The US Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action has prompted concern among DEI leaders. In this Advisor, I address several of these issues and offer some thoughts based on my experience leading DEI transformation efforts.

 

 

Blockchain Technologies & Environmental Sustainability

November 10, 2023 | 10:00am-10:45am EST | 16:00-16:45 CET (see your local time)

Make no bones about it, data privacy/security and the ethical/responsible use of generative AI (GAI) are hot-button issues. But to what extent are enterprises actually taking steps to address these concerns as they rapidly adopt GAI? In a recent Cutter survey, we asked organizations this key question.

As a woman of color, it is important that when I consider employment with your organization, I see representations of myself in roles across the spectrum — including at the senior level. I’m not suggesting that job qualifications are irrelevant, of course, but I’m asking you to adjust your lens to look past gender and color for talent. Better still, look at women of color and recognize that your organization is in need of their talent.

Cutter Expert Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx and Marco Schletz dive deep into the field of ReFi, a concept that enhances financial practices through decentralization and focuses on environmental and societal systems. The authors highlight several key problems of the space and point out that genuinely disruptive ReFi models are still in their infancy. The good news is that ReFi’s potentials are manifold and exciting. In the not-too-distant future, we might see financial applications backed by blockchain that can enhance data credibility, exchangeability, and transparency to redefine how corporations create and apportion environmental value.

In this issue of Amplify, we delve into the intricate connections between blockchain technologies and sustainability, highlighting how transparency, traceability, and decentralization can empower individuals, organizations, and governments to address pressing sustainability issues, from energy grids and sustainable forestry to agri-food ecosystems and regenerative finance. As we explore this dynamic development, it becomes evident that blockchain is not merely a technological innovation: it can serve as a catalyst for transformative change that aligns with the global imperative to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

This article presents an interview with Michael Marus, conducted by Cutter Expert Curt Hall and Guest Editor Horst Treiblmaier. Marus is CIO and director of IT at the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization governed by a global network of more than 1,000 individuals and member organizations with the mission to protect forests worldwide. It has been testing and applying blockchain since 2021 to enable sustainability with forest-based materials and has found that blockchain’s traceability helps it achieve integrity and credibility for its certification system. Marus provides exciting details about the organization’s practical experiences and offers his outlook on how blockchain might provide further value in the future.

Malni Kumarathunga and Athula Ginige address the important topic of sustainable agri-food ecosystems, an issue that affects all of us. The amount of global food waste is alarming and, not surprisingly, has a huge detrimental impact on natural resources. Blockchain can enhance trust along the supply chain and improve the situation, especially for smallholder farmers. The authors’ suggested model simultaneously reduces greenhouse gas emissions, allows for better resource use, and improves the livelihood of farmers.

Horst Treiblmaier elaborates on the complex concepts of blockchain and sustainability, both of which are comprehensive and frequently misunderstood. He illustrates how the technology offers a multitude of capabilities (e.g., immutability of data, shared access, programmability, security) that can yield numerous beneficial outcomes for sustainability efforts.

During the next decade, the healthcare industry will undergo a profound transformation as many important technologies, including AI, reach mainstream adoption. Clinical workflow will become more agile by virtue of AI and advanced analytics that automate decision-making processes. The emergence of these technologies requires a transformation from mere digital health to data-driven healthcare given the fundamental role of data in automated decision-making.

Ali Arabnya and Amin Khodaei explore blockchain’s potential to create the sustainable energy grid of the future. One of the defining features of the technology is decentralization, which perfectly matches with the idea of distributing the production, trading, and consumption of energy. This transition is going to be complex, and the authors do an excellent job of outlining what needs to be done and which challenges need to be overcome to produce more robust and efficient energy systems.

In this Advisor, Avenga CEO Yuriy Adamchuk delves into repercussions from an actual, ongoing war — in Ukraine. Avenga has 11 offices and 1,300 professionals in the country, and, knowing the risks of an attack (based on the 2014 invasion and subsequent expert predictions of escalation), the company developed its Service Endurance Plan.

Agility prepares us for our turbulent future. But how do we achieve enterprise agility in light of the magnitude of that turbulence and the overwhelming number of failed transformation initiatives? In this Amplify Update, we suggest that growing agile-adaptive leaders who are adventurous, inspiring, and, of course, adaptive is critical to success. We then seek to validate that assumption by listening to the voice of a former CEO of IBM. By understanding this brand of leadership, digital and Agile transformations can be more successful. However, lurking in the shadows of even the best agile-adaptive leaders are the formidable obstacles of rigid cultures, financial myopia, and performance hacking.

