Mar 26, 2019
Today we’re talking with Aire
co-founder and mum of the Rita AI, Sarah Bell. Sarah discusses with
us the evolution of Rita, humanisation of machines, our sci-fi
future, and the ethics of big data and bias-free AI.
More about Sarah:
As a co-founder of the PropTech
startup Aire, Sarah Bell is a sought after speaker and expert on
the strategic application of artificial intelligence and automation
in real estate. She helps real estate businesses harness the
opportunity within their data and transition to a blended
human-digital workforce using Aire's Digital Employee,
Rita.
With a professional and academic
background in research and analysis, Sarah joined the front lines
of real estate as an agency owner and practitioner for a decade
giving her tactical insights, subject matter expertise and just
enough street cred to create solutions that are intelligent by
design and Cx obsessed.
Sarah is an author, analyst,
researcher, project designer, speaker and nerdtrepreneur with
research interests and some pieces of paper in strategic planning,
change management, planning professional development and strategic
application of artificial intelligence with London's Middlesex
University, Leeds Trinity University (UK) and recently MIT's Sloan
Management and CSAIL Executive Schools. Sarah is also Mum to three
human children and a clever little robot named Rita. She has a
strong preference for dogs over cats if pushed on the
subject.
- How
does Sarah see her role? Does she see herself as an entrepreneur?
How did she end up in real estate?
- How
did the AI Rita come about? How did they avoid creating a solution
to a problem that didn’t exist? How did their background help with
this? What does Rita actually do?
- What
does Rita stand for? How has Rita become humanised among the team?
Is this humanization deliberate or does it occur
naturally?
- Tech
jargon isn’t relevant to customers. How does the team help
customers understand what Rita does? How does this let customers
connect to her?
- Does
Sarah have any practical advice for establishing an AI startup?
What role does intuition play?
- Three
important questions: How can we connect humans to computers in ways
that make them more intelligent? How do we connect humans to each
other in ways that are more intelligent? How can we connect people
to information in ways that are more intelligent?
- Is it
straightforward to hook into the right skills to take a concept or
idea to an actual product? What challenges has Sarah faced on this
front?
- Do
some customers see Rita as a potential risk to their jobs? How can
humans and machines work collectively with their best
skills?
- Why
is Rita built the way she is vs. as a chat bot? How does Sarah feel
about chatbots as an interface? Will Rita one day talk directly to
customers?
- What
is Sarah’s vision of the future in relation to sci-fi—Star Wars,
Star Trek, Jetsons, Terminator, Altered Carbon, etc.? Which sci-fi
future are we most closely going to end up in?
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