Credit: By Frank Q. Brown, Los Angeles Times - Unimate pouring coffee for a human, 1967
The robotics engineer Joseph F. Engelberger, who developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s, asserted that innovation requires only three things:
a recognized need
competent people with relevant technology
financial support
At the same time, when considering the basis of Artificial Intelligence in the 1950 edition of the Mind Journal titled "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", Alan Turing stated, “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
One hundred years earlier in 1842, Ada Lovelace, who became the world’s first computer programmer before Charles Babbage had even built the first computer, suggested that “A machine can never do anything really new”. In the same 1950 edition of the Mind Journal, Alan Turing coined this statement as "Lady Lovelace's Objection" and parried it with "There is nothing new under the sun".
A further one hundred years earlier, in 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote in "The Way to Wealth" that "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest". In other words, when it comes to investing time and money, nothing will pay off more than educating yourself.
As Head of Innovation at Microsoft UK, and throughout my career to date, Joseph Engelberger, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace and Benjamin Franklin sum up what Responsible Business Innovation is about for me:
A recognized need
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” Alan Turing
As discussed in my Responsible Business Transition newsletter in May, Daniel Susskind describes a society that must not only find a path back to global growth, but also a society that must find a new path to growth that is far more aligned to resolving environmental decline, economic inequality, social inequality, health inequality, and local community decline - for current generations and all future generations that follow.
As Daniel discusses in his book, "Growth: A Reckoning", a key driver of sustainable growth is technological innovation - achieving more, achieving better, with less - where this innovation is driven through the continual development of new ideas.
There is no limit to the number of ideas that could drive technological innovation - but only those ideas that can attach to a recognised need will have the potential to drive sustainable growth.
From a personal perspective, my small part in the potentially infinite technological innovations that have happened in the past and will happen in the future, was to co-found Polecat Intelligence™, with Bronwyn Kunhardt and the amazing Polecat team (past and present), who have made the company what it is today.
Polecat uses predictive AI to enable business leaders to see ahead, analysing millions of data points from news, social media, and events in real time, to provide a 360 view of their business and the world at large.
Polecat enables some of the world's most significant companies to deliver sustainable growth through the application of Responsible Business Intelligence.
I am always keen to engage and collaborate with other tech innovators delivering sustainable growth through the application of Responsible Business Intelligence.
Competent people with relevant technology
“A machine can never do anything really new”. Ada Lovelace
As Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing suggest, we just need the right people with the right technology at the right time to innovate. That's all OpenAI, Anthropic and other frontier Large Language Model (LLM) companies are doing - and they are producing astounding innovation. For a great summary of the origination of LLMs, back in the 1950s through to the current day, see Toloka's blog on the history, timeline, and future of LLMs.
Innovation is all about the right technology at the right time. No innovation is possible without the right people - competent people.
As discussed in my Growing the UK Economy by £250bn through Technological Innovation newsletter in July, PwC's Framework for Growth presents an opportunity to grow UK GDP by almost £1tn by 2035 - similar opportunities exist around the world. In the UK alone, to realise this growth, millions of additional tech-competent people need to join the UK workforce, or reskill, to meet the demand.
From a personal perspective, my small part in the multitude of innovative tech education initiatives underway in the UK, and globally - focused on growing the global tech workforce - is to engage with tech education innovator and CEO of 42 London, Louise Vidal (Nobes), together with Bronwyn Kunhardt and the Polecat Intelligence™ team, to build and drive the TechLift initiative.
Through a unique combination of peer learning and gamified module-based assessment, TechLift delivers AI & technology reskilling for those that have the enthusiasm to build new tech careers - irrespective of background, skills or experience.
TechLift enables some of the UK's best and most overlooked tech candidates to develop successful tech careers delivering sustainable growth for themselves and the organisations they work with. TechLift is Responsible Business Intelligence in action:
Delivering on the demand for digital economy jobs and tech innovation
Transforming people's lives and enriching communities through the application of AI and BI
Investing in the people behind all of the above for the benefit of all of society
Forming bubbles of technology innovation, productivity and growth we all want to be part of
Discovering the diversity required to realise the full potential of AI and technology in society and ensure this is done ethically
I am always keen to engage and collaborate with other tech education innovators delivering sustainable growth through the principles of Responsible Business Intelligence.
Financial support
"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest". Benjamin Franklin
In theory, if you have competent people with relevant technology and a recognised need, financial support will be forthcoming - be that from the market ("bootstrapped") or from investors. In practice, it can be a lot more complicated than that, but an investment in knowledge is never lost and will always present the best opportunity for a return - now or in the future.
From a personal perspective, my small part in promoting investment into UK tech - as well as my partnership with Polecat's investors - includes:
Working with the UK software development community and UK Government as Microsoft's Head of Innovation, back in 2006, to increase recognition of software development contribution to UK GDP - "Developing the Future"
University of Cambridge and University of Oxford: Judging and advising on the Varsity Pitch to identify societally impactful and economically viable innovations in 2007
Department for Business and Trade and Innovate UK: Leading Web Missions, Future Health Missions and Clean & Cool Missions from 2007 to 2015 with Oli Barrett, Scott Cain and the Polecat Team, using the Polecat Platform, to help the best emerging UK tech engage with over $100m of Silicon Valley investment.
Polecat Intelligence™ supporting some of the world's most significant companies, from 2007 to current day, to engage well with investors focused on sustainable growth, with sustainable growth metrics and criteria.
Responsible Business Intelligence
To be a tech or tech education innovator, or indeed an investor into tech or tech education innovation - based on the principles of Responsible Business Intelligence - takes belief and passion. But each of us can be the change we wish to see in the world.....and, ultimately, as Kevin Costner said in the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams":
"If you build it, they will come".
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