Speaker 1:

From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world. Now let's go inside the ICE House. Here's your host Lance Glinn.

Lance Glinn:

Artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly transforming industries from healthcare to finance with unprecedented speed and precision. At the forefront of the shift our visionary leaders who are not only advancing the technology but also shaping its responsible deployment. Over this week, today, tomorrow and Thursday specifically, we here inside the ICE House are going to be celebrating our very first AI week. Starting off the three-part series is Greg Kahn, CEO of GK Digital Ventures and co-founder of AI Trailblazers, the host of this year's Women in AI Breakfast at the NYSE. Greg is championing the development of AI, building powerful communities that connect innovators, business leaders and policy makers to shape the technology's future. Through the AI Trailblazers community and the Power 100 list, he's spotlighting the influential voices and fostering collaboration that accelerates growth and ethical innovation in the AI space. Greg, thanks so much for joining us inside the ICE House.

Greg Kahn:

It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Lance Glinn:

So we are recording right after New York Tech Week. An exciting few days for you that included the AI Trailblazers Summer Summit and the Women in AI Breakfast that was hosted here at the NYSE so just based off the speakers and the guests that provided insights at both, what did these events signal to the broader tech and business communities about where AI is going and who is helping to lead the charge?

Greg Kahn:

People that are working in or investing in or starting new companies in the AI space is just astronomical. The interest level continues to skyrocket. So that's the first thing. The second is that we've really moved beyond the POC, proof of concept phase, where AI is being institutionalized in companies. This is a platform shift now. We're not just talking about individual use cases, and that became very apparent in both the AI Trailblazers Summer Summit as well as the Women in AI Breakfast that we had here at the stock exchange.

Lance Glinn:

When you just look across this year's list, that Power 100 list, what common threads or themes stand out about where AI leadership is heading?

Greg Kahn:

Functions were different verticals but had some commonalities. So they're ethical leaders. They have a bias for action, whether that means that they're an operator or they're a researcher or they're a creative, but we deliberately chose individuals based on the breadth and depth of their work. And also we chose some folks that weren't known before. There are a lot of names that cycle around and they're well deserving and there are some newer faces that we felt like we wanted to put a spotlight on. And so we did that with the Power 100. We honored folks, everyone from MIT to L'Oreal and creative agencies, technologists from the NBA. And so it really was a inclusive group in every way you define inclusivity, which I think is crucial. You asked about leadership. So talent is one of the questions we get asked about the most, that boards are getting asked about, that C-suite is getting asked about.

And there are folks that are newer to the industry that are AI native. They're not digital native or mobile native, they're AI native that are teaching the C-suite on how to lead. And then there are of course folks that have led hundreds of thousands of individuals that know how to scale and know how to create culture. And you really need both, especially in this world where AI is becoming institutionalized, where in some cases AI is going to replace individuals, in many cases it's going to augment the teams that are in place. It's critical to have folks that understand culture, that understand change management, but then also understand innovation because it's happening so -- so quickly that you need both. And the Trailblazers Power 100 includes all of those different dimensions.

Lance Glinn:

And can you just walk us through a little bit of how the list is sort of put together, how you're able to find this inclusive and diverse group of 100 individuals that end up making up the Power 100?

Greg Kahn:

In their industries or that are deep researchers in the industries. And we came up with an initial list that was close to a thousand individuals that have some way or another been in a little bit of the public eye and we put them through a filter and we had sort of a process where we went back and forth and made sure that we had some representation of folks that are surely working in the ethical AI space, folks that are more on the technical side or product leadership side, and then folks that are on the creative side, more marketing led. And that led us to a group of about a hundred. Now, of course there was a group of about 125 and the last 25 is the biggest challenge there were. We wish we could have honored many more, and of course there'll be another version of this next year coming out. But we're very pleased with the list that was put forth and we're receiving that reaction from the marketplace because it is an inclusive list and we get a lot of, wow, that's really interesting in some of the folks that you've chosen.

