During 2019 and 2020 DFS has interviewed some of the world’s top experts on the most current and controversial areas of global digital development. From facial recognition to racially biased algorithms, the future of work and education, these have been the top ten interviews so far.
1. Brooks Rainwater, on city innovation
“We need solutions to improve the quality of life of people in our communities.”
Brooks Rainwater is the senior executive & director of the US National League of Cities’ Center for City Solutions. He drives the organization’s research agenda, community engagement efforts, & leadership to help city leaders create strong local economies, safe & vibrant neighborhoods, world-class infrastructure, & a sustainable environment. Read his interview.
2. Steve Cadigan, on the future of work
“What we’re not talking about is how much more meaningful work can become and how much more opportunity technology is going to present.”
Steve Cadigan is one of the most renowned experts when it comes to people, talent and culture. As former VP Talent at LinkedIn and founder and CEO of Cadigan Talent Ventures LLC, a Silicon Valley-based talent strategies advisory firm, Steve helps organizations worldwide develop winning talent solutions. We spoke to him about the future of work. Watch now the full interview.
3. Whitney Philips, on infodemics
“Anxiety, depression, panic, trauma: all are amplified by the COVID-19 infodemic”.
Whitney Phillips is assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University. She investigates the spread of the infodemic during Covid-19 and what we can do about it. Read the interview.
4. Alexis Abramson and the importance of solidarity within science
“About half of the needs of our current workforce will no longer be necessary in about 50 years”.
Alexis Abramson is the 13th dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Darmouth College, an academic institution regarded as the birthplace of modern artificial intelligence. We talked to her about where the future of work will take us. Read the interview.
5. Christopher Pommereningon the end of standardised learning
“Students are currently being prepared for a world that no longer exists.”
Christopher Pommerening is the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Learnlife, a global team of more than 100 learning experts and thought leaders which aims to build an open ecosystem for a new lifelong learning paradigm. Read the full interview.
6. Rumman Chowdhury: where AI meets humanity
“It wasn’t until programming became profitable that it was rebranded as a masculine role.”
Rumman Chowdhury holds degrees in quantitative social science and has been a practicing data scientist and AI developer since 2013. She is currently the Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. She talks to us about her passion: the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and humanity. Watch her interview.
7. Núria Oliver and the convergence of Big data and AI
“La IA está en el centro de la cuarta revolución industrial, transformará nuestro mundo tal como lo conocemos.”
Computational scientist Núria Oliver has more than 20 years of experience in research in Artificial Intelligence, Human Computer Interaction and Mobile Computing. She talks to us about artificial intelligence, privacy, and big data analytics. Read her interview now.
8. Audrey Tang, the civic hacker that became Digital Minister of Taiwan
“Social fear can be mitigated through radical transparency and open data.”
Audrey Tang is a civic hacker and Taiwan’s Digital Minister in charge of Social Innovation. She has been described as one of the “ten greatest personalities of Taiwanese computing”. Watch now her interview.
9. Aura Cifuentes, on Public Innovation
“We need to empower citizens. We need to take them into account at the beginning, in the middle, at the end.”
Aura Cifuentes coordinates the Public Innovation Team (EiP) of the National Planning Department (DNP), whose mission is to connect different actors with public innovation initiatives and mechanisms and to strengthen experimentation capacities in the public sector. We talk to her about public innovation. Watch her interview now.
10. Enrique Medina, on the digital divide
“It is people that bring meaning to technology, not the other way around.”
Enrique Medina Malo is Chief Policy Officer at Telefónica. We talk to him about digital divide and what is the private sector doing to tackle this issue. Read the interview.