Bold stories. Future focused.

The way to ensure the most secure cyber future is to stay ahead of tomorrow’s threats, no matter what the current laws and regulations dictate. Tech moves faster than the law – and hackers work faster than both. That’s why Jody R. Westby, CEO of Global Cyber Risk LLC, and Katryna Dow, founder and CEO of personal data platform Meeco, urge businesses to be smart and proactive when crafting their cybersecurity protections. Listen as they talk about how businesses can protect themselves and their customers, the critical areas of businesses to safeguard ahead of time, using security as a competitive advantage, and much more.

Key Takeaways:

[2:20] Katryna wanted an equitable data ecosystem where everyday people would have a bit more control over how their data would be used, and who would have access to it. She started Meeco, or the me-ecosystem-as a way to build an infrastructure of personal data ecosystems.

[5:50] Jody realized we needed strong cybersecurity protections put in place so that critical infrastructure data couldn’t be used against us.

[6:24] Technology has been moving faster than the laws, and Silicon Valley and tech companies have embraced the mantra to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission.

[7:04] The absence of clear and uniform legislation around cybersecurity and data protection has some pressing implications. First, businesses need to come up with their own ways to protect themselves and their customers.

[10:07] What is a self-sovereign identity or SSI? Katryna talks about the move to SSI’s profound impact on the security and efficiency of power tech’s operations.

[12:22] Jody says we will start seeing exclusions for paying ransomware for what they think are nation-state-sponsored attacks, and that will leave companies a lot more vulnerable. However, we have to pay attention to the three most important areas that also are the lowest scoring areas in any risk assessment: asset management, incident response, and business continuity.

[14:02] The GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation is the EU data privacy and security law.

[20:15]  Some companies are listening to what customers really want, and it's making a big impact. For example, when Apple let iPhone users say yes or no to being tracked, Facebook had the largest drop in shareholder stock value in one day.

[23:52] Operations leaders should not wait for the worst-case scenario to happen before they start protecting their companies and customers from potential harm.

Quotes:

• "We are in a whole new ballgame right now, and companies are really at risk. We’re not prepared.” - Jody [0:40]
• “In a data-driven world, there’s a lot of data that’s been collected about me that could actually be enhanced by data from me.” - [5:03] Katryna
• “The bottom line is when they realize that they've got their stock price and the viability of the company on the line, they'll get more attention to this topic. And that's what we need because companies do not have robust full cybersecurity programs.” - Jody  [12:22]
• “Do you want to be helping customers have better digital experiences? Or do you want to wait until you're forced to do that?” - [20:50] Katryna
• “Let's not wait for the worst-case scenario to happen before we start protecting ourselves, our companies and our customers from potential harm. Whether it comes through satellites, a third-party supplier, or your own organization, these threats exist, and with more points of entry to our systems than ever before, they're clearly multiplying. [24:35] - Francis
• “With disruption being the new normal in OPS, the time to up your cybersecurity game is now because the choice going forward is clear. You can either stay put and pay the price…or you can evolve.” [25:16] - Francis

Continue on your journey:

• pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Jody Westby
• Meeco

To keep up with the speed of disruption, businesses need to build their culture around adaptability. And there have emerged several ways to do that. From enriching employees with environments that emphasize learning to giving leaders a better perspective of what their customer-focused employees are handling daily, we’ve learned that understanding dynamics and empowering individuals are the keys to finding success in the future of operations. Join digital transformation expert Kieran Gilmurray and senior analyst Shelly Kramer as they share their perspective on what a disrupted operations model has already started to look like.

Key Takeaways:

[1:40] How exactly do leaders need to rethink their strategies? Kieran suggests that the days of digitally transforming an organization isn’t a technology problem as much as a change in the way management communicates, and bringing in a vision that involves everybody on the team to play their part in the organization.

[2:49] How do operations leaders need to get accustomed and adapt to this broader world of information and innovation?

[5:44] While leaders need to get closer to their teams, they also need to offer their workers more freedom to grow, innovate, and serve the customer.

[6:20] As a leader, you need to empower individuals.

[7:21] What is a citizen developer? And what exactly is a citizen dentist, and where do we need our hyper-specialized employees? Would we want one working on our teeth?

