Fostering corporate purpose, mindset in sustainable business practices

TECHNOLOGY is dead. It only comes alive when it is plugged into human activities, declared Chris Colbert, the managing director of One Eighty Global Innovation, who was the moderator of a Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) panel discussion, in which I was a participant recently.

Sir Robin Saxby, the emeritus chairman of the UK semiconductor and software group Arm Holdings, observed that while computers perform much faster than humans, there are nuances in human behaviour that are difficult to replicate, such as in the realm of ethics and aesthetics. The third panelist, Prof Isaac Ben-Israel, director of the Blavatanik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, expressed his concerns over the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence if left to their own devices, as well as the abuse of data and information by bad actors.

In our discussion on innovation and technology and their impact to change the world for the better, we did unanimously agree that technology by its nature is agnostic - it can have positive, negative and neutral effects on our daily lives. The challenges we face will be that of navigating the inherent contradictions and complexities on the global stage, which run the gamut from economic inequality, environmental impact, unequal distribution of resources to cultural and behavioural dissimilarities and yet retain the ability to harness and steer technology towards net positive outcomes, in other words the greater good, to make the world a better place to live in.