The Disneyland of tech

businesstimes.com.sg/the-raffles-conversation/the-disneyland-of-tech

Amit Roy Choudhury

Brad Smith, Microsoft's President, believes the company is a leader in AI because it has
the best computer science research capability in the world.

Sat, Jun 16, 2018 - 5:50 AM

"We are looking at a future where you can just talk to a computer which would be able to
understand what you say. You no longer will have to learn special commands as the
computers will engage in what we call natural language reasoning." - Brad Smith.

PHOTO: MICROSOFT

HERE'S a trick question. Name a research facility working at the cutting edge of
technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and computing that
employs 800 full-time computer sciences PhDs, out of a total of 1,200 PhDs on its payroll?

Perhaps, top tertiary institutions such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) or Beijing University spring
to mind. But no, the answer is none of the above august universities - or in fact any
teaching facility for that matter. It's Microsoft Research (MSR), a division within Microsoft
dedicated to basic science and technology research.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, is proud of the research chops of
MSR.
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"If you look at the leading universities of the world and their great computer science
departments, typically they have on an average, around 80 employees with PhDs in
computer science. That includes the professors and the post-doc fellows.

"So in MSR we have an institution that is qualitatively on a par with the leading computer
science departments and universities around the world but is 10 times as large," Mr Smith
tells The Business Times.

SEE ALSO: Singapore businesses not using AI either fear it or don't get it
What does that mean in actual terms?

It gives Microsoft a "huge strength in terms of advancing the frontier of computer science,
vision, speech (and) all the building blocks for AI", says Mr Smith. This also allows the
company to infuse technological breakthroughs in both consumer and enterprise services
using the cloud and AI. "This is one of the reasons we are so optimistic of our company's
future," he adds.

Mr Smith makes an important point about how the nature of research and development
(R&D) has changed over the years, partly in response to the overall technological changes
that have been causing massive amounts of disruption. "How does one measure research?
That is a multi-faceted question but I would offer a few thoughts. Around 10 years ago,
people tended to measure research by the number of patents that were being issued. I
think that has become a much less useful criterion to measure research.

"We are seeing that certain companies are filing a lot of patents for, in my view, simply
being able to say 'we are filing lots of patents'. They abandon a lot of their patent
applications later on. The whole patenting equation has become a little disconnected from
research reality in my view," says Mr Smith.

So where is the research that's advancing the technological frontier happening?

Mr Smith notes that one should look at how money is actually being spent on research. "If
you look at that number, you will see that Microsoft, Amazon and Google are among the
top-tier spenders on basic research.

"Google is doing some very interesting work but I still think one would be hard-pressed to
find any institution on the planet, any corporation anywhere, that is doing more than
Microsoft Research," he notes.

The Microsoft president, who trained as a lawyer, first visited Microsoft in July 1990 for
work. "I was living in London at that time. When I visited the campus at Redmond, I felt I
had entered a place that was a combination of a great university and Disneyland.

"There were this very smart group of people who were very enthusiastic about learning. But
they were taking their learning and creating new things. You could almost see the frontier of
the future being moved forward," Mr Smith recalls.

He notes that when he made that first trip to the Microsoft headquarters at Redmond,
Washington, he never thought he would become an employee. "I had Microsoft as a client
and I was thrilled about that," says Mr Smith. But it was that opportunity to be part of that
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combination of a great university and Disneyland that made him want to join Microsoft, he
adds.

Big advocate for AI

"When I joined the company in 1993, I did it on the expectation that I was taking a two-year
leave of absence from my law firm. But how could you go back after being in the middle of
this excitement?"

This November will be Mr Smith's 25th year at the company and he doesn't for one moment
regret his decision to join the tech giant.

Apart from his duties as Microsoft's legal eagle, Mr Smith is also a big advocate for AI. He's
one of those technology leaders who feel intelligent computers can do good for humankind.
"We are just scratching the surface" of what can be achieved by the technology; "AI will
literally help us to cure cancer in the coming years", he says.

Mr Smith, however, agrees that there are concerns about the unbridled use of AI and its
consequences on society.

"I think the fundamental question is not what the computers can do but what computers
should do. And that really points to the role that humans, society and countries play in
deciding what they want AI to do in their own place where people live and work," he says.

On the major concern about jobs being taken away by machines, Mr Smith adds that one
can predict with a high degree of probability that AI will create, as well as, eliminate jobs.
"No one has a crystal ball to tell us exactly how many jobs will be created and how many
will be eliminated. But it is clear both of these will happen," Mr Smith observes.

At the very basic level, AI creates certain cognitive attributes for computers, such as the
ability to translate between languages and the ability to reason and learn, he notes. "So,
extrapolating from there, we can identify certain jobs that are most likely to be impacted.

"One example is radiology in the medical profession as so much in radiology involves

looking at X-rays and interpreting them. That is a kind of thing machines can be trained to
do," he notes.

Another candidate would be the taking of orders at fast-food restaurants. It is really about
listening to someone speaking and entering what is being said, he says. "These kinds of
jobs are most likely to be eliminated."

What jobs are unlikely to be affected by AI?