[9:36] Great leaders will recognize that everybody has a role in shaping the organization.

[13:48] Shelly explains how right now, it is very much an employee’s game, and while we are seeing that hybrid work is working, it’s critical for leaders to listen if they want to retain the right talent.

[17:25] The employee-centric mindset, like the customer-centric mindset, can’t disappear in a sea of high-level ideas and associated jargon.

[19:12] The challenge for organizations is going to be bringing the tools of technology together with a way to solve a customer problem.

Quotes:

• “I feel adaptability is going to be a key component.” — Kieran [3:06]
• “My job, as I see it, as a leader and a manager now is to actually hire the right people and give them all the skills that they need to coach and mentor and to clear the obstacles in their path.” — Kieran [6:08]
• “Our low-code and no-code users will not only become more independent, empowered, and creative problem solvers, but also become citizen educators.” — Francis [11:11]
• “What we are seeing broadly in the marketplace is that hybrid works. In many instances, hybrid works as well as, if not better than 100% in the office. The reality of it is, if you want to attract and retain talent, you have to listen to what the workforce is telling you what they want and need.” — Shelly [16:06]

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Kieran Gilmurray
• Shelly Kramer

Technologically speaking, the public sector has room to grow. Considering the ever-present threat of leaks and strict hierarchies within government, restrictions on internal comms make it difficult for IT to keep up with the speed of innovation. But according to Alexis Wichowski, deputy CTO for innovation in NYC, innovations are happening – slowly, but surely – in the public sector, affecting both internal comms and external outreach with constituents around community support. Listen as she talks about the current struggles facing public sector IT, its real importance alongside other government work, what becomes possible with more innovative leadership, and more.

Key Takeaways:

[1:52] Although Twitter plays a critical role in our public discourse now, there was a time when the government remained outside of the public square. Today, Alexis acts as a sort of translator between technological advancement, the public sector and private sector.

[3:00] Even the most advanced public sector tech teams are behind where the private sector is, almost about a decade behind according to Alexis.

[3:15] With tools that promote democratized collaboration, there can be some drawbacks. Alexis gives the example of a Google Doc gone wrong and WikiLeaks.

[6:13] WikiLeaks created a sense of justification for being paranoid about putting things in digital form and set back the information sharing efforts of the government for a long time.

[8:33] Information exchange can turn into a human moment where you are making a connection and establishing a relationship.

[9:29] Alexis talks about the collaboration with the community of Brownsville and how they used technology to make the pedestrian plaza brighter and safer. This led to the residents taking pride in their community and feeling more connected.

[12:40] It is crucial to think about innovation teams and technologists as essential to every single government office and function. Also, it is imperative that our elected officials are in touch with technology and leaders truly show up and talk with their community about the changes that would impact them the most.

[16:27] How do we draw a line between the domain of government and the domain of IT? Alexis talks about the emerging space of a tech ambassador, and how tech diplomats will be a growing trend. She talks about Microsoft as an example.

[18:23]  Tech companies are not just providing digital goods and services, they are in our world and wielding power. What will happen if we do not address our responsibility within these “net states”? Alexis talks about how she thinks new product teams will include a product manager, UX and UI designer, developers, and the diplomat/liaison to provide real human interaction.

[23:20] We need tech-savvy ambassadors between net states and the state as we know it if we want a say in our digital lives.

[24:08] It starts with responsible people, and everyone demanding ethical innovation.

Quotes:

• [6:13] Inside the government, WikiLeaks was like 9-11. It was this Earth-shattering moment where all of a sudden, the most careful and sensitive information that we had was broadcast worldwide. - Alexis
• [7:30] There’s a basic rule of thumb in government that’s sort of unspoken but universally acknowledged. If you don’t want to see it in a headline, don’t email it. - Alexis
• [8:58] Innovation without communication without collaborations is not likely. - Jo
• [23:20] People don’t join the government because it pays great. They don’t join because it’s glorifying and has a great corner office with a view. They join because the mission matters. - Alexis
• [23:20] We need tech-savvy ambassadors between net states and the state as we know it if we want a say in our digital lives. - Jo

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Alexis Wichowski
• NYC Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Center
• The Information Trade

Innovation is about making the future more advanced, but what advancements are we making to help today’s tech be more accessible? Since everyone doesn’t have the same digital reach, more needs to be done to make tech, training, and development opportunities as equitable as possible. Luckily, there are experts ahead of the game. Listen as MIT lecturer Dr. Phil Budden and Webflow community education manager Lacey Kesler talk about the importance of low-code/no-code alternatives, visual development, changing our approach to education, creating more inclusive apps, and more.

