An Interview with Karen Sliverman, CEO and Founder, Cantellus Group
On October 25, the Marconi Society is proud to host our inaugural Executive Forum in Bologna, Italy. The forum aims to foster critical reflections and forward-looking discussions about the industry’s future. Executives from industry and experts from academia will delve into emerging challenges such as equitable connectivity, innovative commercial models, and the impact of frontier technologies.
One of our esteemed panels will focus on New Frontiers: Equitable Connectivity and Frontier Technologies That Will Define Our Future. We are honored to have Karen Silverman, CEO and Founder of the Cantellus Group, moderating this panel. Karen is a global expert in practical governance strategies for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies.
Karen shares a few thoughts with us in advance of this important panel.
Our Executive Forum is called “Connected Lives: What Would Marconi Think.” In your opinion, what would Marconi, as an innovator and entrepreneur, think about our world today?
One has to imagine that Marconi would be intrigued, inspired and perhaps a little concerned. Already, the world has never been smaller or more connected, nor have the questions about the effects on humanity more acute. We know he struggled with big questions around impact and is reported to have wondered whether he had “done the world good, or … added a menace,” and we know he hoped that better communication would lead ultimately to more human understanding and less human conflict. So, he might be a bit disappointed in how we have managed with his inventions.
More than that, though, as we are at the earliest stages of another burst of understanding and exploration, I like to think he would be deeply involved as an inventor and a leader, setting a clear standard for how to integrate great innovation and governance in service of universal connectivity and policies that improve human lives as a result.
How do you think about sustainability in frontier technologies? What are some of the key elements you believe we need to consider?
This is a particularly complex time and getting more so. We have the green economy transitions happening at the same time as the digital economy transitions, along with geopolitical and demographic shifts. Some of the new technologies – even those that offer great promise for society — today require significant natural resources to function, including vast quantities of energy and water. Beyond consumption concerns, the strain on natural resources can have knock-on effects for the availability and affordability of key resources in the local communities where they operate. Still other frontier technologies are improving technological efficiencies and, indeed, finding even more efficient ways to produce and store energy. While the net effects and costs over time are unknown, we do know that managing advancements in technology alongside sustainability goals raises a critical set of issues that leaders will need to affirmatively manage over the short, medium and long term.
With frontier technologies like AI evolving at an unprecedented pace, what governance frameworks or commercial models do you believe are necessary to balance innovation with ethical considerations, particularly in sectors like telecommunications?
In general, the best frameworks for governance will define governance broadly to touch everything from strategy and risk to readiness to compliance. They will be agile and grounded in existing organizational principles and values. They will offer clear guidance and accountability but distribute responsibility across the organization. They will update performance targets and, critically, update group and individual incentives to meet those targets. They will elevate the value of question-asking and human inquiry, and they will leave room for curiosity, humility and discretion.
We are at the very beginning of understanding these advanced technologies and how they might be used both effectively and responsibly. Their impacts will be felt across societies – with intended and unintended consequences — so any governance framework should accommodate different perspectives and foreseeable effects and, because things are changing so quickly, they should be able to adapt to new learnings and critical thinking.
In telecommunications, we can expect to see rapidly changing consumer demands as more devices and sensors become connected to each other, along with the people who use them. Continuing to emphasize reliability and integrity in delivery and equitable access to connectivity will be critical, and sometimes difficult. As noted above, energy and water demands will require affirmative management, as will workforce and leadership reskilling and redesign. Most interesting, however, is the opportunity to refresh our thinking about the industry’s primary purposes and desired objectives in an AI-fueled world that puts even more pressure and reliance on connectivity and virtually instantaneous processing.
What do you hope we achieve together with this panel?
The roundtable speakers hold a strong view that we should consider exactly the question posed above, about the industry’s primary purposes and desired objectives in an AI-fueled future, and indeed, whether we are on track to meet those objectives. It is a complicated set of questions that implicates core values as well as strategic and tactical questions around current and future system architectures and data center design, energy efficiency, quality metrics, investment priorities and accountability. We will explore these issues and identify key issues and areas for continuing work required to move the industry forward toward a successful and equitable future.
This month’s Executive Forum is the first in a series that will span topics and regions around the world. To learn more about the Marconi Society’s Executive Forums and other programs, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
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