This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at //www.ted.com/tedx In her talk at TEDxMilano, Barbara Caputo explains how she works to allow robots to see and understand the reality as we do. Her main research interest is actually to develop algorithms for learning, recognition and categorization of visual and multimodal patterns for artificial autonomous systems. These features are crucial to enable robots to represent and understand their surroundings, to learn and reason about it, and ultimately to equip them with cognitive capabilities.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at //www.ted.com/tedx In her talk at TEDxMilano, Barbara Caputo explains how she works to allow robots to see and understand the reality as we do. Her main research interest is actually to develop algorithms for learning, recognition and categorization of visual and multimodal patterns for artificial autonomous systems. These features are crucial to enable robots to represent and understand their surroundings, to learn and reason about it, and ultimately to equip them with cognitive capabilities.
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A few nights ago, I started reading The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery to my son and I came across this one famous passage:
It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes
Besides the fact that it took me back to my teenage years, when I first read the book, this phrase also reminded me of how human nature works, people are not straight forward, they are irrational and we are all constantly changing. We try to put people in boxes and we even put ourselves in boxes. We do it through personality tests, polls, surveys and programs that will say who we are, and how we may (or ought to) behave, results based on data and statistical models that most of us don’t understand. It also made me think about how the massive amount of data we have today, and the search for control and rationalization, takes over us and seems to make us forget that data is just data, no more, no less.
Data in a vacuum will transform us into blind decision makers with the illusion of control and informed decision-making. What is more, data alone, without the right rigorous analysis could be even more harmful and lead us to simply validate our own narrative, bringing to surface the blind-spots and biases that we all have. Analyzing the right data in the right way is fundamental for all leaders and businesses today. But just as important, is to know about human nature and the subjective side of people. We can try to put data behind every decision, but at the end of the day, “what is essential is invisible to the eyes”.
The main risk of today’s data-driven world, is that data sets are reviewed without enough care, understanding or detail. Many of the most complex AI engines today are representations of super complex statistical models that many times cannot even be explained by those who designed them. In the same light, I recall statistician Nate Silver saying that they were not mistaken on the predictions that gave Trump less than 1 in 3 chances of winning the 2016 election. He points, among other things, to the misunderstanding of data and polls, and to what he considered “a failure of conventional wisdom, first and foremost.” from part of the mainstream media outlets. The data was right, how it was presented to us and interpreted, well, that’s a different story.
Data does not tell a story, leaders tell a story.
Data supports decisions made by people, but data fails to catch things like a person’s expectations, experiences, feelings and values. Every successful leader I have read about or met in person, has gotten to where they are with at least one or more moments where they followed their gut or chose an approach relying heavily on observation and experience. My friend Eric Fridman told me last month a phrase that stuck with me:
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" - William Bruce Cameron (QI).
We can invent some ambiguous measures or data points to tell us something about people, but the reality is, leaders have to make judgement on what values and expectations they have. Successful leaders are those that can address those values, and who not only understand their teams and constituents, but that also have a clear moral and ethical compass.
Data is King
Data is king-Yes. But leadership is not about reading data, is about the ability to get the essential right. What values, culture, norms do you want your people to live under? Let’s demand from our leaders and from ourselves to make an effort to understand what makes us human and see “data” for what it is, just data.