Key Takeaways:

[2:43] Why does bias happen in IT systems? When there isn’t enough diversity in the data sets that the model is being trained on, it takes on this bias in the life of the algorithm. Elizabeth shares an example in facial recognition where the data ends up being sold on the market, a customer uses that data, and makes a decision about whether or not someone is deemed a threat based on biased information. Then, if law enforcement agencies decide to use that data, they can over-police in already over policed communities and cause a systemic problem, all because of that data.

[5:35] All areas of our life are impacted by algorithms, from traffic patterns to predictions about who should get a loan, their interest rate, health insurance, and what type of health coverage someone is granted.

[6:13] Joe shares two scenarios about how humans will interact with machines over the next coming decades. First, humans are replaced by machines. Second, and the most likely scenario, humans will collaborate with machines to create a better solution and higher productivity.

[8:00] Human supervision can be extremely relevant in using information technology and AI. Joe shares some examples from MIT’s Kevin Slavin such as flash crashes, caused by program trading.

[10:54] Responsibility in AI is a shared responsibility between both the technical and non technical teams. Building ethical technology doesn’t eliminate the possibility of unethical results, and we need more resources dedicated to areas like AI Ethics and governance within our companies, especially large ones acting as nation states.

[16:27] Elizabeth discusses some best practices that will add ethics into more computer science courses and students get a critical perspective early on.

[18:09] Companies that don’t consider themselves to be in the tech business will need to play catch up fast and take on that responsibility themselves before the government has to step in. Hopefully, more companies will begin to take a more serious look at the ethical components of the tech they rely on. Elizabeth discusses the long-wave theory, which talks about how long it takes for all of the different revolutions.

[23:27] Will we be in a Terminator SkyNet scenario? Quite possibly, says Joe, but we have to figure out where humans are going to be in the loop and understand what our algorithms are doing and how they're training other algorithms.

Quotes:

• [2:25] “Data is what they’re calling the new oil, and there’s a race to how much data a company can consume.” - Elizabeth
• [5:39] “All the technologies that make sense of more data in less time and more intricate ways are fueling some of the most exciting and polarizing advancements.” - Jo
• [7:57] “The best performance sometimes is through a joint human and machine.” - Joe
• [14:10] “If you look at human behavior, you have a wide spectrum of possibilities, ranging from Mother Teresa to say a dictator that kills millions of people. The way the technology gets employed, and that is not the technology's fault.” - Joe
• [18:48] “For those companies who are not able to quickly adapt to this digital moment that we are having, I don’t think they will be around for long. That’s where we are, where we are going to stay, and where the jobs are going to be.” - Elizabeth
• [25:18] “We have to put ethics at the forefront of all of our business. Whether you think you work in tech or not.” - Jo

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Elizabeth Adams: Twitter | LinkedIn
• EMA Advisory Services
• Joe Weinman: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Digital Disciplines
• Cloudonomics
• Kevin Slavin

Digital transformation isn’t always driven by bottom-line metrics alone. In the wake of a global pandemic, we’re all looking to new technology to help us usher in a better working world. One with flexibility, work-life balance, generational unity, and joy. Join us as Alex Andrenacci and Ralph Thompson, technology transformation leaders at Ernst & Young discuss what the future of IT looks like from their perspective and how people – clients, employees, their families – are at the heart of it all.

Key Takeaways:

[2:24] In the initial groundbreaking stage of any transformation, we must ask ourselves how our work will make a tangible impact on the world.

[4:28] For many, success is now about spending less time working and more time with our family and loved ones. The measure of success may not only be the retention and profit, but how happy the employee’s kids are, and how satisfied employees feel in their life as a holistic view.

[5:15] How is digital making our work and personal life better? By fostering a growth mindset, better environmental and societal outcomes, and helping people develop skills outside their focused area of work. It’s up to hiring managers and executives to talk early on with potential and new employees about the opportunity for flexible learning and exploring new interests.