This Advisor explores three strategies tech companies can employ to avoid being damaged in the current atmosphere of treacherous geopolitics: lobbying, bandwagoning, and corporate de-risking. While some policymakers and pundits may view these strategies as violating the ideals of economic efficiency, new geopolitical realities dictate more corporate flexibility in pursuing healthy bottom lines.

A leader’s decision to leave a foreign country requires complex financial, operational, and ethical considerations. First, the financial analysis of the operation under scrutiny must be adjusted to account for losses incurred elsewhere in the global organization. This Advisor takes a closer look at this initial step in an exit strategy decision tree.

This Advisor examines results from a recent Cutter Consortium survey on enterprise adoption of generative artificial intelligence. Based on our survey findings, approximately one-third of organizations currently indicate they plan to integrate large language models into their own applications, while nearly half are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Arthur D. Little’s Michael Papadopoulos, Nicholas Johnson, Michael Eiden, Philippe Monnot, Foivos Christoulakis, and Greg Smith debunk the idea that security concerns about LLMs are entirely new. They examine each concern to show that these issues are merely new manifestations of existing security threats — and thus manageable. “LLMs highlight and stress test existing vulnerabilities in how organizations govern data, manage access, and configure systems,” they assert. The article concludes with a list of 10 specific ways to improve LLM-adoption security.

Cutter Expert Curt Hall takes a fascinating dive into data on key GAI trends and examines findings from a Cutter survey of more than 100 organizations worldwide. Hall calls the rate of adoption of GAI tools “amazing.” Hall‘s article looks at enterprise adoption of LLMs, strategy and oversight for GAI adoption and usage, and enterprise experience with GAI to date.

The potential applications for GAI are almost limitless, saving companies enormous amounts of time and money compared to current processes, whether they relate to internal knowledge sharing and exploitation or external market analysis and customer service. We are still at the very beginning of this revolutionary curve, and if we are to fully enjoy its advantages, there are important issues to be resolved in areas such as IP protection, regulation, security, and environmental impact. This Amplify takes a look at these issues — and more.

Cutter Fellow Stephen J. Andriole presents a no-holds-barred discussion of the predictions and fearmongering swirling around GAI. Clearly, Andriole says, we should stop panicking and start thinking about how to optimize GAI. We should also acknowledge that some form of regulation is necessary. Andriole turns to ChatGPT and Bard (who else?) for advice on potential regulation, looks closely at what other countries and regions are doing in this area, and highlights the importance of addressing IP infringement issues. He concludes by saying that regulatory decisions should not be anchored in technology capabilities, pointing out that social, political, and economic concerns about the impact of regulation will exert as much, if not more, influence on the regulatory scenarios that emerge.

Cutter Expert Paul Clermont takes a down-to-earth look at what we can expect from AI in the near term. For one thing, he says, we’re still in the garbage-in, garbage-out phase with LLMs; for another, it’s nowhere close to artificial general intelligence. There are, of course, ethical and social implications, including the fact the AI puts what we don’t like about today’s Internet (disinformation, loss of privacy, and more) on steroids. A host of new legal issues also needs attention, Clermont notes, which may lead to governments playing a role in the evolution of AI usage that they did not assume in the advent of the computer or the Internet.

Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman believe we must address the legal, ethical, and economic implications of AI-generated output if we want to foster innovation, promote the responsible use of AI, and ensure an equitable distribution of the benefits arising from AI-generated works. The authors look at the complicated relationship between AI and IP, then discuss the Artificial Inventor Project, which filed two patent applications for AI-generated inventions back in 2018 in the UK and Europe. The project aims to promote dialogue about the social, economic, and legal impact of frontier technologies like AI and generate stakeholder guidance on the protectability of AI-generated output. Clearly, say Abbott and Rothman, AI systems challenge our existing IP frameworks and necessitate a thorough rethinking of what rules will result in the greatest social value.

How can technology leaders accelerate the delivery of business value from the cloud? What inhibits cloud adoption and cloud projects? Myles Suer recently posed these questions to a group of CIOs; this Advisor shares the insights gleaned from that conversation.

Arthur D. Little's Greg Smith, Michael Bateman, Remy Gillet, and Eystein Thanisch scrutinize the environmental impact of LLMs. Specifically, they compare carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from LLMs with using appliances such as electric ovens and kettles, streaming videos, flying from New York City to San Francisco, and mining Bitcoin. Next, the authors look at how fit-for-purpose LLMs and increased renewable energy usage could help LLM operators reduce their carbon footprint. Finally, this ADL team points out the relationship between smaller LLMs and responsible, democratized AI.

This Advisor explores how a data science team at Sanofi began an initiative to move toward prescriptive analytics. It sought to increase timely process monitor­ing and diagnosis and to move from a reactive to a proactive mode of operation that would enhance data analytics capabilities and increase efficiencies.