Generative AI – the new wavemaker of the automation age

By Samriddhi Srivastava & Mint Kang

Everybody's new favourite chatbot, ChatGPT, got its start with the help of Twitter's biggest troll. Back in 2015, Elon Musk was one of the founders and backers of OpenAI, and although he bowed out of the venture in 2018 claiming a conflict of interest with his work in Tesla, he hasn't been shy about commenting on OpenAI's groundbreaking tool – calling it “scary good” with an emphasis on scary.

ChatGPT's breakthrough into the mainstream followed the emergence of text-to-image models such as Stable Diffusion and OpenAI's own DALL-E, and has in turn been followed by other Big Tech companies eager to jump on the bandwagon. Shortly after ChatGPT's emergence, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new AI breakthrough with Bard, which will be opened for "trusted testers" with plans for public release in the near future. And Microsoft built AI into its Bing chatbot, pushing it to apps and Skype.

Just how good is this technology?

AI tools, like other automation technologies in their own time, is being touted as a revolutionary technology that can make our lives easier, faster, and more efficient. And generative AI in particular is being held up as a replacement for the human mind – no longer just physical skills, but also mental abilities including creativity, long believed to be a signifier of human thought.

Advocates of generative AI say it improves access to innovation, giving unskilled workers a means to express their creativity while enhancing what skilled workers can do.

However, deeper exploration of AI systems' actual capabilities has turned up a variety of limitations. ChatGPT is notoriously incapable of attributing its sources, and individual users have reported that its responses are prone to misinformation. Google Bard made a factual error in its very first promotional video that caused Alphabet's share price to drop by almost 8% (it attributed the very first photos of planets taken outside the solar system to the wrong observatory). The Bing search engine chatbot got several companies' financial results wrong.

The training of these systems also presents a cause for concern. The datasets and data collection methods used to give generative AI its predictive ability are a black box, lacking in transparency and – as the lack of attribution shows – a potential hotbed of plagiarism. Getty Images, for example, is suing the maker of Stable Diffusion for training its model on Getty's paywalled, copyrighted images to such an extent that a large number of Stable Diffusion's generated images have reproduced Getty's watermark.

Text to text, meanwhile, is little better. ChatGPT has been described as a data privacy night- mare, with no clarity around what was used to train it and no guarantee that an individual's personal content will not be regurgitated in responses to strangers.

How shall we receive it?

In the midst of all this excitement in the world of AI, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, dubbed one of the fathers of the Internet for his work on the computer communication protocols underpinning the entire World Wide Web, has been warning investors off the chatbot hype. “There's an ethical issue here,” he said, and suggested the world needs to consider the potential consequences of these systems before investing in them. Other tech leaders, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, have echoed this sentiment.

In China, the pushback goes even further. regulators have recognised the potential risks of AI and banned all ChatGPT services over fears of uncensored replies, claiming that the tool spreads misinformation.

Is such an extreme reaction warranted, whether positive or negative? It may be early days yet. The technology is still evolving, and so are laws and regulations, not to mention the social norms around it. But if generative AI follows in the footsteps of all the automation that's come and gone before it, one thing is clear: the way we live and work will definitely be changed in one way or another.

s Caro L s urfaCE EVE r C H i E f pEop LE

As part of a major executive reshuffle, Apple Inc. has appointed its first ever chief people officer. Carol Surface, formerly of health technology company Medtronic, has been named to the new role effective March. She will be taking over the human resources duties from Deirdre O’Brien, who will continue in her role as head of retail. Surface will be responsible for overseeing the tech giant's workforce of over 164,000 employees globally. This appointment marks a major change in Apple's management structure, giving a higher profile to the HR role.

Hir E Vu E appoints n ata L i E d opp as C H i E f pEop LE o ffiCE r

End-to-end hiring platform

HireVue has appointed Natalie Dopp as its Chief People Officer. She will be responsible for engineering a globally scalable people function and building on the company’s environmental, social and governance programmes. Dopp has over 20 years of global experience in human resources across multiple industries, including technology, oil and gas, non-prof it and insurance. Her most recent role was at Integrate, where she led the HR team through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, she implemented the foundation of the HR function at LifeLock.

pp E rfry appoints Jo EE dE oud H ury as n E w H r LE ad

E-commerce furniture and home goods marketplace

Pepperfry has appointed Joee De Choudhury as the new lead for its human resources team, effective immediately. With over 10 years of experience in the field of human resources, Choudhury has worked across several sectors, including ecommerce, information technology, and real estate. She joined Pepperfry in the year 2020 and this is her second stint with Pepperfry. Previously, Choudhury led the talent acquisition team, where she was responsible for developing and executing hiring plans.

