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Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Josh Sutton, Data & Artificial Intelligence Global Head at Publicis.Sapient (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: As I’m talking to you, I’m making a note in my head to invite Mark in this series once you have finished getting to a point where this is all real.

Josh Sutton: That was the first front around insight generation.

Sramana Mitra: Could you actually throw some light on what kind of products this retailer sells?

Josh Sutton: This was an electronics retail company.

Sramana Mitra: You said you already knew a lot of data about customers coming to their site. What was the source of that data that you were working into the learning algorithm? >>>

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Josh Sutton, Data & Artificial Intelligence Global Head at Publicis.Sapient (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What I’d like to do is pick a few of your real-world clients who are using AI to do business transformation and start with what problem domain are we looking at, how are you applying AI to their problem domain, and what kind of business transformation are you achieving?

Josh Sutton: Let me break this down first before we jump into client-specific opportunities to set the stage with what are some of the macro use cases that we see being impacted by the broad suite of AI technologies. The three that I see most commonly are along the lines of insight generation, conversational engagement, and business acceleration.

Let me walk through what I mean by each of those and then I’ll walk through some real examples. Insight generation is taking all of the data that we have, from >>>

Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Josh Sutton, Data & Artificial Intelligence Global Head at Publicis.Sapient (Part 1)

There is a clear trend in Artificial Intelligence whereby major companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Google are creating the plumbing with layers of abstraction on top such that mere mortals can leverage capabilities such as Machine Learning to build complex systems. This interview offers an excellent overview of the state of the union on this topic.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to Sapient.

Josh Sutton: I lead Artificial Intelligence at Publicis.Sapient, which is focused on digital business transformation. We have a number of brands that operate as part of Publicis.Sapient. Collectively, we represent a little over a quarter of the Publicis group, which is one of the largest advertising companies in the world. >>>

Man and Superman: Role of Religion

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous articles in this series: Two Distinct Species; What CAN Be Controlled?; Rationalizing Populations; How Long Does Democracy Survive?; and The Environmental Time Bomb. Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going.

In recent times, Islam is facing a tremendous backlash because of the mindshare that ISIS and Al-Qaeda have managed to garner. Anti-Islam sentiments are appealing political fodder for populist candidates.

But the religion that actually holds humanity together is one that cuts across all major religions: Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and most other smaller sects. In fact, that religion is one that even the Atheists and Agnostics subscribe to.

Humanism.
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Man and Superman: The Environmental Time Bomb

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous articles in this series: Two Distinct Species; What CAN Be Controlled?; Rationalizing Populations; How Long Does Democracy Survive? Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going.

Parallel to the forthcoming disruption due to automation, there is another growing threat to humanity: the Environment.

In China, every year, a million people die of pollution related illnesses.

New Delhi, with a population of 18.6 million people, is the most polluted city in the world as of 2016.
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Man and Superman: How Long Does Democracy Survive?

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous articles in this series: Two Distinct Species, What CAN Be Controlled?, and Rationalizing Populations. Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going.

The basic principle of Democracy is rooted in Humanism. Every life is equally precious and worth preserving.

It seems though that with the Man and Superman bifurcation, this sense of equality is no longer sacrosanct.

If these two segments of the population need to work within the same social structure, with the assumption that each person has one vote, then Man can pretty much steamroll Superman’s interests.
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Man and Superman: Rationalizing Populations

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous articles in this series: Man and Superman: Two Distinct Species, Man and Superman: What CAN Be Controlled? Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going.

World population has been ballooning for years. As of August 2016, it was 7.4 billion, projected to increase to 8 billion in 2024, and 11.2 billion in 2100.

If the Man and Superman bifurcation happens, and a very small population of very rich, highly enhanced human beings segregate from the mainstream, the world will be in a deep funk.

Providing welfare services – universal basic income, food, healthcare – for 10 billion people will be an impossible task.
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Man and Superman: What CAN Be Controlled?

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous article in this series: Man and Superman: Two Distinct Species. Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going

It has been 500 years since the Scientific Revolution.

It has been a mere 200 years since the Industrial Revolution.

The pace of change humanity has experienced in the last 500 years, especially in the last 200 years, is immense. Science, coupled with the force of Capitalism, has created an intoxicating pace of change.

We call this change Progress.

Now, humanity faces the critical question: Will relentless Progress eventually lead to the extinction of humankind?
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