Loyalist Convocation 2023 - A call to action on a positive relationship with technology.

On June 7th, I had the great honour of receiving the Hugh P. O'Neil Outstanding Alumni Award from Loyalist College . Loyalist was the first school I ever attended and gave me a foundation which I would build upon at both Carleton University and in my many projects completed and roles I have served in to date.

I was also invited to speak to Loyalist's Graduating Class of 2023 including the IT, Cyber Security, AI, and Financial Technology graduates at Loyalist. I used this opportunity to discuss the future of our AI systems and the steps which I believe we need to take to make our relationship to these systems positive, sustainable, and uplifting.

My speech starts at 33 minutes into the livestream (use the link to jump to on YouTube).

For those who like to read, my speech may also be found below in its entirety.

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Firstly, let me express my heartfelt gratitude to President Mark Kirkpatrick and the esteemed Board of Directors of Loyalist College for this unique opportunity to share my experiences today. I extend my special thanks to retired Professor, Mr. Percy Kearse, whose kind words played an instrumental role in my nomination for the Hugh P. O’Neil Outstanding Alumni Award, and to Senior Vice President, External Relations and Business Development, Jeremy Laurin , who possesses a boundless enthusiasm for the future of Loyalist College as an ever-evolving partner of the community.

I consider it a privilege to walk the path that began here at Loyalist over two decades ago. The invaluable skills I acquired over my two years in the Architectural Technician program gave me the tools to tackle numerous projects, first designing buildings as an architectural designer, then completing my professional degrees in architecture at Carleton University and launching a successful boutique design and fabrication firm in Ottawa. Today, I use these same skills in design and communication to help me create complex digital systems and build transformation visions as a Chief Technology Officer within the Government of Canada. Most recently, I’ve applied these skills in the design and construction of my own home. I will soon be living within a house literally built upon my Loyalist education.

It is indeed an honor to be part of this momentous occasion as you take the next steps forward in your professional life. You are graduating in an era brimming with transformative opportunities. I urge you to remain vigilant and receptive to these changes, for the world around you is evolving at a breathtaking pace. By the time the next twenty years elapse, the landscape we currently perceive might be drastically different.

Today, we are witnessing the culmination of a century's worth of ideation about the potential of digital thinking machines. For over one hundred years, we've nurtured the dream of achieving a level of sophistication with technology that parallels or even surpasses our own capabilities. Pioneering science fiction writers charted numerous trajectories, ushering us into narratives alternately utopian and dystopian. Despite a lengthy preparatory phase, we find ourselves now grappling with essential ethical dilemmas surrounding these digital entities. How should such tools be employed, and to what ends? How do we reconcile the ethics inherent in the creation of these systems, let alone their usage in our professional lives? How, and more importantly, should we utilize these systems individually? What will the impacts be on our lives?

These are not just hypothetical questions. They are very real and timely. Technology has a huge potential to change our lives, our jobs, and even our society. But with that potential comes the responsibility to use it wisely. We need to be willing to have conversations about these changes and what they mean for our future.

A chorus of influential voices from both the technology industry and the humanities are sharing timely warnings about the repercussions this technology will have on our occupations, our inherent humanity, and even our existence. Depending on your worldview, the future might seem either luminous or bleak.?Yet, my chief concern is not the technology per se, but the absence of a unifying narrative that describes the future we are aspiring to create. What exactly are we striving towards with such relentless determination and urgency? There has never been a time when our capacity to reshape human life has been so tremendous, yet the motivations to do so have been so disjointed. What is our collective goal?

As a starting point, we can establish clear principles to gauge the beneficial potential of this digital emergence. Estimable objectives would include:

• The advancement of our human potential. We share a responsibility to use this rare moment to grow our capacity and defy our previous limits.
• The uplift of humanity from poverty, privation, and suffering. We must support our fellow humans and leave none behind.
• The protection of our biological diversity. The thriving of a diverse biome is the true measure of how sustainable and durable a planet we share.
• Our collective resistance against authoritarian or technocratic abuses. We must not fall into the trap of building systems that divide us.
• The balancing of our openness to change with our conscientious protection of those systems which sustain us. We must grow and change, but on a strong foundation of shared ideas.

What does this mean to you, Graduating Class of 2023? You are entering or returning to a workplace where you will now become immersed in these products as a means of amplifying your outputs. You will be asked to integrate these processes into your work or risk irrelevance and unemployment. You will be faced with tough choices in how you apply these tools. From my own experiences, I can recommend several key steps you can take to navigate this era of uncertainty.

• First, build your literacy and do not become a mere consumer of these technologies. These are not tools and means to an end, but something different. Learn to engage with the powerful concepts we are facing.
• Leverage the systems which allow you to continually expand your skills. Avoid the tools which make you a consumer. The objective is to grow your agency and to use these systems as the foil to hone and refine, not replace.
• Use these tools to pursue and obtain periods of deep focus and reflection. We live in a noisy complex world, whose offerings are attempting to steal our attention and our ability to do meaningful and profound work. Equip yourself with the means of silencing the noise and creating space to be creative and innovative while remaining focused on your goals.
• Expand the boundaries of your knowledge. We tend to revert to comfortable ideas and concepts, but we must continue to push our knowledge outward.
• Finally, build a unique offering, an ecosystem of capability that is inimitable, to ensure you do not become replaced by these AI systems. You each have something unique to offer. Amplify that inherent individuality.

As Loyalist graduates, we have the capability and responsibility to inform this future vision. I recently put these and many more thoughts down into a book called Intelligent Digital Ecosystems which is intended to serve as a map to navigating these pitfalls and building such a vision. Whether you develop your own vision or find some value in my musings, I implore each of you to join the conversation. You are not alone on this journey. Together, we have the power to chart our collective course to the future. You have the agency, and dare I say the responsibility, to help create this world. As Loyalist graduates, I also know you have the skills and the support of your College to make that future possible.

Thank you.