The ongoing tech revolution has far-reaching implications for social and political developments, productivity, and global economic trends. It also raises some important questions: will it continue to benefit the haves and leave behind the have-nots? How can this digital divide be bridged to foster inclusive growth? How can we keep the shift to automation from reducing employment, job security, and incomes? And how to ensure that benefits accrue not only to advanced economies but to the developing and emerging market worlds as well? Addressing these fundamental questions properly will determine how technological innovation helps shape the world and the global economy in the future.
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Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF
Christine Lagarde has been Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since July 2011. She held various ministerial positions within the French government, including Finance and Economy Minister (2007–11), Minister for Foreign Trade, and Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries. She was also Chairman of the Global Exchange Committee and Global Strategic Committee of Baker & McKenzie.
John Chambers, Chairman of the Board, Cisco Systems
John Chambers is Executive Chairman of Cisco. He has helped grow the company from $70 million when he joined Cisco in January 1991, to its current $40 billion. In November 2006, Chambers was named Chairman of the Board, in addition to his CEO role. On July 26th, 2015, Chuck Robbins officially took over as CEO.
Leila Janah, Founder and CEO of Sama and Laxmi
Leila Janah is the founder and CEO of Samasource, a non-profit social business that gives digital work to impoverished people around the world, as well as LXMI, a social impact luxury brand. Launched in 2008, Samasource gives work opportunities to people living under poverty line by sourcing them computer-based work. Samasource provides free, specialized training in technology through its 16 centers in 9 countries, which include India, Pakistan, Haiti, Kenya and Uganda. Leila Janah has become over the years a source of inspiration and a role model for many social entrepreneurs who want to use the power of the Internet and technology to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Ray Kurzweil, Author, Inventor and Futurist
Ray Kurzweil has been described as a pioneer in the field of human-computer interfacing. He invented the flatbed scanner, the Kurzweil reading machine, the Kurzweil 1000 OCR software, the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech-recognition software, and the Kurzweil 250 Music Synthesizer. He is also the author of many books, including The Age of Intelligent Machines, named Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990 by the Association of American Publishers. He is considered one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists.
Hilda Moraa, Founder of Weza Tele and Fintech
Hilda Moraa is the Founder and former CEO of Weza Tele Ltd, a leading technology startup launched in 2011 and focused on providing value-added mobility and financial solutions in the micro-distribution sector. Hilda has more than 5 years of diverse experience in developing and scaling startups and innovations across Africa, and has also played a key role in the tech and innovation ecosystem in Kenya by building the foundations of initiatives such as iHub Research and leading innovation research projects across East and West Africa. She has also founded the Kenya tech entrepreneurship virtual group (100+ startups) that aims to bring local techno-preneurs together to share their lessons, networks and talent to spur peer to peer mentoring and growth.
Contributor: John Bishop
The tech revolution has entered a new phase that promises almost unlimited opportunity. However, the next digital era also poses fundamental questions about prosperity, equity, and even the nature of work. The Managing Director led a discussion with tech luminaries about how to ensure that this new era is as inclusive as possible.
Key Points:
- The internet era has transformed into a broader technology revolution that encompasses big data, internet-of-things, digitization, automatization of production processes, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, health care and medicine, and many other aspects. Ongoing advances will revolutionize every aspect of our lives and the global economy. Chambers predicted that the gains from the new digital era from 2010 to 2030 could be three to five times greater than those of the internet era, but that harnessing these gains will require non-linear thinking and cooperation between government and the private sector.
- Although new technologies threaten to disrupt current employment models, Kurzweil argued that humanity has endured similar disruptions before. The nature of work was being redefined, and economic statistics do not capture the income generated on new platforms outside the formal system.
- Janah noted that labor statistics were “woefully inadequate” to measure activity in the gig economy. She agreed with Kurzweil that we are entering an era in which fewer people will have to work to achieve the same level of economic output. Consequently, the rules of society may have to change to fit this new model, including redistributive policies such as a basic income. Chambers argued against redistribution as conventional, linear thinking, and noted that the real issue was determining how to increase income for all.
- Panelists noted that education reform will be critical to harness the promise of these new advances. In some countries, this may involve bringing more girls into the classroom; in others, it may require a complete rethinking of the current educational model.
- Moraa noted that even as the tech revolution sweeps through the emerging markets, basic infrastructure and capacity building are still needed. Janah spoke about the transformative effect of basic internet infrastructure—such as fiber optic cable—on local economies in East Africa. Chambers also viewed low-cost, high-speed internet access as an infrastructural imperative in all countries.
Quotes:
“The technology revolution is reaching deep into every sector of our economies…and this will have profound implications on the way we live, on the way we learn, on the way we earn, and on the way we consume.” Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
“The opportunities are almost unlimited…You’re going to talk about a digital era from 2010 to 2030 that has the chance to transform businesses and the average income of people in the world like never before. But if we don’t do it right, with government and business doing it together, we’re going to leave a lot of people behind.” John Chambers, Executive Chairman, Cisco Systems
“Don’t undersell how quickly this transformation will occur. The speed of innovation is what it’s all about. The technology will be easy. It’s the culture, the organization, and the linear thinking that we have to change.” John Chambers, Executive Chairman, Cisco Systems
“Technology is amoral. We have to guide these forces because they will not lead to prosperity for everyone unless we choose to make it so.” Leila Janah, CEO, Samasource
“We need to transform education. The idea of stuffing facts into kids’ minds is an obsolete strategy. Learning by doing is really a key strategy, and even young children in elementary school or junior high school can take on world problems. They may succeed or fail, but they’ll succeed at learning something.” Ray Kurzweil, Author, Inventor, Futurist
