IBM Watson and AI: NHH Symposium Keynote | Thomas Anglero

Thank you, Samanib. Our next speaker is the final speaker of the NIH Symposium 2017. Thomas Anglero is the Director of Innovation at IBM Norway, and he is one of the people responsible for IBM's supercomputer Watson. Now, first and foremost, that of course means that Thomas is one of the lucky people who is never without a conversation partner, but it also means that he is the commander of the robot that is threatening the entire labor market right now. Thomas is also a dedicated social entrepreneur, and he has helped children all over the world in evening out digital differences. He has more than 25 years of experience within global IT and telecom, and he is here today to talk about what many people fear: artificial intelligence. Our next speaker and the final speaker of the NHH Symposium 2017 is Thomas Anglero.

I've never had such a negative introduction in my whole life. Seriously, I was wondering if people were going to throw me out of the room or something. God, that was terrible. We should have talked backstage or something. I'm your last speaker, and so I'm supposed to charge you up. So the first thing, I do a lot of keynotes, and let me tell you, this has been one kick Ask conference. Let's give a hand to Diana Hall, come on. You know, this has been an amazing conference and the world isn't so damn gloomy, okay? I believe and I know and I will convince you of all the opportunities, how amazing it is with cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. It's an amazing world we live in. So let me ask the question. Well, first let me say a statement. I need questions. I don't want a monologue. You guys have been listening to monologues for 2 days. Speak English. I have no idea what the hell you're saying. Okay. So let me introduce myself with the full picture so you get what is this guy. So I am the innovation director of IBM. I'm responsible for Watson, and they actually created the position for me 1 year ago. Before I was innovation director for IBM, I was innovation director for the best company in Norway, the most exciting company in Norway? Skatte taten.

Skatte taten.

Don't I look like skatte taten? So understand, and the reason why I say that is because it's very typical for us to, when you see people, see people like me, I start speaking English, we put the people in the box. Would you ever place me in the skatte taten box?

Interesting.

So open your mind and get ready for something very interesting. And it's not that damn dark, okay? How many people have heard of Watson? Raise your hand. Everybody? Everybody. Let's talk about Watson and how exciting Watson is and give you the perspective of why Watson is so amazing. So IBM, we're this big old company We've been around for over 100 years. Everybody know IBM? Cool company? Liars. Anyway, we've been around 100 years and we were a cool company. We still are a cool company, but we got caught up in like making the world's fastest supercomputer. And we said, great, we could do this really well, but then we have 14,000 PhDs who could write code really well. So we gave them the ultimate challenge. We said, create the human mind, the cognitive mind, in software, in algorithm. And they did it. So what we did was we took the cognitive mind and we married it to the world's fastest supercomputer, and it gave birth to— it gave birth to—

Watson!

To—

Watson!

To—

Watson!

I love Norwegians. There we go. You guys are a lot of fun, you don't need the aquavit, you know? So it gave birth to Watson. Now, 6 months ago— Watson is an amazing thing, but 6 months ago, Watson was able to read 1 million pages a second. So when I say read, when it reads a sentence, it understands the content of the sentence. If I tell you, "I love the Big Apple," What city am I talking about?

New York.

