The growth of generative AI was the subject of two back-to-back sessions this afternoon, on the third and final day of the consumer tech summit of BEYOND Expo 2023.
Generative AI is a type of technology, like ChatGPT, that can produce content such as text, imagery, audio and “synthetic data” – that is, data created with algorithms, commonly used in mathematical modelling.
While there are ethical concerns surrounding the impact that artificial intelligence is having on society, its advancement has led to new opportunities for industries willing to address those implications.
In this afternoon’s sessions, Corrine Cheng, a senior manager of business development at Amazon Web Services, explained ways in which the company was entering the generative AI space.
“It’s difficult”, she said, emphasising that the field was not yet profitable. “There is still a lot of room for exploration”.
She said, however, that she saw great potential for AI in healthcare and that Amazon Web Services was starting to approach companies in the medical field. “This is also a trend in the future,” she said.
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The presentation was followed by a discussion on how generative AI is changing business. Featured on the panel were Tony Tung, the managing director of Gobi Partners; Esther Li, the founder of iMETADAO Technology; Jack Wang, the CEO and co-founder of 3D scanner maker KIRI Innovations; Derek Peng, the CEO of VR company Configreality; and Youming Qin, the CEO of Manifold Tech.
Li drew attention to an issue that many have not stopped to consider amid the excitement of AI’s possibilities. “Is the time cost of the entire calculation, and the computing power cost of this consumption, lower than the existing labour cost?” she asked.
Pang said that AI was expensive now but might not be in the future, and looked forward to the benefits to be had from its widespread adoption. “I’m relatively romantic. I think after AI increases productivity, we won’t have to go to work five days a week in the future. We will only need to work one day, or one hour. Look at your AI and you can earn the money. You will be free. What do we do in the remaining time? That’s the future we need to imagine”.
However, Qin said that while “AI is a good generative tool” and there were “some fully autonomous tools now, such as ChatGPT”, there was also a lot of “repetitive work” being done in the field.
Li concluded the discussion by asking “how to ensure our data is secured,” saying “this is an issue we have to tackle next” in AI’s development.
BEYOND Expo has been bringing together hundreds of professionals, entrepreneurs and academics at the Venetian Macao, with three component conferences looking at the impact of technology on our planet, our daily lives and our bodies.
The event concludes today.
—With reporting by Vanesse Chan.
Macao News is an official Macao media partner of BEYOND Expo 2023.
