Russell E. Willis

Responsible Stewardship of AI | 2 of 15 Image by Sharosh Rajeseekher on Unsplash Most technological harm does not begin with someone deciding to cause harm. It begins with a reasonable purpose. A company introduces an AI system to make a process faster. At first, the system serves the purpose for which it was chosen. Then speed becomes the measure of success. What can be counted crowds out what cannot. Employees adapt to the metric. Managers trust the dashboard more than the experience...

Image by Marcus Winkler on Unsplash Most people think strategic planning begins with analysis. They are mistaken. The spreadsheets come later. The environmental scan, the SWOT analysis, the goals, objectives, budgets, and implementation plans all come later. A strategic planning process begins somewhere much simpler—and much more profound. It begins when a group of people asks a deceptively ordinary question: What kind of future are we trying to create together? That is not an analytical...

Responsible Stewardship of AI | 1 of 15 Image by Russell E. Willis AI leadership is usually framed as a problem of control. Leaders are told to control the data, access, risks, outputs, vendors, and employee use. Much of that work is necessary. None of it gives us control. No leader, organization, or governance system can fully control AI’s development, use, interactions, or consequences. Models behave differently as data, incentives, workflows, users, and circumstances change. Tools acquire...