George Tilesch and Omar Hatamleh on the AI World of the Present, Steering AI to Benefit Humanity, and their Book “BetweenBrains”
Interview with George Tilesch and Omar Hatamleh, Co-Authors of "BetweenBrains"
We thank George Tilesch and Omar Hatamleh for taking part in this interview and sharing their views on a broad range of key challenges and opportunities in AI, as discussed in their recently-published book "BetweenBrains" .
Dr. George Tilesch is the former Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Global Affairs at Ipsos, and a senior global innovation and AI expert who is a conduit and trusted advisor between the US and EU ecosystems, specializing in AI Ethics, Impact, Policy, and Governance.
Dr. Omar Hatamleh is the former Chief Innovation Officer, Engineering at NASA, and former Executive Director of the Space Studies Program at International Space University.
Q: George and Omar, at what point did you realize that you wanted to write this book, and what inspired you to work together?
GT: The inspiration came from a series of serendipitous “accidents” and revelations, and continued throughout the 3 years of actually writing BetweenBrains, while also actively working in the AI strategy consulting and research fields. Around 2016, a palpable change started when the first big bets have been visibly placed on AI by industry, venture capital, and some major governments. While everybody was still talking Skynets and HALs in the public dialogue, we understood that this was all happening now without most people noticing - so the now and near future is what we wanted to cover in the book. Initially, what shocked me at the time was the vast differences in the tone of leaders when conveying the grand AI ambitions and boundless AI-optimism of their organizations; and when they were talking in private expressing concern as citizens, consumers, parents...I was sure we were on to something and got intrigued to go backstage, dig deep and understand the lure, the power, and impact, as well as the risks and challenges of AI, in a balanced way. Omar and I see eye to eye not just as friends, but we share the same cross-sector and cross-industry perspective by default, as well as the moral convictions that anchor us firmly when studying such a complex and alluring topic; so ours was a natural-born partnership from day one.
Q: Tell us about how you chose the title of the book, "BetweenBrains".
GT: Unlikely choice, but our title was originally borrowed from neuroscience: the betweenbrain (diencephalon) is a small, but very important part of the central nervous system. It is a collection of structures that play a number of critical, very diverse roles in our health: most importantly, it is tasked with maintaining homeostasis - system equilibrium in the body. We wanted to hint at our balanced, interdisciplinary approach and bridging mission to give humanity healthy choices in our AI future.
Also, even more importantly, the title refers to the intricate interplay between human and...