Who the hell says New York, New York? New York! Yeah! I'm from New York, loud and proud. So if you put that into a computer, like to a translation engine, "I love the Big Apple," what do you get out in Norwegian? "J'aelske stu eple." Did the computer understand what you were talking about? No. Watson does. So imagine— not imagine, but this is fact— It understands the content of every sentence, so it was able to read 1 million pages a second, and when it reads it, it understands the content of every sentence, is able to connect all the dots, and it remembers everything, and it connects it all. That was 6 months ago. Today, Watson reads 10 million pages a second. Most people will not read a million pages in their entire lifetime. Do you get what I'm telling you? Do you get where we're at? Watson's also able to see. The way we do seeing with Watson is we give it all different photos, and it's able to look at a picture and look at a person with, okay, he's got brown shoes, he's sitting in this position, she's sitting in this position, and after a while, Watson, because it remembers everything, is able to distinguish different things. So Watson sees, it hears, it reads. And if you give it a sensor, it can touch, and it has tactile feeling. And we've also taught it how to somehow read emotions as well, based on when you're smiling, your lips are up, your eyes are up, or if you're sad, you're— you get me. This is Watson. Now Watson, so you could digest it, because a lot of you are going, "Oof, oh my." "Ik ga zond?" Right? "Dit erlitten mi, ja?" Right? Watson, the way you digest Watson is Watson's a baby. Does everybody remember Barnahaga? Yeah? What happens when the kid comes from Barnahaga? They go up to mama or papa, "Mama, mama, papa, papa, hunta min bol, ahans parkemai, blah blah blah." They're saying, "I've digested the whole world. Help me, mama. Explain it to me." That's Watson. With Watson, you feed it all this data. Throughout this conference, people have been talking about big data. Data is Watson's food, information. It digests all this data and it turns to you and it says, "Help me, explain it to me, train me." Watson's a baby. And the industry we're in and where we are today, it's at Bernharder level. And one of the most powerful things, I'm like almost at the end of my presentation but I'm at the beginning, that I'm trying to share with you, not if, this is where we are today. All these students and you corporate executives, we're at this very beginning point where all the information we have, all the things we experience, everything's available to every single one of us, especially the students here at NHOHO. Who are you gonna be in 15 minutes from now with software like Watson? Are you having an "oof-a-my" moment? This is the beginning. This has got to be one of the most exciting times there has been in a long, long time. I was talking to one of the gentlemen here before. This morning when the Minister of Education was talking, I had a reflection. I said, "Ja smakte för." There was that taste in my mouth. I've been here before and it hit me. You know when the last time we were here? In 1999, in 1999, the beginning of the dot-com days, you would go to people and you go, "You know, there's this new thing called the internet." Right? We didn't even know how to pronounce the damn thing. And then that was a 10-minute discussion. Then when you try to explain to people, "Yeah, you gotta go to this dot C-O-M." We didn't know it was dot-com. That was the beginning of the very early days. And now, of course, all you guys, everybody here, you know what the internet is. This is where we are today. Do you know what opportunities there are? Do you know what type of advantage the students here have to be at that very first moment back in 1999? Not internet, but artificial intelligence, cognitive computing. You guys are the leaders. This is it. This is your moment. Do you get it? Ya Elenay. Ya Elenay. Good. Can I start my presentation? That was just spontaneous. I haven't even warmed up. It is so important that you guys leave this conference not just sitting saying, "I sat here for 2 days," but you leave here bouncing like a damn kangaroo with excitement that this is mine. This is my moment. The whole Facebook thing, "Oh, look at Facebook, I wish—" Nein! The future you have ahead of you is sick incredible. You're going to redefine reality. So let's get into the presentation, and as I do this, it's okay to— How do you say drool in Norwegian? Sikle? Det er kaksikle. It's cute, isn't it? So this was a picture in one week this past fall. How exciting it was when we made some announcements here in Norway about the possibility of Watson. And a lot of people interpreted it saying, "Oh my God, robots are going to take away our jobs." They're not going to take away your jobs. Let me give it to be very specific to you. This is the only way you should see cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. This is it. Are you ready? With the knowledge that you can, you can take the knowledge of thousands of people, thousands of experts, you can take all that knowledge and put it into the software, And then that software, those thousands of people, their knowledge is exposed to every single one of your employees in your company. Why do you want to get rid of your employees now? Do you see how everybody's understood it incorrectly? Everybody says, "Oh, we get this software and then we don't need all our employees, we get rid of them." Flip it around. What happens if I take the thousand most knowledgeable people in the world and I give it to every one of my employees? What kind of amazing company do we have by lunchtime? Do you guys get how the media has totally gotten it all wrong? And do you understand how amazing each one of you are? Sick, lelét. So I'm going to show you a short video, and what I want you to do, to you business leaders out there, now I'm going after you guys. I've been playing in Boosting the egos of the young people? You guys feel good now? Yeah? Okay, now let's pick on the old people? Yeah? Yeah? Okay. So to everybody