[8:50] Millennials and Zoomers are more likely to broaden their horizons a little further than the ones we’ve been trained to inhabit.

[10:08] When there is the opportunity for personal enrichment and growth, the technologically-centred will show up and contribute more. Ralph talks about one employee who grew out of the socially awkward geek stereotype when he was provided with a way to expand his skillset and develop even more confidence.

[15:14] The urgency with which businesses are bringing products and services to market mirrors millennial behaviors. Ralph refers to it as millennial gratification or immediate gratification, where they have a built-in understanding of the digital landscape and the attention economy.

[18:05] Millennials bring needed and different perspectives in technology that some of us might be a bit behind on. For example, we hear about Ralph’s daughter and how she brought the company from using an outdated fax machine up to digitizing papers using the phone and email.

[20:15] Alex explains that simplification has two aspects: to spend less, and to do more.

[22:30] At the end of the day, it’s about delighting the customers. Reflection question: do you use tech to make your customers’ lives better? Are your employees truly happy? Are their children happy and fulfilled? What about you?

Quotes:

• [8:48] “What we’re looking for is not just people who are great at one particular thing, but ones who are going to develop. They are going to add value.” - Ralph
• [13:27] What we need is generational unity towards a common goal. It's what we see more often than not, in those companies most willing to embrace a human-centred and principled business model.” - Jo
• [18:52] “There's a sense of immediacy, there's a sense of digitization that's just inherent. I think it's one of the things that asking basic fundamental questions about why on earth we are doing something that makes no sense, is one of the gifts that young people of technology bring.” - Ralph
• [19:06] “I think we need to start learning how to do things differently in order to drive the change that we all want to drive.” - Alex
• [22:39] “Do you use tech to make your customers’ lives better? Are your employee’s kids happy? Are your employees themselves fulfilled? And what about you? If you answered yes, you might just be the kind of transformation we need - digital or not.” - Jo

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Ernst & Young
• Ralph Thompson
• Alex Andrenacci

Data is being called the new oil as companies race to get as much of it as much as possible. But without the right measures to keep certain AI-centric biases in check or forethought to incorporate ethical measures early, the real power of data can become too slick to handle. Listen as CEO Elizabeth M. Adams and author Joe Weinman talk about what the future of IT can (and should) look like. From AI bias to unreliable algorithms to the working harmony between humans and machines, see what we should be accounting for as our IT-enabled future fast approaches.

Key Takeaways:

[2:43] Why does bias happen in IT systems? When there isn’t enough diversity in the data sets that the model is being trained on, it takes on this bias in the life of the algorithm. Elizabeth shares an example in facial recognition where the data ends up being sold on the market, a customer uses that data, and makes a decision about whether or not someone is deemed a threat based on biased information. Then, if law enforcement agencies decide to use that data, they can over-police in already over policed communities and cause a systemic problem, all because of that data.

[5:35] All areas of our life are impacted by algorithms, from traffic patterns to predictions about who should get a loan, their interest rate, health insurance, and what type of health coverage someone is granted.

[6:13] Joe shares two scenarios about how humans will interact with machines over the next coming decades. First, humans are replaced by machines. Second, and the most likely scenario, humans will collaborate with machines to create a better solution and higher productivity.

[8:00] Human supervision can be extremely relevant in using information technology and AI. Joe shares some examples from MIT’s Kevin Slavin such as flash crashes, caused by program trading.

[10:54] Responsibility in AI is a shared responsibility between both the technical and non technical teams. Building ethical technology doesn’t eliminate the possibility of unethical results, and we need more resources dedicated to areas like AI Ethics and governance within our companies, especially large ones acting as nation states.

[16:27] Elizabeth discusses some best practices that will add ethics into more computer science courses and students get a critical perspective early on.

[18:09] Companies that don’t consider themselves to be in the tech business will need to play catch up fast and take on that responsibility themselves before the government has to step in. Hopefully, more companies will begin to take a more serious look at the ethical components of the tech they rely on. Elizabeth discusses the long-wave theory, which talks about how long it takes for all of the different revolutions.

