CNN International hosted the second edition of Asia Business Forum 2017 on 13th February 2017 in Bengaluru, which since last year has been an exclusive platform for leaders across the region. Around 200 business leaders came together to assess India’s position in a turbulent global economy, the event attracted a lot interest amongst business and technology leaders. Asia Business Forum 2017 coincided with the start of the Indian government’s ‘Make in India Conference’.
Speakers at the event included Richard Quest, CNNMoney Editor-at-Large and anchor of Quest Means Business and Kristie Lu Stout, CNNNews Stream anchor will lead discussions with star speakers including EkStep Chairman and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Air Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh, Spicejet Chairman & Managing Director Ajay Singh, JetSetGo Co-Founder and CEO Kanika Tekriwal, and viral YouTube star ‘Rickshawalli‘.
Some of the notable sessions included India at 30,000 Feet-Exploring the world’s fastest growing aviation industry and Digitizing India-How technology is transforming the world’s biggest democracy.
Fellow blogger Jogesh Midha interviewed Kristie Lu Stout, CNN Anchor and host of News Stream on the lines of Social Media, Technology trends, entrepreneurial culture in India, etc. Below are the edited excerpts of the interview.
What has changed about the Technology Business & News Business since the last 15 years?
We have seen the rise of social media with Facebook being the pioneer of social media. It has impacted Retail, Political campaigns, businesses, etc. So arguably social media has been the biggest game changer both on the technology as well on social front. Big proportion of audience referrals to CNN come from Facebook and our job as journalists has become much meaningful because of it.
What are the technology trends of 2017?
It has to be Artificial Intelligence (AI). Last few months we have seen AI been able to out-bluff the best players in Poker, it has taken jobs away from real human beings. In fact in Japan, number of insurance claim workers lost their jobs to AI. AI is incredible!
However with technology advancements comes the ethical challenges, what happens when AI takes over jobs. This is the same issue that Elon Musk of Tesla raised a couple of months back and there lies the fundamental debate-How do you incentivise learning for children who know that they really do not have to learn since the computer does a better job there but there is still a reason why need to learn Math, Science, etc.
Electrification of transport, clean energy, human computer interface and brain implants are some of the trends that might evolve in 2017.
What are some of the Prons & Cons of social media, especially from the angle of journalism?
Good thing about social media is that you are able to engage with so many people across the world. Dark side is online bullying, cyber harassment and identity theft. Fake News spreads like wild fire primarily due to social media. I recently interviewed the founder of David Mikkelson, Snopes that has been in the business of debunking fake news since last 20 years and he told me that Fake News syndrome has been around since centuries but with social media, Attention Economy has grabbed the attention since it is all about CTR’s.
Your comments on the entrepreneurial rise in India, how do you compare the startup culture here vis-a-vis Silicon Valley?
The secret to success of Silicon Valley has been the access to the brightest minds that come from some of the best universities in America. In India also the emphasis has been on education especially IIT’s that have been the pioneers and many of the entrepreneurs are from IIT’s.
Impact of Blogging, YouTube and other mediums on traditional journalism?
Video has become the new killer feature especially with the advent of YouTube and Facebook Live. Many media companies including BuzzFeed are investing heavily on Video Content and video is what CNN has been doing since many years!
The solution to responsible content [or journalism] is not regulation but education via media literacy programs for consumers so that they can identify fake news and prevent sharing of fake news.
There is a highly recommended course Making sense of the news that every digitally literate person should take up in order to make sense of what we heard or read. Prevention of spreading of fake news is a joint responsibility of the media consumers, media houses, journalists, etc. and this is very important for the rising Social Media generation.
Your views on initiatives like Startup India, Digital India, etc. and it’s impact on the nation
Couple of weeks back when Apple CEO Tim Cook was in India he made it clear that India is where the action is taking place. Overall there are lot of opportunities, especially in Manufacturing in India. There is lot of excitement about India even though there might be a decline of the number of H1B visa holders [due to the bill passed by the Trump Administration]. H1B is always in demand since there is lack of skilled engineering talent in the USA and hence it requires engineers from countries like India. Decline of H1B visa holders might work in India’s favor as it could result into Return to India dream/Reverse brain drain 🙂
How serious is cyber security in today’s changing era ?
Some people can argue that cyber-security swayed the US elections, looking at the allegations of Russian Hacking, Wikileaks, etc. There is a lot to be lost in case of political security. We only hope that the world leaders and the policy makers are digitally literate. World leaders should be digitally savvy enough to understand the dangers posed by Cyber-security threats.
Enough has not been done in the awareness about cyber-security and there needs to be more discussions in organizations about Phishing, Digital & Cyber security, etc. Lot of work still needs to be done in strengthening the security of networks. The hindsight is that sometimes it is more about convenience and that which is the primary reason why most of us continue to use Google instead of Duck Duck Go, though we are aware that Google knows a lot about us. There is always a trade-off between right to privacy vs right to convenience. Unintended consequences of technology resulting in misuse & abuse of technology is the biggest threat to this evolving world of technology.
We thank Kristie Lu Stout for her time and hope that our readers enjoyed the interview…