Ga ELEVat E s nEEtu s in GH as CH ro

Naviga, a provider of software and services, has elevated Neetu Singh to Chief Human Resources Officer. Earlier, she was Vice President of Human Capital Management. She joined the company in August 2022. Neetu comes with more than 20 years of experience in driving HR while implementing talent strategy and facilitating change management for fast-growing global product-based IT organisations. Previously she worked with FarEye, Winshuttle, News Corp and Landis+Gyr among others in various roles and capacities.

E ntur E s appoints a t iwari as C H i E f op LE o ffi CE r

House of D2C celebration brands Join Ventures has appointed Pooja Tiwari as Chief People Officer. With over 17 years of experience in human resources, proven leadership and a track record of success in a variety of industries, Tiwari brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the role in aligning strategy, capabilities, people and culture to deliver results and accelerate growth. She was previously associated with arwa L appoints aM it sa H oo as G Lo Ba L H E ad of Hu M an rE sourCE s utur E G E n E ra L i i ndia Lif E nsuran CE H ir E s rEE na t yaG i as CH ro

Nykaa.com, where she served as Assistant Vice President - People & Culture.

IT services company Narwal has appointed Amit Sahoo as its Global Head of Human Resources. With over 18 years of experience as a Business Partner, Sahoo has led successful HR organisations at various companies including Omnicom agencies (Areteans & TA Digital), Cigniti Technologies Ltd, and Capgemini Technology Services India Ltd. He was named 'HR Leader of the Year 2021' by the Economic Times and featured in Forbes India's '100 Great People Managers 2021' list by the Great Manager Institute.

Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Ltd. has appointed Reena Tyagi as Chief Human Resource Officer. With over two decades of experience, she specialises in HR business partnering, building HR strategy relevant to business objectives and external environment, operational excellence, and execution. Before joining Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Ltd, she was CHRO at ManipalCigna Health Insurance Company Ltd.

VELL s i ndia H ir E s p r EEM ita in GH as CH ro and EV p

Havells India has appointed Preemita Singh as CHRO and EVP, effective since February. Preemita has more than two decades of rich and diverse experience in leading HR in BFSI, IT and consulting sectors. Before joining Havells India, Preemita worked with Hero FinCorp as CHRO from September 2019 to January 2023. She also worked with ICRA, Max Life, EY, and Thermax in various capacities.

Marriott p r E sid E nt st E ps down, CEo a nt H ony

Capuano ta KE s oVE r rosoft appoints Mi K i susa K a as n E w p r E sid E nt of Mi C rosoft Japan

Marriott International President, Stephanie Linnartz, has stepped down to become CEO of Under Armour. She is succeeded by current CEO, Anthony "Tony" Capuano, who was appointed President and CEO effective from February 24. Both Linnartz and Capuano have been with Marriott for almost 30 years and only held their latest positions for two years each, having been appointed following the unexpected passing of former President and CEO Arne Sorenson in February 2021.

Miki Tsusaka has been appointed the new President of Microsoft Japan, responsible for leading engagement with customers and business partners, and all product, solution, service and support offerings in Japan. She takes over from Ahmed Mazhari, who will return his focus to his position as President of Microsoft Asia. Tsusaka joins Microsoft from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she served as a Senior Partner and Managing Director. At BCG, she worked for clients across a wide range of industries in Japan and overseas, helping them to develop and implement growth strategies, improve profitability, redesign organisation and promote digital transformation.

Mervyn Dinnen HR, Talent, and Worktech Analyst

By Ramya Palisetty

1

Challenges that talent acquisition teams will face this year?

Skill shortages will intensify and internal talent mobility will increasingly come under the remit of the TA team rather than HR/Talent Management

2

The most important factor in 2023?

The way we support employee wellbeing, and support our people during a pending global cost of living crisis, will determine if we are seen as an organisation that is good to be a part of, that values and supports them, and one in which they can thrive

3

One key driver for employees and candidates today?

The opportunity to learn new skills and capabilities – this needs to be front and centre of all recruiting efforts

4

One way to be attractive to skilled candidates?

Embrace more remote/flexible/ hybrid approaches to work, to accommodate candidates who may be based in a different location or require greater flexibility

Before getting into the field, each industry, organisation and leader needs to understand what their employees and their firm needs and align the two to move ahead

5

How to stand out from the competition?

Develop a highly personalised approach to candidate messaging and the candidate experience, and improve quality of interviews

6

One way to better reach hidden/underrepresented talent pools?

Audit the accessibility of website and job postings, and applica- tion and interviewing technology, to ensure that they do not exclude underrepresented groups from being interviewed or hired

7

Impact of generative AI on talent acquisition?

It will offer candidates greater insights into what companies they like to work for, and what are the best opportunities being offered

8

How to balance tech with the human element?

Personalisation is key; job applications are highly personal to the applicant and should be respected as such by the TA team, which means delivering personalised responses with actionable feedback

9

One way to achieve that?

Talent intelligence data needs to be accurate, and it needs to be a partnership between the TA team and HR

10

What to focus on within that data?

Have a a proper overview of the skills and capabilities the organisation have, and those it will need