[23:27] Will we be in a Terminator SkyNet scenario? Quite possibly, says Joe, but we have to figure out where humans are going to be in the loop and understand what our algorithms are doing and how they're training other algorithms.

Quotes:

• [2:25] “Data is what they’re calling the new oil, and there’s a race to how much data a company can consume.” - Elizabeth
• [5:39] “All the technologies that make sense of more data in less time and more intricate ways are fueling some of the most exciting and polarizing advancements.” - Jo
• [7:57] “The best performance sometimes is through a joint human and machine.” - Joe
• [14:10] “If you look at human behavior, you have a wide spectrum of possibilities, ranging from Mother Teresa to say a dictator that kills millions of people. The way the technology gets employed, and that is not the technology's fault.” - Joe
• [18:48] “For those companies who are not able to quickly adapt to this digital moment that we are having, I don’t think they will be around for long. That’s where we are, where we are going to stay, and where the jobs are going to be.” - Elizabeth
• [25:18] “We have to put ethics at the forefront of all of our business. Whether you think you work in tech or not.” - Jo

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Elizabeth Adams: Twitter | LinkedIn
• EMA Advisory Services
• Joe Weinman: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Digital Disciplines
• Cloudonomics
• Kevin Slavin

A new year means a new journey to discover all the ways technology is changing the ways we work, communicate, and live our lives. Welcome to the latest season of Bold stories. Future focused. Very soon, we’ll be exploring more topics around the future of data, IT, diversity, customer experience, and more – with in-depth miniseries premiering all year long. Get ready for brand new experts, more transformative insights, and even bolder stories about the tech shaping our tomorrow.

Over the course of season two, we’ve spoken with some truly magnificent guests about how the tech of today is shaping the world of tomorrow. As our final guest of the season, Pega CTO and VP of Product Marketing Don Schuerman gives his perspective on the topics we’ve covered so far, from hyperautomation to extended edge to distributed cloud. Plus, get Don’s take on how far the pandemic has pushed us into the future, how software and people can work better together, the role of bias awareness in AI, and more.

Key Takeaways:

[1:39] Don Schuerman, CTO & VP of Product Marketing at Pegasystems talks about how many years the pandemic has accelerated us forward. It’s an interesting paradox because in some aspects it has felt like a period of standing still, yet there was also this wormhole in technology that we accelerated through what would usually be a 5 to 10 year adoption period for technology. Organizations had to think more deeply about data, and that’s why AI governance became more important.

[4:56] It’s not just about implementing software, but having the resources (and the people) to do it.

[6:11] Where does Don think the future of automation lies? In leveraging data, analytics, intelligence, and being able to self optimize your processes. Hyper-automation brings more and more data with it, which means we need more processing power in order to get through a more distributed cloud. This means data can be stored more efficiently across many data centers, allowing for faster processing and more built-in backup systems in case one data center fails.

[9:00] Fay Arjomandi, CEO of mimik Technology, a hybrid edge-cloud platform, explains how edge devices can disseminate data faster and more intelligently when we compute at the edge.

We also have a greater ability to identify and understand what data is really important and respond to it accordingly.

[10:32] Extended edge allows us to make decisions about what data gets stored, and where security risks may increase. But why is data privacy so important?

[16:24] Don demystifies AI, saying that AI may not be the Terminator nefarious situation we think, but in a flawed world, we sometimes make flawed things with values and biases that reflect our own.

[16:50] Elizabeth Adams, AI Technologist and Chief AI and Ethics & Culture Advisor at EMA consulting, illustrated what dangerous AI applications can look like. She talks about her work concerning the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement in Minneapolis. She did her community a huge service by understanding the use of biased AI and tech.

[17:43] Don explains why we must stay inquisitive and curious about others, so we can learn from each other and share our unique perspectives. By constantly bringing different perspectives in and we're filling in those blind spots, and we're actually getting to see this big, beautiful picture of the world.

[18:52] Galit Ariel suggests AR has a bit of an edge over VR, at least for right now.

[21:17] How does technology already subtly fold naturally into the life we are already living? Through simple things like using an Instagram filter, Zoom calls or using a shopping app.

[25:08] Our work will need to get more efficient, and our online experiences more immersive. But, we will need people to power all this technology.