Lance Glinn:

And I see the Power 100, just in my opinion, I see it as a snapshot of influence. And you mention that AI we're looking now could down the line replace employees, replace humans, could also augment what humans do in the workplace. So at this time when trust and transparency in the technology are on the top of mind, how do you see the work of these individuals on the list shaping public perception of AI?

Greg Kahn:

... themselves and a lot of folks are confused, frankly. They don't know where to turn for information. The models are being developed and rolled out so quickly, the players are getting bigger and bigger. The funding is getting greater and greater in this space and they don't know where to turn necessarily. The ChatGPT moment has become so much more than that today that a lot of these individuals are folks that they look up to and that for many, many reasons for their leadership within their companies, but also just as voices to help them understand culture, to help them understand customer. And so I think one thing that we're very, very mindful of is every time we put on a summit or an event, we get immediate feedback and we do more.

That there's this interesting tension between this digital automated world that we're moving into and the need to bring people together in person to discuss that automation that's happening. And so we plan to do a lot more of that and kind of bringing people together in these forums. And hopefully that extends to local places, not just... Although it's terrific to do it here at the stock exchange and in Cannes next week, it's also equally as critical to do it in places where educators are or local legislators are. And we're getting that sort of questioning all the time is how can we learn more? How can we stay on top of it?

Lance Glinn:

So I want to quickly pivot the conversation to the origin story and work of AI Trailblazers. You, one of three founders of the organization, just take us back to the moment when it was born. What did you see happening or potentially not happening in the AI space that made you feel that this community, this organization, was necessary?

Greg Kahn:

... around connected devices. And there were five areas that I focused on in IoT, smart cities, first, connected homes, second, autonomous and electric vehicles, third, retail transformation, fourth and connected devices, which became health and wellness. Connected health and wellness was the fifth. And as does happened with many technologies, it becomes a buzzword and it still exists in many, many forms, but not as an industry. IoT was not an industry as it initially was conceived to be. And then I saw this trajectory of 5G and Web 3 and Metaverse and many others where again, there were anointed to be that the next industry, the next platform shift and it didn't quite happen. I've been working in AI and machine learning for more than a decade and part of that was the IoT work that I've been doing. But the ChatGPT moment really was a moment.

It was a moment where what I saw was missing from the IoT world that I had developed, was a top down and a bottom up approach. And I'll explain what that means. Number one is that IoT was written on all the tech endemic press and websites, but it barely made the Wall Street Journal the Financial Times to see if I was really weren't paying that much attention to it. Certain BDP verticals they were but not broadly. And employees, individuals were not that enamored with it. I mean, now you sort of see Waymo Cars and more utility, but if you try to ask folks how much they really, really care about their Nest device, you probably get a limited response.

AI was a game changer. And again, that ChatGPT moment where individuals saw this through their mobile phones as a way that they could create, that they can automate themselves and boards and C-suite also saw, while this is really a way that we could first, become more efficient and more productive and then second, increase their top line. And so you had this really interesting movement that was taking shape. How did AI Trailblazers come together? I hosted a dinner in Silicon Valley and my two partners came to that dinner and Amit Shah and Shiv Singh who were both well seasoned operators and Shiv had been a CMO at many places including Lending Tree. And prior to that he was very senior marketer at Visa and Pepsi and Amit Shah was the president and former CMO of 1-800-FLOWERS and had come from McKinsey prior to that.

And we all sort of sat around a proverbial table and said, I think there's a need to create a community around this space. And one of the things we talked about initially was bringing the end user together with the technologists because what I found so often working in technology is that the end user is left behind. There are a lot of shows that have a lot of vendors and a lot of dinners that are sponsored, but it was rare to have that mixing of folks that work in industry, work in different industry verticals and those that are developing the technology, whether they're developing the technology from a tech giant or they're an entrepreneur. So we chose to start and our first endeavor was CES a year and a half ago, and we launched it with the New York Times at that point.

