The virtual event focussed on the nature of leadership in the face of the radical transformational change posed by the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Panelists:

• Lorri Sulpizio, Executive Director, Conscious Leadership Academy, University of San Diego
• Paolo Benanti, Professor, Ethics Technology, Digital Technology, & AI, Pontifical Gregorian Uni
• Aichatou Mindaoudou, former UN Special Representative in Cote d’Ivoire, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger,
• Pier Luigi Dal Pino, Senior Regional Director, Microsoft Western Europe.

Opening remarks:  Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, United Nations Secretary General.

Moderator: Gabriele Segre, Director of the Vittorio Dan Segre Foundation

Host: Jafar Javan, Director, United System Staff College, Turin, Italy

Attendance: 5,600 people online

Main learning points arising

• The process should advance human capability. Safety and security are at the core.
• Artificial Intelligence is perfect for private and public sector collaboration.
• The opportunities AI offers Africa should be the continent with the most to gain.
• However, Africa has the most unstable internet connections of any continent.
• In Africa, civil servants spend 60% of their time reading and writing 0 with ASI, much less.
• With AI, leadership is about problems that don’t have a clear answer.
• AI is all about Adaptive Leadership – the act of mobilizing a group of individuals to handle tough challenges and emerge triumphant in the end.
• 4 core values of adaptive leadership are collaboration, openness, creative, transparency.
• Another definition – 4 values – emotional intelligence; organisational justice, development, & character.
• To be successful, leaders need to hear the voices of all the people.
• Leaders also need to slow down – we are human beings – not human doings!
• Leadership is all about raising difficult questions, not knowing all the answers.
• Leadership is a slow process, and it is important to build a consensus first.
• New leaders to overcome huge barriers. Forget ‘hard and soft skills’ Human skills are needed.
• Leaders – men are perceived as decisive/aggressive; women – loving/nurturing. Neither true.
• The Secretary General of the United Nations is committed to artificial intelligence.