I walked into the AI Summit with laborious questions on trade maturity, infrastructure challenges, and implementation realities. My earlier protection explored a few of these points in my preliminary hearth chat evaluation and pre-Summit publish. Right here’s what I discovered — and what I didn’t discover — throughout 10 key takeaways.
My 10 Takeaways
1. Did the present concentrate on the above challenges? Largely, no. There have been a couple of classes that talked about the infrastructure, for instance, however none talked concerning the vitality dangers. The one one which got here shut was one on sovereign AI nevertheless it was primarily a advertising and marketing pitch for a supercomputer.
2. So far as the verification and financial challenges, there was not a lot dialogue. Fairly the Summit felt like one other AI love fest: everybody with totally different spoons stirring in the identical outdated bowl. I get it, it’s a present for the distributors and by the distributors. However shouldn’t there have been no less than somewhat extra dialogue of actuality and the challenges?
3. One vivid spot was the cybersecurity stage. Many of the presenters for this stage acknowledged the cybersecurity dangers that subtle AI may pose. Like AI platforms that would adapt to the defenses after which assault repeatedly. One presenter talked about the dangers to the electrical grid and infrastructure which may influence AI and sluggish its use.
4. I used to be notably fascinated about listening to from the New York Metropolis presenters, who returned to debate how the Metropolis makes use of AI to serve underserved communities. Whereas progress has been made, a lot of their presentation centered on political threats to those applications underneath the incoming mayoral administration and basically. The fears had been palpable and comprehensible.
5. There have been a number of references to ambient AI — AI that works within the background with out individuals realizing it. That’s the place we’re headed. However the focus ought to have been maybe extra on what the instruments that AI helps may truly do and what issues these instruments may now clear up with AI’s assist. Certainly, there seemed to be plenty of curiosity in using AI in well being care and in finance. These classes had been essentially the most properly attended which maybe displays an curiosity, as talked about above, in how AI could possibly be utilized virtually to make different issues work higher.
6. There was loads of curiosity in what AI will do to artistic fields and the way AI could possibly be legitimately utilized by people in a artistic vogue. The prevailing view appeared to be that concepts come from people, and the AI permits implementation and the fleshing out of these concepts in methods not beforehand attainable. That’s good for now. However the problem actually is as AI advances, what’s going to it do to human creativity fields and the humanities. The classes regarded much less at this and what AI can do now.
7. A typical and maybe by now trite theme: AI with people beats AI or people alone. It’s the human within the loop argument. However not often does anybody cease and ask what this implies. What human? And the place within the loop does the human match right this moment and tomorrow? I’m not faulting the AI Summit for not asking these questions, no different convention is both.
8. I’ve to speak concerning the facility, the Javits Heart, specifically, since it will likely be the location of the authorized tech convention, Legalweek. In 2026, that convention is transferring from midtown Manhattan the place it’s been for years. The nice? Javits is roomy, the exhibit area flows properly. It’s not chopped on three flooring just like the Hilton area is. The meals at Javits just isn’t as dangerous as some convention venues. There’s even a Starbucks onsite.
The dangerous? Most of the phases happened on the exhibit ground. For essentially the most half the shows there have been laborious to listen to over the din of the remainder of the ground. Whether or not Legalweek will resort to the having the identical association stays to be seen. Nevertheless it’s distracting to say the least.
The ugly? It’s a stroll from most motels. There are few eating places within the neighborhood. There isn’t any procuring close by. All of the issues that made the midtown website enticing to many are far-off from the Javits Heart. That doesn’t notably hassle me since I’m going to a number of reveals the place strolling a long way to get from place to put is important. However based mostly on the suggestions to this 12 months’s ABA TechShow of which I used to be co-chair, which made the same transfer to the same venue, McCormick Place in Chicago, I predict Legalweek will hear a slew of complaints over this. And since it should in early March, it might be a chilly stroll as properly.
9. As I’ve written, there have been some helpful views from enterprise leaders on the right AI mindset. That mindset is far totally different than I see in authorized. A part of that’s by necessity: authorized thrives on accuracy and confidence. However as one in all my shoppers used to say, we all the time have to be cautious we don’t spend an excessive amount of time within the closet speaking to ourselves. That’s the fantastic thing about attending a convention just like the AI Summit. However like most nonlegal conferences I attend, there have been few, if any, authorized professionals or attorneys in attendance on the Summit. There was little dialogue of authorized points. It’s not good for authorized to disregard what’s occurring in the remainder of the world. If nothing else, lots of the exhibitors and attendees are doubtless shoppers of attorneys and regulation companies (or could possibly be). It is likely to be good to listen to what they’re pondering.
10. Not like some reveals I’ve been to, I didn’t get the sense of a bro tradition. Individuals had been energetic and keen about AI basically, and specifically, use circumstances. They want to push the envelope. That’s a great factor. That’s how we advance. It’s like one other present I attend yearly, CES: 75% of what’s talked about might by no means occur. However some issues will. Or what’s talked about will encourage new issues to occur and be developed. That’s the fantastic thing about attending: contemporary views, new methods of pondering.
When Can We Speak?
My takeaways result in some broader questions that want addressing. Let me hasten to say if I sound like I’m an AI curmudgeon of late, I’m not. I consider in AI and its huge alternatives.
However with these alternatives come challenges. Like how we will guarantee we have now the infrastructure to help all of the issues we would like AI to do. Like how AI will disrupt the workforce, get rid of jobs, and redefine what work means.
We get too many pithy ideas tossed round like truisms: AI received’t substitute people it should simply substitute people that don’t use it. Or there shall be different jobs to exchange these misplaced to the expertise. Possibly these items are true. However simply mouthing them doesn’t make that so.
Maybe reveals just like the AI Summit usually are not the place to speak overtly about these items. However we have to have that dialogue someplace: a first-time attendee requested me on the Summit if there have been any conferences dedicated to an examination of the laborious points. I believed for a second and at last mentioned, “None that I can consider.”
Proper now, our relationship with AI is like one the place laborious points are all the time delay. That by no means ends properly.
It’s nice to sing your group’s combat track and cheer. It’s even higher when your group has the expertise to satisfy the challenges it faces. Let’s acknowledge the distinction between cheering and assembly the true AI challenges..
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and author. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a weblog dedicated to the examination of the stress between expertise, the regulation, and the follow of regulation.