Lance Glinn:

So with how quickly AI Trailblazers has evolved and how quickly just AI is evolving as a whole, it's important obviously to stay on the cutting edge. And it's hard I feel like to do that because it seems like you're trying to hit really a moving target, right. Like things are just evolving every single day. You mentioned it in one of your previous answers. It's just so quick, right. It's so hard to nail down because you think you've hit one target and then that target has now moved 10 feet away and you got to keep trying to hit it and hit and hit it. So how does AI Trailblazers help its members, not just keep up with that pace of change but actively lead innovation in their own industries?

Greg Kahn:

We will be moving towards a membership model, but that's not where we are today. So as first on the event side, we try to mark the point in time as to what reality is happening in the industry at that point in time. We just did last week. Prior to that we did it at HumanX, which I know you were part of as well in March and prior to that, we had our last summit in December in New York. From a content standpoint, we are analyzing both by human and by automation everything that's happening out there and we're sharing, disseminating that information on a regular basis in multiple formats.

I think what you're getting at is that how do to keep up in an industry that changes not just daily, but literally by the minute, right. And my honest answer is, you don't. I think that the reality is is that it's moving too fast for any individual to keep up. And so what you have to do is you have to try to synthesize the information as best you can, but you have to say, we're not going to hit every single angle of this because if anything, it's only going to increase quicker. The speed of delivery is going to increase on a more rapid basis and so we feel like we do a good job in covering what we can cover, but nobody can cover it all.

Lance Glinn:

So if that technology is only going to move quicker, and if you can't hit every single target that comes, that raises questions about morals and ethics around how obviously AI is being used. So during my conversation with Navrina, she spoke at length to how Credo AI is focusing on the technology's ethical and responsible use. So how is AI Trailblazers helping its community navigate this increasingly complex landscape of AI governance, AI regulation, and most importantly, AI trust.

Greg Kahn:

... to the bigger organization and so I participated things like the World Economic Forum in UN where a lot of those conversations are being had and sometimes they're being had just in a thought leadership kind of fashion. And sometimes it is more practical in terms of how it's being developed. The honest reality is there is somewhat of a space race happening today that technology is being created so quickly to compete internationally, domestically, and internationally. And I only believe that that's going to continue at least for the next three years and change. But what we try to do is to always create a space for dialogue around are we creating what we want to create? And I think that different from some of the other Web 2 or even Web 1.0 eras is that folks understand what is happening here and they want to be in on the ground floor of what's being created and have those dialogues and not just leave it to Silicon Valley or Seattle to create what's coming.

And so we created space for that and we do it through community, but we do it in a scaled up way. I mean, we have major organizations that are represented at every single one of our events and we take time to have conversations around ethics. We brought in the UN to one of our last summits. Navrina of course is part of our overall community as are others. But it is a societal challenge to make sure that folks don't get left behind. And also, I want to talk a little bit about the Women in AI initiative. This particular initiative was started by Amit's company, InstaLILY and female engineers. But it was a more personal thing for me. My daughter who just graduated high school, was a coder for the last 10 years, and she was always one of the first females and one of the only females and hit roadblocks continually along the way.

And I realized that I could be more than an ally, that I could help to create this, but we have to make spaces for people to participate. We have to open up the channels for inclusive communities to be funded. I think that's a key piece that less than 2% of all funding goes to women VC funding. And so the other piece in terms of ethics is making sure that we invite an inclusive community into what it is that we're doing and sometimes that we have specific dedicated events like this Women in AI, just for those communities to feel safe, to be able to have the honest dialogues and frankly also to network in a way that you can at so many other AI summits or forums.

Lance Glinn:

Well, Greg, you beat me to the punch. As I mentioned at the top of our conversation, the Women in AI Breakfast was here at the NYSE during tech week, and it really is so important to spotlight women specifically in the AI space as you just mentioned but how does a gathering like the one we just had here at the NYSE, how does it help move the needle in terms of leadership, representation and then visibility for these women led and women owned companies?

