“We remain deeply engaged with industry, embracing new technologies and tackling big ethical questions such as human centred artificial intelligence (AI)”.

Recently the faculty of law and business invited Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer Lee Hickin to the Industry Conversation Hour. Students studying IT, business and commerce had the opportunity to explore responsible AI and ethical considerations for autonomous based technologies.

Lee Hickin also chairs Microsoft’s Australian Responsible AI Ethics Committee, which seeks to support customers and governments as they navigate the ethical issues of AI around data and the machines, services and the systems that wrap around that data; essentially the human experience of AI. Lively discussion ensured with the emphasis that machines do not have human qualities and emotions: they can augment ‘do things’ accurately but they cannot replace human emotions – such as passion, curiosity.

Our future leaders and managers in technology and business valued Lee Hickin’s insights as he stressed that even with the broad digitisation of our lives today, there’s a general shift to invest in most human of skills. When asked about what skills he looks for in graduates his response was “adaptability, curiosity, and life-long learning’.

mbradshawauthor

I am passionate about business for social impact and supporting industry collaboration to provide students with authentic opportunities to grow and flourish