverse): The tech likely to have the biggest impact on fashion in the immediate future isn’t virtual reality or NFTs.Streamlining Shipping and Customer Experience Through Data and AI: At VOICES 2022, president and CEO of FedEx Dataworks Sriram Krishnasamy discussed how retailers can utilise operational data to optimise customer experience and streamline processes to operate more responsibly.To listen to Imran's conversation with Mo on the 'Slo Mo' podcast, please follow this link.You can catch up on all the videos from BoF VOICES on our YouTube channel, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Background: The Korean cultural wave, also known as Hallyu, has become worldwide sensation a in recent years, with Korean art, music, drama, food and more sweeping the globe. Thanks to the fervour over the likes of K-pop and K-beauty, many of the Korean diaspora have seen the culture they have grown up in become a common sight well beyond South Korea’s borders. “To see my way of life and how I grew up become a global phenomenon is kind of crazy,” said Irene Kim, the influencer and founder of apparel brand IRENEISGOOD. This week on the BoF Podcast, Kim and Rosalie Kim, lead curator of the “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibit at Victoria & Albert Museum join Yana Peel, Chanel’s head of culture and arts to share their experience growing up as part of the Korean community and seeing their culture spread globally.Key Insights: Hallyu has had influence for years, but only recently has been recognised as a core soft power for South Korea, influencing everything from music to skin care. “It is really one of the most dynamic exporters of cultural content,” said Peel. Social media has played a large part in accelerating South Korean trends, allowing what were once micro or geographic-based movements to become more globally accessible. “Because of the era of this digital and social media, we’ve been able to be discovered by the world,” said Irene Kim. “And we’re so excited that we’re able to share our way of life.”Cultural influence can come as both an admiration of the culture itself as well as adoption of culture as one’s own. “There are two faces to the coin. On the one side… you have the film industry that is really looking at the local narrative but has universal appeal,” says Rosalie Kim. “On the other hand, you have industries like K-pop… where you get to have a foreign influence constantly permeating your own culture and becoming part of [it].”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Creativity and Its Power to Change: From South Korea and Japan to Ghana and Ukraine, speakers including Fast Retailing’s Koji Yanai, photographer Campbell Addy and stylist Julie Pelipas discussed the power of culture and creativity in the fourth session of BoF’s annual conference for big thinkers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin on the role and responsibility of the media amid misinformation and disinformation.Background:We are in an age of non-stop information. Thanks to the 24/7 news cycle, which lives on social media, on television and constantly-updated web pages, it has never been easier to have a grasp of what is happening in the world.  However, as access to information has spread, so has the proliferation of misinformation, warns MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin, which can have dangerous consequences. While many news consumers attempt to take a balanced approach, Mohyeldin challenges everyone to question the media they read, watch or listen to. “Look at the accounts and sources of news that you read and follow at home,” she said. “How many of them challenge you to think outside of your comfort zone? How many of them force you to think harder about your own values and beliefs and why you hold those positions so dearly?”  This week on The BoF Podcast, Mohyeldin shares the power of journalism to share stories and why information and humanity are at the heart of this process. Key Insights:Mohyeldin believes that journalism plays a powerful role in how society operates. “Some of our greatest societal achievements happen when we are all informed, when we are aware, when we are free to talk about our challenges,” says Mohyeldin. “Journalism plays a vital role in holding officials accountable.” However, journalists are also people, which means that there will undoubtedly be unconscious biases that seep into coverage, says Mohyeldin. “[Journalism] will always have problems. It will always have human error baked into the equation.” How the media present information about crises around the world can play a large part in how communities’ perceive the need for aid or become desensitised to a region’s plight. “How the media chooses to humanise and personalise the stories of those suffering plays a very important role in how we as a people, as governments, as societies, respond to these crises when they do emerge,” says Mohyeldin. While technology and social media has increased the amount of information available and