Greg Kahn:

... fix education. So two very different types of content pieces. First, again, we made a space for, it was significant in that we had about 250 folks. I wish we could have had a much bigger, we could have done the whole building because we had several thousand that wanted to attend this. But first, it's just allowing a space where people can ask the right questions and not feel pressured, that there is no wrong question in this space that's evolving so quickly. That's the first piece.

The second is that we offered through one of the companies that was here, Verix, a digital badge of being part of this Women in AI community before the summit itself. And that is the beginning of a community of folks that will continue to share information, perhaps will even start companies together or invest in each company. And that's exciting. It's not just the one gathering that comes together, but also that community that is starting to be developed. So there's a digital badge for everybody that was invited to this gathering. But look, we have a lot of work to do to make sure that it continues, that it's not just... There is one in San Francisco during Tech Week, but there's a lot more that we'll be rolling out as we go forward and Amit, Shiv and I are all committed to that.

Lance Glinn:

And when you look at the greater AI industry, and you mentioned how there's a lack of funding for women founded AI companies, where do you see... And maybe that is the answer, but where do you see the biggest gaps in gender representation and why does that matter for the integrity of the technology itself?

Greg Kahn:

... in this session that folks go to people that they know, founders that have been successful before one or two times, whether it's in AI machine learning or not, and there's a concentration of power that continues to consolidate. So because female leaders haven't risen in the same way that male leaders have, or more diverse groups haven't risen in the same way, that follows in terms of investment. So that's one piece to it. I think the other piece, you talked about the technology and why it matters. So I'll go back to the IoT days. When I first started, digital assistants were first coming out, the first Alexa devices and Google Assistants. And because there were homogeneous groups that were developing those technologies, and those technologies were being developed initially in one language, maybe a couple of languages, western culture languages, there was a limit as to how quickly they were able to scale up.

And there was a limit as to how much the customer saw utility in using those devices because it was very homogeneous, slang wasn't introduced to it, folks that perhaps were elderly that didn't know how to use those particular platforms or folks that had speech impediments or those types of things. So there was a real challenge from a product standpoint as to why those assistants didn't accelerate as quickly as they did. And we saw that continually in IoT, the toaster was supposed to talk to the refrigerator. Well, maybe consumers didn't want the toaster talk to the refrigerator. In the AI side, as I mentioned, is top down and bottom up. You have everybody interested in this industry, but you have to make sure that everybody means they're not just the user of these tools. They're also helping to develop and shape those tools. And so I think the two sides are important. A, making sure we create spaces for females to get funded and B, at these larger companies, and they're getting larger and larger, that there's representation.

Lance Glinn:

So Greg, as we wrap up our conversation, you sit at the intersection really of AI, business and community. So from that vantage point, what trends just most excite you right now, and where do you see the next wave of real-world AI breakthroughs coming from?

Greg Kahn:

... that it's being introduced in cars and what is the future of that? What's the future of transportation in a world where there's autonomous vehicles and that could be everything from drones, flying drones to the next generation of trains and planes. I'm fascinated by where the physical and digital worlds come together, but separate from that, you mentioned community and culture. I believe in this world where AI is moving so quickly and everybody is tethered to their cell phones, there's another side to this where people want to together around sporting events and concerts and the like, and there is a digital component to that as how it's going to enhance their experience, not just how it's going to replace it.

And so I'm really excited to see the future of fandom in those worlds, the future of commerce in those worlds, and how it gets people out in public having the conversations. But these tools are additive. If you're not going to be spending as much time at work because you're going to be more efficient, let's hope that our personal lives are a lot more energizing and so I'm excited about that.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. And Greg, I'm glad that the AI Trailblazers Summer Summit and the Women in AI Breakfast were such successes, and I thank you for joining us inside the ICE House.

Greg Kahn:

Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1:

That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X at ICE House podcast. From the New York Stock Exchange we'll talk to you again next week inside the ICE House. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the proceeding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.