Cannes Round-Up: Demitra Sealy: New Frontiers in Mind-Body-Software Collaboration

It's Machine Yearning from ASSIST. It's a podcast where we think and dream about the future of AI, the talking internet, and how we're reshaping our culture. This chapter is an excerpt from our interviews at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. We went to Cannes to tap the brains and imaginations of an incredible gathering of leaders and innovators in technology, advertising, and brand communication. From our spot on the floating home of LivePerson, we were challenged, inspired, and learned a lot. Once again, all of us at Machine Learning and Assist owe Rob Lucassio and his team at LivePerson a huge thanks. LivePerson took great care of us and are a true friend of the pod. Coming up, Shane Mac from Assist sits down with Demetra Seely. As you'll soon hear, Demetra has had a front row seat to some amazing AI developments. Specifically in the ways AI can be enabling new possibilities through mind-body-software collaboration. We loved discovering Demetra at Cannes because machine learning is all about the ways we navigate a new world where identity and technology and commerce and culture have to live together in ways we can't even fully imagine yet. Enjoy.

How are you?

I'm good. I'm quite honored to have been asked to be part of your podcast.

Becoming Superhuman. What is it?

I had some stuff to do with a project called Becoming Superhuman, which is a documentary part of the ABC Catalyst series, which in Australia is a television series that each week shows developments in science and developments in other areas of technology, etc. And the project was with a doctor called Dr. Jordan Nguyen. And he is an Australian electrical engineer who, with his father and a team of many invisible people who never get any credit, created a wheelchair that you can control with your mind. And he works heavily with children especially that have cerebral palsy. So he, for this documentary Becoming Superhuman, adapted the technology that he sort of created there into creating this child whose name is Riley, who has pretty severe cerebral palsy, dream of driving a car, which at 13 is illegal, but also probably not something he's gonna get to do. So, spoiler, they figured it out, otherwise it wouldn't be much of a documentary. And they helped create this technology that allowed him to more or less drive a car with his mind.

How far? Where was he driving?

So they rented out this big park and he actually did a little obstacle course around. It wasn't just straight driving. He did turns, he did all sorts of really interesting things.

And for accessibility, I mean, it could change everything.

If it could change millions of people's lives who previously can't leave their chair, what else can you do?

Can— if you can drive a car, can you use your brain to turn on a light or turn on a TV or turn on a microwave or turn up my heat.

Actually, they do this in the documentary. They play with that kind of experiment, and they turned their warehouse studio into a replica of Riley's home, and then they, they actually made him a version in his house. Because when they sort of spoke to him, he expressed his frustration that he can't do anything. Like, if he wants to turn on the TV, he's got to wait till someone comes in the room than try and hope that they understand that he wants to watch the television. And so the goal was to make him more self-sufficient so he can now turn on lights in his home, he can turn on the television, just basic things that we absolutely take for granted.

This is incredible. It's funny, you think of Alexa and Google Assistant and Siri and all these things that you have to actually talk out loud to. Hearing this, maybe the future is just thinking it and it happens and you don't even have to talk to Alexa.

Well, in one of the seminars they talked about Elon Musk is trying to develop a brain lace which literally surgically is put over your brain and you can from your eyeball search the web. So you just think it and it does it. And that's technology that's not far off. AI is the future, I suppose. Like, who really knows what else the future has to offer.

Who knows? But if you're sitting here in one year and we're doing this again, what's your number one wish to have happened?

I think that in one year what I'd like to have seen with the world is that gender, race, all that kind of stuff doesn't matter. And I think out of people being more diverse in the workplace and et cetera, we're gonna create things that different minds and cultures being brought together will create amazing, brilliant new technologies that we cannot do if everyone in the boardroom is and looks like you. If you're thinking with pretty much the same brain, what are you gonna come up with? You need people who challenge you. You need people who are different to you. You need people who have absolutely completely other side of the world different experiences to you to create new innovation.

Thank you for doing this.

Uh, pleasure. Absolute pleasure.

All right, thanks for listening, and thanks once again to the folks at LivePerson for their support in making the Machine Learning CAN episodes possible. Get in touch on Twitter @Assist. DMs are open. We're super interested to hear who you think should appear on the podcast. Machine Learning is made by Paul Ciuffo and Michael Elsesser for Limina House. Have a great day.