Building Responsible AI: Xiaochen Zhang, Founder And CEO Of Fintech4Good And Executive Director Of AI2030, In Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast
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Dinis Guarda interviews Xiaochen Zhang, Founder and CEO of Fintech4Good and the Executive Director of AI2030, for his YouTube Podcast, powered by Businessabc.net and citiesabc.com. They discuss the responsible use of AI and its applications for the benefit of the future of humanity.
Xiaochen Zhang has been leading the tech for good space for over 20 years of experience, leading initiatives that drive innovation and social impact. He is the Founder and CEO of FinTech4Good, a global network that collaborates with startups, industry leaders, nonprofits, and investors to harness blockchain, AI, metaverse, and cloud computing for social good.
In the second edition of his interview on Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast, Xiaochen said:
“From our last conversation when I was at that time still at Fintech4Good, a company that I built after I left the World Bank with the goal was trying to just build emerging tech based ventures and help them solve global problem; one of the problem that was specifically around Central Bank digital currency and how to help central banks to have vehicle to transform the future of finance.
After that, I wanted to start a new chapter in my career, in which I saw the potential of AI, especially the positive and also the negative with it. It's very different from other emerging technologies. This is really the time where humans are fundamentally being impacted by a change and the work itself needs to be redesigned and the society in general will be impacted tremendously. Then I thought about how to do AI responsibly and that's why I started AI2030, trying to build a global movement for responsible AI into the mainstream by 2030.”
Speaking about the challenges that Fintech4Good addresses:
“In general, there is a shortage of capital but the bigger problem is really the lack of capital; it's more as how to make the capital more efficient and how to match the right capital with the right type of business. Through venture building, we identify the right entrepreneurs and also the corporate problems and then we help entrepreneurs leverage emerging technology like blockchain, AI, Metaverse, and other emerging technology to build fintech solutions. Those solutions can be deployed in emerging markets and everywhere that help address sustainable development goal related problems, including poverty reduction, financial inclusion, gender equality, and other SDG related problems.”
Xiaochen, currently, serves as the Chief Responsible AI Officer & Executive Director at AI2030, an initiative aimed at harnessing the transformative power of AI to benefit humanity while minimising its potential negative impacts.
Responsible AI with AI2030
“AI is definitely at its early stage in terms of responsible AI adoption, which is at accelerated speed. This is becoming worrying. If AI is not being developed, researched, or adopted in a responsible way then the broader societal impact will be tremendous. Although it can fix a lot of problems, if it is not done responsibly from the beginning, the cost of fixing would become so high.
Many of those risks need to be addressed now and we cannot wait until the problem surfaced at a large scale. So that's why there's an urgency that responsible AI needs to be mainstreamed and that's why we created AI2030. We focus on: Responsible AI, AI for good, and AI for all.”
During the interview, Xiaochen also highlighted the AI2030 Events, a series of global conferences and symposiums dedicated to exploring the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He explained to Dinis that these events bring together an array of visionaries, researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and AI enthusiasts to engage in thought-provoking discussions, share groundbreaking research, and collaboratively envision the future of AI-driven innovation.
Speaking about the upcoming event, Chicago AI week, he told Dinis:
“The Chicago AI week starts from June 25th to 28th. We have regulators and the financial leaders from big tech and small startups, all coming together to just talk about how AI is transforming business, what are the challenge they face, what are the best practices they have established, and how one sector's experience can be learned by the other, what are the existing you know legal framework for example introduced the in Europe. There's a lot of exciting speakers and conversations which will go into this program.
The first is the industry day where we have financial services, manufacturing, transport, health care, and we talk about how AI is impacting those or transforming those industries. They learn what challenges other players face within the industry and the best practices to overcome them. The event aims to foster cross industry collaboration. We have the leaders like Chief Innovation Officer of the Federal Reserve, the former EVP of Wells Fargo, and GB of JPMorgan and Chase, Google, Microsoft, and all the big names - companies who really are doing something major in the space.
The second day is what we call the impact day. We talk about responsible AI, AI for good, and AI for all. We have the Salesforce impact leader, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and we talk about different ways of how to make AI secure and all that. Then day three, and that is the AI Innovation Summit, and that's when we have 39 AI startups in the current AI Innovation lab.”
A vision for the future of communities with AI
During the interview, Xiaochen emphasised on the need for global collaboration for scaling the adoption of AI.
“I see that there is a need for collaboration, a lot more than the competition, because the number one thing is that we need international standards. Currently, all ways to operate are disconnected and that isolation is not good for any party. I think, in general, from the standard setting side, there are international organisations who are trying to promote this kind of standard setting collaboration.
The second part is that competition is unavoidable, but I think what is important is competing in the right framework with the right mechanism. There's all the existing framework to guide the international competition. The third part, on the other hand, is talent mobility. Any specific efforts to limit the relocation from one place to another and naturally there will be potential collaboration at the individual level. Just to say, no matter what happens at the political level and at the individual level or the global supply chain level, there always be collaboration."
With a driving passion to create a relatable content, Pallavi progressed from writing as a freelancer to full-time professional. Science, innovation, technology, economics are very few (but not limiting) fields she zealous about. Reading, writing, and teaching are the other activities she loves to get involved beyond content writing for intelligenthq.com, citiesabc.com, and openbusinesscouncil.org
