AI could take different pathways for development. This chapter emphasises the issues regarding strategic approach that the next generation business leaders need to adopt to coexist with these technological transformations. These development pathways could be the ones where the dependency on an AI-driven support system drains out the leadership abilities, intellect, and creativity of future leaders, resulting in the emergence of 'Clone Leadership'. Or, will they lead to a best-case scenario in which AI is regulated and emerge as a stakeholder in the business ecosystem, resulting in growth and prosperity? The chapter deliberates upon the decision-making approach that business leaders would be adopting in AI dominated business environment, especially with respect to governance, morality, and ethical behavior. Finally, the chapter analyzes the efforts being made to develop ethical, transparent, and accountable principles and guidelines to manage responsible AI.
Top1. Introduction
“If machine brains one day surpass human brain in general intelligence, the fate of our species would depend on the action of powerful AI”- This phrase from Nick Brostom's New York Times bestseller ‘Superintelligence’, projects the future humanity is staring a future that could be governed by non-biological intelligence, this may take over the reign of humanity in one of the multiple case scenarios (Bostrom, 2014). The question faced by homo species today is not how or why this superintelligence will rise. But, when?
Today, human intelligence, limited by its evolutionary pathway is encountering competition from non-biological forms of intelligence, which learns and evolves by themselves with the potential for unrestrained growth. This form of intelligence initially grows with human support till it reaches the point where it self-evolves, thus, diminishing its dependence upon written algorithms. The explosive self-evolution would have a deep impact on human civilization. This phase of AI evolution would rapidly blur the boundaries between biological and non-biological intelligence to the point that AI would be in a position to manipulate the classical Turing test (Turing, 1950) in its favor. In this unprecedented scenario, the interrogator would be convinced that humans are in fact machines and vice versa, thus shaping a new level of human-AI interactions. The growth of AI dominance would have business consequences in various industries like transportation, energy, agriculture, and medical health care.
In the current and future growth states of AI, three artificial intelligence-driven leadership scenarios are envisioned in this study. Firstly, AI is at the development stage and assists leaders by providing an analytical support structure to enable them to make informed decisions, leading to increased operational efficiency and corporate profitability. For instance, in the case of medical science, AI is increasingly used for diagnosis, virtual care of patients, image interpretation, and non-clinical activities. In the second scenario, AI advances to a higher level by becoming more self-aware and conscious than human, learning from its mistakes, undergoing continuous improvement, and being entrusted with critical organizational tasks. As a result, it would acquire a position in the organizational hierarchy similar to that of humans. The last, and the most radical scenario is the one where AI has evolved into a self-aware Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), i.e., gaining human-like intellect, which augments at an exponential pace (Schwuchow and Gutmann, 2018) as depicted in Figure-1. With a high level of cognitive abilities, AI would take over the role of leadership and tilt the reigns of organizations from human to non-biological intelligence.
Figure 1. Growth phase of AI (Adapted from Schwuchow and Gutmann, 2018)
The growth phase of AI in Figure -1 (Schwuchow and Gutmann, 2018), illustrates the rise of non-biological or machine intelligence as compared to the biological one. It is understood that in near future a point will be reached where the intelligence of human and machine would coincide. This is termed as point of ‘singularity’ or the point at which machine achieves Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or intelligence similar to that of human. At this point, the difference between human and machine intelligence would be abolished and it would be impossible to distinguish between the two. Beyond this point, there are two possible scenarios, one in which AI grows in a controlled manner with human intervention and another one in which AI would trend the path of self-evolvement or uncontrolled growth. In the second scenario, the growth in intelligence of AI would be exponential and may reach stage of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) and, as a result, taking over control of major aspects of human life.