ADMA’s Global Forum is set to open its doors on Thursday, August 24 at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney.
The program features keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities, all designed to empower professionals with practical strategies and forward-thinking ideas.
Joining the 2023 lineup is Amanda Johnstone, CEO of Transhuman and one of Australia’s most globally recognised AI technologists and emerging technology communicators.
Mediaweek caught up with Johnstone ahead of her trip back down under for the event.
Johnstone’s road to the ADMA Global Forum began during Covid lockdown, where she launched a show – Talk Nerdy To Me – that would eventually reach tens of millions of people.
“During Covid, I jumped on Clubhouse and started a live social audio show – we ended up having 300,000 subscribers. I would ask the top people in the world in technology, entertainment, media, arts, journos – the works! – all about the intersection of AI and whatever their category was.
“After having asked experts to explain it to me like I’m 10 years old, I now have the ability to communicate to masses of people in a way that people can understand, and easily iterate into their business. We’re at the place where AI is at the forefront now, it’s much more mainstream than it was.”
All the experience in the world with communicating how AI works won’t mean much if the audience isn’t ready to hear it, however. Thankfully, Johnstone says that Australia definitely is.
“When ADMA asked me to join, it was a no-brainer – I thought ‘yeah, Australia is ready for this’. If they had asked me five years ago, I would have said absolutely not. I wasn’t even speaking mainstream about AI to audiences five years ago, people just couldn’t get their heads around it.”
At the forum, Johnstone will be speaking about the crucial role of AI in marketing. She says she hopes that people will leave her sessions with an idea of how to be more future-focused when it comes to AI, rather than just reactive to the present situation.
“The people in the room are very literate already about the future, I would say they know more than most. This is the first time I’ll ever really be speaking about how the Internet of Bodies, the Internet of Things, and AI will all melt together.
“I’ve had dinner with one of the heads of this space at Meta, so I’m literally pulling things straight out of the horse’s mouth to tell people what’s happening, what’s being built, how it’s being built, the hardware that’s being used, how this could be ethical, how it could not be ethical, how they can embrace and prepare for the future and be 10 steps ahead of their competitors.”
Artificial Intelligence in 2023
AI has been around since the 1950s, however you would be forgiven for thinking that the tech has come out of nowhere in the last handful of years. Johnstone says that it’s not so much that the tech has started advancing at a rate of knots, but that people are now paying attention to it.
“We’ve come through hype cycles of everyone getting vaccinated, and wearing a mask. We’ve gone through hype cycles of NFTs and the metaverse. The mass appeal of AI in the market now feels like it’s just another hype cycle, when actually it’s not at all.
“AI has been in the backbone of everything for a very long time. The only difference is that it used to be controlled and used by organisations exclusively, unless you knew how to code. Now there are tools that enable everyday operators – from grandmas to students – to be able to use AI.”
As the technology learns from the people behind it and the world around them, the future of AI will depend on who gets involved with the tech today. For Johnstone, she says that “that’s why AI ethics is really at the forefront.”
“If we’ve just got a bunch of middle-aged white guys using AI, that’s how it’s going to learn. Diversity and equity is really important to make sure AI models are trained to represent the population of people, not just people who know how to program. That’s where I feel a huge responsibility as a leader of an AI company to say, hey, everyone needs to be involved in this.
“The difference between being an expert in AI and knowing nothing is really small right now. There’s a really great opportunity to learn and to upskill quite quickly, because it’s actually not that difficult to use some of these tools. It’s easier than learning how to use a new iPhone.”
Of course, there is one question that Johnstone gets asked more than any other – does the rise of AI mean that the robots are coming to take our jobs? For Johnstone, the answer is ‘maybe’, and that’s a good thing.
“I’m really excited that the jobs that we didn’t even know existed 30 years ago, like a social media manager for example – I hope AI will take those jobs. Then people can work in healthcare childcare, and the more tactile human jobs that we don’t have enough people to do, especially in Australia.”
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Top Image: Amanda Johnstone