Fireside Chat with Steve Wozniak, Cofounder of Apple

On the 11th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone, Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak spoke at the summit about Apple, innovation and how AI can accommodate humans. He said that prioritizing the human over the machine was the key to his experience at Apple. Machines need to understand human language, rather than the other way around.

• Wozniak considers three types of people essential for any company’s success: an engineer, a marketing expert and a business thinker. He said that when he worked with Steve Jobs, Jobs had the drive and new ideas they needed to push forward, while he (Wozniak) was the engineer.
• Innovators design things that work for them, Wozniak said, noting that the success of their innovations indicates that their own needs aligned with those of other people. He noted that every component of the iPhone had to register with Jobs during the design process. Speaking about the automotive space, Wozniak said that Elon Musk designed a large electric car because he has a large family, even though a car with a compact body would have been more logical. Wozniak noted that Musk’s priorities matched those of many other Americans, and that many of those who have purchased Teslas have done so because they liked the size of the vehicles.

Steve Wozniak, Cofounder, Apple Source: Coresight Research

The Future of Vehicles

In a session on the future of vehicles, the speakers discussed progress toward US and Chinese compatibility in the area of autonomous mobility.

• The panelists focused on the policymaking implications of this developing technology. They noted that, in 2015, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a “Technology Roadmap for Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicles,” which set targets for autonomous and electric vehicle prominence. By 2025, China will be the largest autonomous vehicle market, according to panelist Nan Zhou, Director of Baidu Capital.
• Silicon Valley is still the center of this innovation. The US-China race to automated vehicles is not actually a competition, according to David Vance Wagner, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Energy Foundation. Both countries are pushing forward, he said, but they grapple with different infrastructures. Ultimately, the technology will be shared.

From left to right: David Vance Wagner, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Energy Foundation; Nan Zhou, Director, Baidu Capital; Tao Wang, Investment Director, SAIC Capital; Dr. Maarten Sierhuis, Chief Technology Director, Nissan; Bert Kaufman, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Zoox Source: Coresight Research

Improving the Technology of Healthcare

In a session on healthcare technology, the panelists agreed that the incumbent medical information technology, the electronic medical records (EMR) digital collection of health records, needs to be replaced. The system has doctors fatigued, and it consumes their time and overloads them with irrelevant data, the panelists said. AI can smooth out doctors’ interactions with technology, reducing how much time they must spend with the system and enabling faster insurance approvals. There is a huge opportunity to improve doctors’ workflow and reduce fatigue by creating human-centered design, the panelists said.

• According to Antonio Regalado, Senior Editor for Biomedicine at MIT Technology Review, 80% of doctors’ work could be successfully automated. Patients and physicians must adopt a threshold level of trust in technology, he said. After that, everyone’s time can be better spent.
• The panel noted that detection capacities matter most in cancer, where they make a difference in terms of survival. Petuum CTO Qirong Ho said that the priority of AI in healthcare should be home testing with support, which he hopes will be available in a couple of years.

From left to right: Antonio Regalado, Senior Editor for Biomedicine, MIT Technology Review; Othman Laraki, CEO and Cofounder, Color Genomics; Katherine Chou, Head of Product, Google AI; Derek Zu, Strategy and Products, Baidu USA; Qirong Ho, CTO, Petuum; Nikhil Jain, CEO and Cofounder, ObEN Source: Coresight Research

Robotics and Drones: Filling in the Gaps

In a session focused on robotics and drones, the panelists noted that many problems in the commercial space could be resolved by combining human intelligence and AI. Both American and Chinese companies are facing labor shortages, the panel noted, as groups of laborers are aging while younger generations show little interest in replacing them. This dynamic is affecting the agriculture, construction and manufacturing sectors, among others. Robotics companies are developing and leasing devices that either supplement or replace workers where these labor shortages are developing.

• According to Aptonomy CEO and Founder Mihail Pivtoraiko, security guards hold the second-most dangerous job in the US. He noted that security companies can deploy AI alongside humans to solve an economic pain point through an assistive approach, rather than through replacement.
• Robotics, drones and autonomous vehicles will change the way consumers think about how to get what they want, the panelists noted. In the future, goods will be just minutes away, so consumers will rarely need to plan what purchases to make from a store ahead of time or order products online and then wait for them to arrive days later.

From left to right: Ali Zaidi, Adjunct Professor and Precourt Energy Scholar, Stanford University; Victor Wang, Managing Partner, CEG Ventures; Chris Evdemon, Partner, Sinovation Ventures; Ali Kashani, Head, Postmates X; Arnaud Thiercelin, Head of US R&D, DJI; Mihail Pivtoraiko, CEO and Founder, Aptonomy; Arye Barnehama, Founder and CEO, Elementary Robotics Source: Coresight Research