The first instalment of the podcast is hosted by Miki Luong, IBM Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, spotlighting IBM’s AI experts and thought leaders.

“Generative AI has taken off so suddenly that it’s easy to feel left behind,” said Ms Luong. 

“When we hosted our Uncharted event series across Australia (exploring generative AI for an executive audience), we found that even the most accomplished leaders felt unsure about the full implications of this space.

“And if experts in their field don’t feel confident leading a technology as groundbreaking as generative AI, then where does that leave the rest of us?”

“IBM Uncharted: Generative AI explored is our way of trying to answer and amplify the many questions and conversations happening right within organisations,”

“We hope our series will help listeners discover how artificial intelligence will continue to impact the way we work and live,” said Ms Luong.

The first episode features Luong and Adam Makarucha, IBM Client Engineering Leader, exploring the fundamentals of generative AI.

The episode dives into the definition of generative AI in an executive context, where generative AI works – and where it doesn’t, and practical insights and generative AI use cases professionals can explore within their organisations.

“AI is not intelligent in the same way we think of intelligence,” said Dr Makarucha, pointing out a key difference between ‘narrow AI’ (which is fed data and focused on completing very specific tasks based on that data) and ‘general AI’ (which can use many different inputs to reason in the way that humans do – a distant future away).  

“Traditional AI is very prescriptive,” he said. “You know exactly what data it’s trained on. It could be your insurance case, an interaction record, how much your policy is worth, data about you as a person,”

“With gen AI, the input is a text box so it’s as expressive as we want it to be. We can really go ahead and use it in any way we want.”  

In the episode, Dr Makarucha explains that generative AI is a form of narrow AI that can be trained from text, speech, and images to generate any number of responses.

“This is achieved through a process known as ‘self-supervised learning’, these systems continue to fine-tune themselves until their reasoning is correct” Dr Makarucha said

The second episode sees Luong, Kaaren Koomen, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at IBM Australia and New Zealand, and Richie Paul, Partner and Generative AI Leader at IBM Consulting discuss why building a strong foundation in governance and ethics is crucial for long-term generative AI success.

And what happens when the incentives of generative AI for the boardroom are in conflict with the people it will impact most? 

Makarucha will take the reins in episode three, interviewing Ajay Singh, Managing Director of Stretch 365 about the critical role of AI governance, real-world failures in oversight, and the rising threat of prompt hacking.

IBM Uncharted: Generative AI explored is a monthly podcast.