Quotes:

• “AI governance was really about understanding and wrapping around how you use your data in an ethical and empathetic way.” - Don [2:20]
• “ I think the future of automation and hyper-automation lies in leveraging data, analytics, intelligence, to self optimize your processes. - Don [6:11]
• “It’s important we understand the way tech that runs our world works, and how our data is used because it’s already becoming deeply ingrained in how we govern ourselves, our companies, and our societies at large.” - Jo [11:50]
• “ Ensuring a less biased future, without biased tech, can’t just depend on people like Elizabeth who take up the mantle. It depends on organizations, and the people who make them move.” - Jo [16:33]
• “We find things that we share and we find things that we can teach each other about. And that's wonderful. I think part of that is acknowledging that with your unique perspective also comes your unique set of blind spots and experiences and perspectives that you might not have.” - Don [16:37]
• “A diversity of perspective is going to be important as we navigate the ongoing shift to a more virtual way of life.” - Jo [18:09]
• “I love the opportunity that we have now to live through this era, that everything we dreamed of is coming and technology is not something that exists in this other space, but it really is becoming an and indigenous thing to our physical reality.” - Galit [19:48]
• “My hope is that we as humans, don't let the metaverse replace the actual verse.” - [22:34] Don

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Don Schuerman
• Fay Arjomandi
• Elizabeth Adams
• Galit Ariel
• Ready Player One
• Mark Anderson

As AI becomes more capable, it must collect more data to adapt better to our world. By creating data artificially (and not at the expense of our privacy), our future becomes smarter that much faster. From teaching autonomous cars how to drive using 3D content to helping the blind run without fear using machine learning, our guests talk share the ways they've used synthetic data to achieve big things – and talk about even greater things it can make possible. 

Key Takeaways:

[2:01] Beatrice and her fellow researchers were handing over their own data to fill gaps in the studies when they did not have enough data, or when there were challenges around convincing subjects to be part of their study. So how could synthetic data have solved these problems?

[2:54] Synthetic data is data that is artificially created and has the same statistical properties as the original data. However, when you generate synthetic data, the process is completely irreversible.

[3:50] Without synthetic data, if the world has biased information, you may not see equal representation of people in all places and data that represents them. Phil Bayer, an engineer at Google’s Project Guideline, discusses how data bias is no small concern.

[6:17] Emna talks about how AI needs to develop new algorithms and methods to detect things and to mimic human behavior, with self-driving cars as an example.

[9:07] Phil and his team at Project Guideline are working on a project that allows blind individuals to run outside by detecting a yellow line on the ground. Phil talks about how it all began when a man named Thomas Panek walked into a Google Hackathon and asked if they could help blind people run freely. A few surreal data sets later, Phil was moved by watching Thomas run freely outside.

[14:36] Robotic systems might benefit from some virtual reality training, and using 3D environments to train AI on synthetic data is just the tip of the iceberg when we look at what is possible. Peter van der Putten, Director of Decisioning and AI Solutions at Pegasystems, and Prof of Media Technology at Leiden University speaks about how a lot of VR is too perfect, and we can benefit when it has the graininess and character of the real world.

[16:57] After Grand Theft Auto 5 was released in 2013, Intel researchers decided to try to make a movie version of the game that would be more photorealistic. They used a machine learning technique that used real-world data.

[20:02] Peter’s student research has some interesting implications for how AI systems train best in virtual reality. Phil agrees, saying that using VR as a training site for AI just might be the way of the future.

Quotes:

• “We basically, as consumers or customers of any type, have no privacy at all. So, of course, I wanted to join this mission to build a technology that would eventually give us what is ours back.” - Beatrice 3:15
• “Synthetic data can even help us balance out some of the biases we see in the real world. With synthetic data, you can create worlds that sort of you are hoping for, or that you're envisioning.”  - Phil 5:12
• “With synthetic data, you can create realistic 3D content and without too much human effort and you can make more areas diverse.” - Emna 7:09
• “To see sort of the variety of ways in which someone can be helped by technology —  like this is really powerful.” - Phil 14:11 
• “A lot of VR is hyper-realistic. It's not that it's not perfect enough. It's too perfect. It's missing the graininess, and the glossy character of the real world.” - Peter 15:58
• “The other thing that has been showing a lot of promise in synthetic data is helping to try and remove bias from datasets. And so I think that's another reason why it's growing in popularity.” Phil - 19:40
• “We can create less biased AI. We can share our data with confidence in our privacy.” James - 20:31