out there, you business executives who are working right now, now I'm going to challenge you. While you watch this video, I want you to think really hard. As my leaders, the leaders in my company, are we prepared for this? Would you please run this video? Video man? Video man? Is there a video man? Hit the play button. There you go. There's sound? No problem. We'll do it without sound. What you are seeing are all the things that Watson is able to do. Is able to diagnose all this information, patient information, all the millions of things that happen every day in life, all the different things we interact, the weather that's happening around the planet. There's 2.2 billion sensors censoring everything on the planet. All this information you can digest and take into account into everything you're doing. Machines— every time a machine turns around, we know exactly what it's doing. Cities come to life. Every sidewalk, every streetlight, everything comes to life. Water, your home, your cloac, everything is talking to you, everything's alive. The clothes that you wear, the material that you use for the clothes, it's all alive, it's all talking to you. This is the world you live in. Think of your life as layers of data. Let me give you a really cool example. I think it's cool because it's nerdy as hell. You're Norwegian, you like boats, right? Norwegian boat industry, a little bit? No? Okay. A boat, when it goes to the water, it uses the amount of fuel from A to B. When the boat is in the ocean, rust begins to build on the outside of the boat. How much rust? If you paint the boat today, there's no friction of the boat going through the water. But the next day, well, there's a little more friction because the paint's a little bit old. Today we could calculate that. We could calculate that when I walk across this carpet, I've worn down the carpet a little bit. Every single thing in life, you're able to take it in and reflect on it and come into it with a new business model, a new way of looking at the world. Everything's a layer of data. And all together you could have a new future. So what I'm asking you is, to you business leaders out there, with all the data that you have, with all the things that are happening, and this is not the future, this is today, When you look at your company, do you take into account everything? And I literally mean everything. No. No. You should. Let's look at something else. This is a picture back from a picture of what's happened in the last 15 years. Back in 2001, there was only one IT company, Microsoft, that was one of the top 5 publicly traded companies. The rest were oil companies. That was the world back then. The biggest companies in the world were oil companies and General Electric, big old American General Electric. 2006, we still only have one IT company. 2011, still one IT company. 2016, all IT companies. It happened that fast. That was last year. Or a year ago, 2 years ago? This does not have anything to do with artificial intelligence or cognitive computing. How fast is this world going to change now? Who are the top 5 companies going to be, not 5 years from now, but 15 months from now? Do you understand that it's undefined? We're back in 1999. This is that new moment. This doesn't make sense in about a year or two from now. These old established companies, your company, when you sit down in your board, you have a Ledergruppe, and you're all sitting there, do you understand that your Ledergruppe reflects the past, not the future? Your Ledergruppe, you have experts, we have an accounting expert, we have an engineer, we have all these experts. An expert by definition is somebody who knows the past really well. But aren't the definition of this conference the future? So who is the expert on the future? The students at NHOHO. Do you get it? So let me challenge every one of you business leaders. Is your student group, is your leader group the group that's going to take you into the future? Are they not the leader group who has definitely helped your company in the past? They've given you the revenue model. You're a great company, but going into the future, Who knows this undefined world where social media, interactions, everything changes every second? The carpet, the friction, the air I breathe, all these things are related. It's not your leader group. So when I have meetings with CEOs and leaders, I challenge them, and a bunch of you are staring at me like, "What the hell is this guy talking about?" Welcome to my presentation. Welcome to having a meeting with me. When I meet with these CEOs, I've told them, I've told one group, it was very painful for them, We spent an entire day. At the end of the day, I went to the CEO. I said, "Are you prepared to tell your leader group and say, 'You've done a wonderful job, but the leader group I need is a new one.' I'm not going to get rid of you. We need to continue the business line. We were very profitable. The company is going great. But the competence I need, it does not exist. You are the experts of the past. I need experts for the future." This is the new business dynamic. This is success. I'm giving you the keys to how to succeed. But the challenge we have as human beings is ego. Now I'm getting to the weird part because it's not about tech, it's about us, it's about culture. Are you as a leader prepared to say— I've got to go to Norwegian. Ja, chef, ja, vedott. "Ja, bist du im Amt?" Right? I have to be at the top of the pyramid. Nobody can make a decision, I have final say. The future is undefined with all these possibilities. You have to be able to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. And you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Who the hell likes being uncomfortable? When you're the boss, you're supposed to know everything. But in this future, there's no way to know everything. Do you see the dichotomy of our existence? To succeed, you must be vulnerable. You must not know. So to be the boss is to know but not to know. Are you leaders who are listening to me right now, are you one of those type of