The Human Factor In Generative AI And The Automation Paradox

Effective leaders understand the automation paradox: the more sophisticated and complex technology gets, the more vital human users become to its operation. While artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new, advancement of the technology through generative AI has been so rapid that many business leaders have had trouble keeping pace with the changes.

With thanks to Jackson Bremen, Katie Mumford, and members of the Northwestern University Robotics Club, following are eight actions required to use generative AI effectively and ethically during its early stages:

1. Keep technology honest and accurate. Many leaders have been surprised by the inaccuracy of generative AI tools as well as their "hallucinations." The tools seemingly imagine "facts" that are not true in response to prompts and produce confident, incorrect statements. The statistical predictive nature of models mean hallucinations can occur when there is little training data relevant to a required piece of