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned: 

• Grand Theft Auto 
• Article by the Imperial College London 
• Beatrice Milik 
• Emna Amor 
• Philip Bayer 
• Peter van der Putten

Have you ever played around with an Instagram or Zoom filter? Maybe you’re an experienced gamer who’s created and avatar to represent your online identity. That’s augmented reality (AR). And, unlike virtual reality, it launches the virtual world into our tangible, physical world. This unlocks infinite opportunities for real people to connect in unique ways. Listen in as our guests, Catherine D. Henry, Senior VP of Growth at Media.Monks, Alan Smithson, co-founder and CEO of MetaVRse, and Galit Ariel, author of Augmenting Alice: The Future of Identity, Experience, and Reality, discuss how brands should embrace the immersive experiences of AR to get ahead.

Key Takeaways:

[1:47] What is the metaverse? Catherine tells us that it is essentially a universe where the physical and digital worlds meet. We are already living in it, and AR, VR, and AI bring a multitude of opportunities for both businesses and consumers. It can sound complicated, but Catherine feels it can be truly and deeply magical.

[3:40] How do you help build a virtual economy when you don’t know the first thing about building a virtual experience? Alan explains how he needed to solve this at his company, MetaVRse. It was his job to make virtual reality experiences easier for anyone to build, which makes them more successful.

[4:46] Virtual reality puts us right into the virtual world, but augmented reality casts the virtual world onto the physical world: It brings the movie right onto our very real and tactile lives.

[5:20] Galit explains why she loves augmented reality, and how this technology is becoming an indigenous piece to our physical reality. She created a filter called “Being Galit Ariel”, where people could go into Snap and try on her look, full of funky glasses and bright lipstick. During COVID, she found this filter created an easy way for her to represent herself in the comfort of her own home.

[8:09] The metaverse can help democratize the internet because there could be less judgment when you don’t know who you are speaking with. This allows people to create an identity that they feel really reflects who they are.

[10:31] Alan walks us through a tutorial of his MetaVRse platform, and helps us imagine the strange new spaces we might be able to create, whether for art, fun, work, or socializing.

[14:01] Galit explains how the wonders of virtual reality might distract us from the beauty and joy that comes from living in our tactile world.

[15:30] How will branding and advertising work in these spaces? Brands should get ahead of the trend by being the ones to create their own space, hold events, and engage with fan-created branded experiences. Otherwise, you may have a chicken in Subway trying to sell you a foot-long sandwich.

[20:07] Galit explains the need for regulation, even if it slows things down. Companies and users must also be aware of the data that is collected from their extended reality experience, and how it’s being used. Not only could your unique digital signature be tracked, but your body language, physical information, and even inside your home.

[24:47] We need to make sure that everyone has access to the virtual internet or metaverse, and that people get an equal chance to build their skillsets in order to participate in the virtual economy.

Quotes:

[10:20] “I love the creative properties because people build worlds that conform to their wildest imagination.” - Catherine

[14:01] “We still have this inherent need to touch and experience things, and if we can add richer layers to this world, the beauty of augmented reality will create a deeper experience of our real world, without losing contact with it.” - Galit

[19:09] “Every surface is a potential media content platform. So, we need to think about the different ways in which people are engaging with media and meet them there.” - Catherine

[21:57] “I think we all need to kind of buckle up and be more responsible about what we're doing, how we're doing, and why.” - Galit

[24:24] “As the metaverse continues to become a more prominent part of our lives, privacy and regulation will become a more prominent part of the conversation. But who gets to participate in that conversation depends on who has access to the tech.” - James

[24:48] “We need to make sure that there are standards that allow for everyone to access this virtual internet or metaverse and get an equal chance to build their skillsets to participate in the virtual economy.” - Catherine

Continue on your journey:

pega.com/podcast

Mentioned:

• Catherine D. Henry
• Media.Monks
• Alan Smithson
• MetaVRse
• Galit Ariel
• Augmenting Alice: The Future of Identity, Experience, and Reality.