bosses? Intéressant. This is a list of the top 100 non-IPO'd artificial intelligence cognitive computing companies in the world. They haven't IPO'd. Top 100. Look at all the different industries that they're in. Are your companies partnering with them? Are you using them? Have you even heard of them? Did you even know there was a top 100? Everybody knows about Uber, right? Everybody knows about Airbnb. Those are great stories of companies. Now, do you know those guys and girls, they suffered. Nobody wanted to fund them, and finally they were successful. Each one of these companies, they're coming into your market, your vertical market. You're the leader. Say your company, we're doing very well in this vertical market, we're succeeding, we're number one, we have absolutely nothing to be threatened. Here they come. And they're coming strong. One year ago, this list where they only had a top 10, this year is top 100. What is in next year? Does your business model reflect this? Is this a threat or is this an opportunity to partner? As a leader, what are you doing right now? Are you worried? Are you blowing this off? Or are you saying, "Ooh, that's getting them." Look at the industries. They're coming. They're here. The hotel industry was totally decimated. Taxi industry, completely decimated. The industry you're in is going to be decimated unless you change your thinking. This is an exciting time. I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you this is exciting as it gets. This is 1999, like Prince, right? Prince, 1999. It just hit me, sorry. That's how old I am. This is the moment, and there are only more gonna come. This is super exciting. This is such an opportunity. If you missed that last wave and you weren't able to buy the big hita in Yailo that everybody's talking about, you have a chance again now, okay? I love this slide because this is the slide, you think I challenge you so far, let me challenge you some more. How many people do we know, you're in an office and people have these great ideas, you know, there's always somebody who yells out, you know, "Hey, you know what, I got an idea, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, okay, yamo go," and they leave the room. Isn't that annoying? Doesn't that person drive you out of their mind, you just want to take them and go, "Ugh!" Right? And that person says, "Oh, I'm shikly about to—" "I'm really innovative." That's not an innovative person. That's a creative person. The innovative person is the person who actually does it. How do you know when you're innovative? How do you know you're truly innovative? When people hate you. I'm being dead serious. When people don't like you. So let me ask you this: You're the boss, you're the top leader. There's a guy in the company who annoys you. He's always got these— he's always trying to do things. In the old world, you push him aside. Today, he or she is your future. Do you understand the change that AI and all these things are bringing is cultural change? The technology, everything I'm presenting you, these are tools. But how you are going to succeed, the change is within You. Do you see it? You want me to do a tech presentation, to do all nerdy, but the reality is, it's about you. All these things are keys and pieces to help you to be successful, but you won't be successful unless we change. Innovation costs. It costs. Does anybody not being the person that nobody talks to? When you sit in the canteen and you're sitting by yourself, nobody wants to be that guy. That guy is the next Facebook blah blah blah. Do you get it? Do you see it? Was this why you came to the conference, for this type of talk, or am I a little different? This is my last slide, but I want to do a reflection, and I think this is very important. Couple of weeks ago, up until a couple of weeks ago, if you got into an accident— this gentleman, this young kid got into a car accident and he broke his neck. And up until a couple of weeks ago, when you broke your neck, you were paralyzed from the neck down. That was it. That has been reality since as long as mankind has been around. If you break it here, you are paralyzed. There is nothing we can do. 4 weeks ago, a doctor said, "Hmm, stem cells, they regenerate things. Let's take some of his stem cells and let's inject it into his spine. Let's see what happens." 4 days later, he started getting feelings in his body. On the 5th day, they took this picture. Why is this important? Everything we thought we knew, especially the older you get— I spent 20 years knowing all this, I spent 30 years, I'm an expert— what we knew is no longer fact. As long as we've been people, we've all thought that when you're paralyzed, there's no future, there's no hope. Now within 5 days, you go from paralyzed to lifting weights. He lifts weights so much, look at the dog, the dog is completely bored. He's like, "Oh God, he's lifting weights again." You know, I love the dog. But do you understand? The biggest— this is the perfect picture for you guys to hold on to, especially us executives. We've worked our butts off climbing the corporate ladder, and here we are in this position of power, this position to make a decision. I understand. I may not understand everything, but I am an expert. But 1 1 doesn't equal 2 anymore. Cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, the ability to calculate and pull in together all this information, the fact that someone's paralyzed and 5 days later they're not paralyzed has redefined everything we know. Your existing business, your core business, your core values is redefined right now. Can you handle that as an executive? It's a personal question. Welcome to the cognitive world. Thank you very much. Am I allowed to do one Q&A? Because— yeah. I promised Q&A, and I'm sure you guys have tons of questions other than the fact that you probably want to kill me, correct? Right? Does anybody have a question? I don't want to be rude to anybody. I would love to— I'm sure somebody has a question. Anybody? Don't be Norwegian right now, please. Go for it. He's bringing the microphone for you.

