Tech Leaders Gather at CONVERGE LIVE to Discuss the Future of AI
At CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore, global tech and business leaders are discussing the potential of artificial intelligence and its expected impact on the future. Executives shared insights on AI’s capacity to enhance productivity, reshape the job market, and drive innovation.
Joe Tsai, chairman of Alibaba Group, emphasized AI’s potential to boost global GDP significantly. “If you look at AI, what does it do? It actually improves human productivity,” he said, noting the potential for Alibaba itself. Tsai also discussed the impact of Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek’s open-sourced R1 model, released in January. He highlighted the “proliferation of applications.”
“I think the so-called DeepSeek moment is really not about whether China has better AI than the U.S., or vice versa. It’s really about the power of open source,” Tsai stated. “Once you open-source the model, people can take the model and deploy it on their own infrastructure, whether it’s in the data center or in your laptop computer, all of a sudden you have the power of AI at your fingertips.”
Tsai noted that the open-source model allows smaller companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals to develop applications, broadening the field. The model can be utilized by anyone with the necessary resources.
Dean Carignan, AI innovations lead at Microsoft, spoke about “human-centered AI.” This approach focuses on the user’s needs before technical capabilities.
Carignan believes that AI should improve human productivity, not replace it.
“We like to talk about human-AI complementarity and thinking of workflows where an AI can take away the drudgery of the work and allow the human to provide the things that only a person can do: creativity, innovation, coalition building, inspiration, motivating others.”
Guy Diedrich, global innovation officer at Cisco, stressed the importance of trust in the AI sector.
“Trust is foundational for us moving forward … You don’t get access to data [for AI] unless you’re trusted, and the way that you’re trusted in our industry is to provide security and be transparent.”
Diedrich also discussed the necessity of agile up-skilling to keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution.
“Right now, we are in the AI micro age, or the AI moment… Be prepared to skill at the speed of innovation. Otherwise, your people will never be as productive as they could be.”
Ganesha Rasiah, chief strategy officer at HP, discussed the expected impact of AI on the employment landscape.
“Certain jobs are going to be eliminated… but we don’t foresee a world in which there’s a significantly elevated level of unemployment… There’s an element of democratization that AI is bringing, which I think is huge. I do see it as being able to the tide that raises all boats.”
Kamal Bhatia, president and CEO of Principal Asset Management, described the rise of DeepSeek as “quite amazing”, calling it “innovation under adversity.”
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, addressed the significant investments in data centers related to the AI boom.
“I think that what you just saw with DeepSeek, and also with Alibaba, with their Qwen model, is that you don’t need this kind of technology. So I think it has to be rethought. Exactly what are you doing and why are you doing this?” He added, “You can get into a group-think in technology also, and this idea — do they need it? Well, maybe they do, but also maybe they do not.”