These would be those that involve the use of soft skills such as human empathy, says Mr
Smith. "These jobs are unlikely to be impacted because AI is not going to do that well in
these jobs. If you think of the role of a therapist, counsellor, teacher or a nurse, those jobs
are much less likely to be eliminated although all those individuals will probably be using AI
to do their jobs better," he adds.

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Jobs that are likely to be created include those that involve the use of data, the Microsoft
executive adds. "I think we will see a wide mix of jobs that involve the use of computers and
data, demand for these jobs will grow," he says.

Mr Smith agrees that regardless of the jobs that will be eliminated, created or preserved,
society will witness dislocation due to AI.

"This means there is going to be a need for new skilling efforts for people who are looking
for new jobs. And there will also be skilling efforts for people who will keep their current
jobs because AI will change how these jobs are done.

"The fundamental question then is, how do we mobilise to provide people with the skills
they are going to need for the future? And the one thing I would say is that this is a shared
responsibility."

Mr Smith adds: "When you think about it, it's a responsibility of employers to train their
employees. It's a responsibility of schools, colleges and universities to impart the right skills
to students. It's a responsibility of governments to define a strategy and create skilling
programmes. It's also a responsibility for technology companies, when we think of the role
that LinkedIn and other technology tools can play."

However, most importantly it's an individual's responsibility to re-skill themselves. "Because

if we are to succeed, we need to continue learning throughout our lives as only then we are
going to be successful in navigating all this."

In any case, this is not the first time that human society has faced the challenge of acquiring
new skills. "This raising of the baseline of skills is something that has been going on for two
centuries. Think about the literacy rate in Singapore today, which is close to 100 per cent,
and then think about what the literacy rate was in Singapore a century or even 50 years
ago?

"In the US, people sometimes talk about being the first in his family to go to college. Satya
Nadella (Microsoft CEO) talks about his grandfather being the first in his family to be able
to read. We take it for granted today that everyone can read," Mr Smith says.

Having said all that, there are also some really interesting ways in which AI may make
technology a lot more accessible to people, he adds. "We are looking at a future where you
can just talk to a computer which would be able to understand what you say. You no longer
will have to learn special commands as the computers will engage in what we call natural
language reasoning."

And across Asia, there are very interesting examples of companies experimenting with this
ability to do natural language reasoning, he notes. "Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus
Corporation in Japan has been manufacturing trucks for over eight decades, it has 10,000
workers in 100 countries. With a chatbot, they are creating tools through which their
workers can chat with AI-based computers in a much more natural way.

"So in some ways the Mitsubishi Fuso employees will have to learn skills, and in other
ways they may find much more easier ways to use technology."

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From AI the conversation naturally turns towards data privacy. Here, Mr Smith - a
passionate advocate for data privacy - makes three important points.

The first is that data is the real fuel that powers the 21st century economy. "Every one of
these AI scenarios that we are thinking about relies on the increased use of data. The more
powerful we want to make computers, the more data is needed to train them," he notes.

The second point is that it is clear that the protection of people's data is one of the
paramount responsibilities of technology companies today. And it's a two-pronged
responsibility - around security and privacy, he says.

Mr Smith notes that in some respects it is fair to draw an analogy between technology
companies and the historical role of banks. "We give our money to banks because we are
very confident that the money is going to be there when we want to get it out. It may not be
the same piece of paper but for all practical purposes it is our money, remains our money
and we know we can get it whenever we want. Tech companies need to protect the data in
the same way."

Evolving paradigms

The third point that has become apparent, according to Mr Smith, is that this is really a
complicated and challenging issue. "I think one of the clear takeaways is that the world is
just starting to discern all the fundamental questions that we will have to grapple with.

"Data privacy laws are strengthening over the past few decades and that's a good thing.
But it is hard to believe that the data privacy laws of 2018 will be the same thing that people
are going to want to see in 2038."

Laws - as well as industry responsibilities - will continue to evolve, both driven by consumer
expectations and needs. "As people are thinking more about this, they are not
unreasonably asking governments and companies to think more as well," he adds.

On his career path, Mr Smith says he feels grateful for having the "wonderful" opportunity
to work closely with Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and now Satya Nadella. "They are each
different but they each share one thing in common and that is this intense curiosity about
the world and the conviction that they can do something to make it a better place," he says.

"I never had a bad day working in Microsoft. I have many bad hours but never a bad day. It
is a very challenging place as we are dealing with the challenges of the world. Even from
the legal perspective there have been big legal wins and big legal defeats. You have to
manage your way through sometimes difficult challenges.

"I feel so fortunate that I was there for the most difficult times of the company, because now
is the time when the company is doing well. But we keep it in mind that good days don't
last."

BRAD SMITH

President and chief legal officer,

Microsoft Corporation
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1959 Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

EDUCATION

1981 Undergraduate degree in international relations and economics from Princeton

University

1983-1984 Studied International law at the University of Geneva, Switzerland

1985 Graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University's Law School

CAREER

1985 Joined US federal judge Charles Miller Metzner as law clerk

1986 Joined Washington, DC-based law firm of Covington and Burling

1993 Became a partner at Covington and Burling

1993 Joined Microsoft as head of legal and corporate affairs team in Europe

1996 Became Deputy General Counsel

2002 Appointed General counsel

2013 Named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the
United States

2014 NYT called Smith "a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large"

2015 Appointed President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft

2015 Joined the Netflix board of directors

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