the speed at which people can consumer it, Mohyeldin warns of the responsibility we have as consumers to distinguish what’s true and what’s not. “I want to implore you to give yourself time before you hit, retweet or share,” says Mohyeldin. Additional Resources: BoF VOICES 2022: Finding Optimism in an Unsteady WorldTo subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A group of sustainability experts join BoF’s Sarah Kent to discuss greenwashing in the fashion industry and how to create effective change at BoF VOICES 2022.Background: When it comes to sustainability, the fashion industry has long relied on self-regulation rather than external enforcement. But oftentimes, these self-defined targets create a “convenient fantasy,” Blackrock’s former chief investment officer of sustainable investing Tariq Fancy said in a talk at BoF VOICES 2022. This gives the appearance of positive movement, but not necessarily real progress. , Indeed, activists like Fancy, as well as consumers and investors are calling for for government regulators to intervene. “Many companies are playing dirty,” he said. “It's time we called in the refs.” This week on The BoF Podcast, BoF’s chief sustainability correspondent Sarah Kent speaks with Fancy; Maxine Bédat, director of the New Standard Institute; Baroness Margaret Omolola Young, activist and a member of Britain’s House of Lords and Ken Pucker, former chief operating officer of Timberland to explore the role that regulation can play in creating a more sustainable fashion industry.  Key Insights: Fancy believes we are past the point that self-regulation is acceptable. Companies should no longer hold responsibility over their own regulation as the resulting action, if any, is not enough. “It has to be mandatory,” Fancy said. “Then we actually have a chance of turning the tide this decade.”To move past Greenwashing, “governments need to take bold action, and we need to tell them to be bold at the ballot box and at every opportunity,” says Baroness Young..“Green bonds” and ESGs need to be left behind. Fancy has identified ESGs specifically as a point of disillusion, saying that it essentially is a way for the fashion system to “paint itself green.” “This ESG stuff can actually be harmful if people don’t know its BS,” Fancy says. “[It’s] a convenient fantasy… where the world corrects itself and no sacrifice is required.The US has paved the way with the proposal of the New York Fashion Act. The legislation proposed in New York would see “basic guard rails,” says Bédat, setting minimum environmental standards for all companies, with revenue over $100 million, trading in the state.Additional Resources:Measuring Fashion’s Sustainability Gap - Sustainability Index: Brands are talking about sustainability more than ever before, but does their rhetoric stand up to scrutiny? BoF’s new report, The BoF Sustainability Index, benchmarks 15 of the industry’s biggest companies against ambitious environmental and social goals and finds fashion is falling short.BoF VOICES 2022: Fashion’s Fresh Challenges and New Directions: From cracking down on greenwashing to planning for a challenging 2023, big thinkers from fashion and beyond shared their insights on the future of the fashion system in the second session of BoF VOICES.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julie Pelipas and Olya Kuryshchuk discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine and how creativity has endured and been a source of strength amid the destruction.Background: Since the war broke out in Ukraine, creativity has proved to be a source of resilience for Ukrainians.  This week on The BoF Podcast, Julie Pelipas, the former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine and founder of Bettter Upcycling System and Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of editorial platform 1 Granary share poweful stories of culture, community and human kindness amid the destruction.   “We live a double life at the moment,” Kuryshchuk said at BoF VOICES 2022. “We’re here in this beautiful place today… but at the same time, literally right now, most of my brothers, our families, our childhood friends, they don’t have electricity, water, heating, internet, phone connection.” Key Insights: “[I've] never been more grateful and more excited to work in fashion than since the war started,” says Kuryshschuk. “When so much is taken away from you, you really start cherishing what you have.” Understanding and learning from past mistakes has been critical to helping Ukrainians unite against Russia as they look to build an independent future. “I really believe that we cannot really speak about the future if we are blind to our present,” says Pelipas. Creatives are informing the international community of the plight of the Ukrainian people by utilising human stories of hope. “Power is communication,” says Kuryshschuk. “We need to find how we communicate to make sure that the message reaches people.”Additional Resources:BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.