Now far from its own techy silo, artificial intelligence (AI) is seeping into the public zeitgeist and bringing possible impacts on society into wider discussion. Ever since OpenAI publicly released the chatbot software ChatGPT in November 2022, businesses, academics and other societal groups have seen AI emerge as a regular talking point – and it’s only going to stay a hot topic. Indeed, a balancing act needs to be struck by tech leaders between long-term artificial intelligence innovation for the benefit of customers, and needed guardrails to mitigate societal harm.

Regulators, as a result of rapid innovation and scale, are looking into how to properly legislate and monitor AI projects globally, with businesses across all sectors looking to drive value from the technology needing to rethink data privacy protocols. The European Union has voted in its EU AI Act, while the US Government has been seeking public guidance on regulation, and in the UK, there is talk of more worldwide measures.

Mitigating the organisational risks of generative AI — Risks including bias and hallucinations abound across generative AI projects. Jeff Watkins explains how businesses can mitigate them long-term.

Here, we explore how the top tech leaders in the AI space today are saying about the impact of artificial intelligence on business and society at large, now and in the future.