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.

This Advisor presents three rules that can help business leaders manage digital era risk: (1) question analytics, (2) don’t excuse technological glitches, and (3) promote business acumen, not digital transformation.

The productivity of IT matters to just about everyone within the ecosystem IT touches. This includes marketing, finance, service, and HR. So, what are the greatest IT productivity limiters, and what should your IT leaders do to eliminate them and enable your business to transform faster? This Advisor provides some answers.

This Advisor discusses the use of digital twins in radar systems and how this technology enables the digital transformation of the defense industry. This is a good example of using digital twins to simulate products that are costly to build (especially if they are built incorrectly) and their use in addressing compliance requirements.

 

 

Navigating Geopolitical Risks

August 17, 2023 | 9am-9:45am EDT | 3pm-3:45pm CEST (see your local time)

Eli Doster shares that having a broken culture was not only terrible for staff at his company, it was also costly and had a negative impact on business. Five years ago, the company lacked values employees could believe in, which affected their decisions and actions. Furthermore, the company lacked “diversity of cultures, ethnicity, and perspective.”

Jin Yoon provides an examination of financial data from a group of US and Chinese technology companies. Analysis spanning several years on price to earnings (P/E) and enterprise value to revenue (EV/Rev) clearly shows a negative effect on share prices from geopolitical risk: a 24% discount on a forward P/E basis and a 42% discount on forward EV/Rev. Yoon says the analysis demonstrates the profound impact that geopolitical turmoil can have on a company or industry’s market value and that this finding can guide investors and operators as they try to mitigate geopolitical risks.

Klaus Meyer and Saul Estrin focus on a decision tree approach to managing exit strategies. The authors use Russia’s invasion in Ukraine as an example of complex situations that arise from major geopolitical disruptions. As companies try to extricate themselves from a country, they may need to consider whether a buyer can continue using its global names, what to do about promises to current customers (e.g., access to the App Store for Apple phones), and potential harm to the parent company from a sale. They must also consider the sticky issue of how the new owner will use critical assets (e.g., will they supply the military organizations deemed responsible for human rights abuses?).

Joo-Seuk Maing brings us his perspective on an era in which emerging countries and societies no longer blindly follow the West. Based in Seoul, South Korea, Maing is the Korea/Vietnam CEO for a German manufacturer of the wire harnesses that connect automotive components. From his vantage point, he sees several things executives should be paying more attention to, including energy prices, the investment outlook in China, and the need for strong business continuity plans beyond those for natural disasters (i.e., geopolitical tensions or unrest). Maing also believes companies doing business in Asia should consider more local talent for top positions.

Yuriy Adamchuk delves into repercussions from an actual, ongoing war — in Ukraine. The author’s company, Avenga, has 11 offices and 1,300 professionals in the country. Knowing the risks of an attack (based on the 2014 invasion and subsequent expert predictions of escalation), the company developed its Service Endurance Plan. Adamchuk tells us why the implementation and execution of that plan were so successful that no employees were seriously physically hurt in the war and operations continued without interruption. He also describes how the company has taken steps to emerge from the current crisis stronger than before the war began.

Douglas B. Fuller takes on the US’s chip “war” with China. Fuller says the US’s efforts in reshaping the global semiconductor industry by shifting activity away from China proves we are moving away from globalization and into de-risking. In other words, national security and supply chain resiliency now get (or should get) at least equal consideration from major economic powers. The author describes how the battle began (with Huawei’s efforts to expand its 5G infrastructure outside of China), the US’s multipronged regulatory response, and how companies should prepare for this new paradigm.

It is imperative to identify and explore the ways businesses navigate and excel in the face of geopolitical risk. In this issue of Amplify, our contributors explore the challenges raised by geopolitical risk through a variety of angles. This diverse perspective from a group of academics and practitioners provides insights into the impact of geopolitical risk on supply chains, leadership, business planning, and share price.

Modular architecture allows banks to build their value propositions into services, functionalities, and raw data while enabling new distribution and service creation. This Advisor describes a two-dimensional framework that shows how modular architecture enables four distinct roles (integrator, producer, distributor, and platform) to emerge and revolutionize traditional banking.

The benefits of digital twins have been much debated since they first appeared in the space industry in the late 20th century. Fast adoption and benefits flowed in some industries, but many are still questioning their value, including the property and real estate industry. This Advisor looks at how digital twins for places can solve some significant challenges that exist in property and real estate.

Why should business leaders develop strategies focused on biodiversity? First, businesses rely on ecosystems to produce and reproduce the variety of life that enables economic and social systems. Second, biodiversity decline (or collapse) poses reputation risks to businesses, and business leaders must anticipate and mitigate the risk of being targeted by activists. Third, life on Earth has inherent value that managers should help preserve rather than destroy. As we explore in this Advisor, biodiversity mini-publics can help managers successfully engage on all three issues.

Currently, most of the digital transformation work taking place in banks is still managed heuristically. We argue that banks (and indeed companies in every industry) should instead pursue a systematic digital transformation using systems engineering principles. Using this approach, banks can look at value creation in a more goal-oriented manner. This will allow them to successfully transform their business models by integrating stakeholder goals and technologies across an extended partner ecosystem. Of course, this methodology must be underpinned by management optimization concepts.

Over the last four decades, there has been a proliferation of corporate diversity policies. By one estimate, more than 95% of organizations with more than 1,000 employees have some sort of diversity program. Generally, this push toward diversity has largely been prompted by a few interwoven factors. This Advisor takes a closer look at three of those factors.

This Advisor looks at new generative AI applications and the content they produce. It also explores the paradigm shift created by generative AI as well as its impact on the creative ecosystem.

Recently, Cutter contributor and data business leader Myles Suer asked CIOs some important questions regarding generative AI. This Advisor shares some insights gleaned from those conversations.

 

 

Digital Twins in Practice

June 15, 2023 | 10am-11am EDT | 4pm-5pm CEST (see your local time)

The world is changing rapidly, and we are witnessing a plethora of significant events, including the outcomes of a global pandemic, climate change and extreme weather, global supply chain disruptions, the war in Ukraine, the emergence of innovative technologies, and more and more smart products. These are all shaping the business environment, forcing organizations to adapt and change at unprecedented speeds. Consequently, senior managers are asking themselves how their organization should respond to deal with the technological storm and what steps they should take to prepare the organization for the future. As we explore in this Executive Update, the range of actions managers must take is broad and includes, among others, the development of organizational innovation processes, digital transformation, making the organization agile, adapting ways of doing business that meet new expectations of customers, and more. One theme runs through all of these initiatives — innovation.