I have a question about when you talked about robots taking over our jobs. You say that Watson will empower humans and don't steal our jobs, but there are different types of artificial intelligence, aren't there? You say Watson needs humans to work. But there are self-learning systems, right? Right. And can't they replace humans?

Wow. How many seconds do I have? Okay, can I go into New York speed English to answer this as quick as I can? Yeah? That go bra? And I answer in Norwegian. Okay, here we go. So let's think of it in 3 parts, all right? So the first part is RPA, is repetitive process automation, and that means that If you guys sit down and do an Excel spreadsheet and you drag and drop and move this formula and you do this all day long, those repetitive jobs, those are going to be done by robots, software that goes tick, tick, tick, tick. So those jobs are gone. They will be. It's repetitive. A computer could do it 99% of the time, so much, you know, that's going to go away. But this new world of Artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, right now there's a lot of worlds to it, but let's generalize and say there's two. There's self-learning systems and there's two systems that get trained, like Watson. Watson's the baby. Everybody got the baby analogy? The next time you guys go to Barnahaga, you're to think of— Watson. Think of— Watson. I love you. Here we go. Self-learning systems are very different. And Watson's day one, when it was born, right, we actually looked at it and said, hmm. It can be self-learning, but we want it to take care of and be trained by human beings. A self-learning system is quite scary, because a self-learning system— I've used the example all the time, so I'll challenge you guys again. You can't say anything. I think you know the answer. If you ask a self-learning system, I want to save the planet. I want to make sure there's no pollution or anything. What should we do? What would a self-learning computer system answer be? Kill the humans. Kill the humans. Exactly right. Understand that self-learning systems, computers, they live in a different world. In our world, 1 1 2. Well, not after that last slide, but you get my point, right? A computer system lives in a quantum world. Quantum world says that one atom is existing in two different places in the universe at the exact same time. If I'm standing here, I'm not standing in Hoboken, New Jersey. I'm here because I'm Hunt. But in the quantum world, I'm actually someplace else as well. A self-learning system, because it lives in a quantum world based on quantum theory and it doesn't think of things on a universe, but it thinks in terms of a multiverse, in a multidimensional world, its outcomes and its conclusions are quite different than us. I love self-learning systems, but be careful. Because they take into account everything. And we like to be around a little bit longer. Did that answer your question okay?

Actually, it just made me more scared.

Thank you very much.

One of the key aims for the NHH Symposium 2017 has been to inspire, and I don't think anybody could have done that as our final speaker better than you, Thomas. Thank you very much. Give him another round of applause.