The world has benefitted in many ways from the changes of recent years.
Technology has enabled businesses to offer more empowering working patterns, create new services and to reach new levels of efficiency. But one attribute that has not improved is trust.
The relationships between organizations, employees, customers, and citizens have been shaken by this fast-moving world, and even faster-moving technology.
That change is not slowing down, as we explore in our latest Fujitsu Technology & Service Vision.
On the one hand, technology promises even greater benefits, if it’s used in the right way.
Organizations can strengthen the competitiveness of their core business, using innovations to meet evolving customer demands.
In a world where no one business can do everything, organizations can also create new value by forming wider ecosystems, underpinned by technology.
But at the same time, people want even more from their organizations – and are demanding leaders that prioritize societal, as well as commercial gain. That includes how they approach new technologies and data.
So how can leaders drive their business to success with digital while regaining public trust?
Complexity and concerns
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing present the potential for whole new connections between the physical and digital world.
However, organizational leaders – like the wider public – are concerned about the potential vulnerabilities that these technologies could create.
As the volume, depth and importance of data grows, its security and trustworthiness are major concerns.
Three-fifths of leaders are concerned that the data they use may have been falsified (59%), while two-thirds worry about the risk of customer data and confidential information being stolen (68%).
AI itself presents some significant drawbacks. More than half of business leaders would not trust AI because the data it uses could be incorrect or biased (52%).
As leaders themselves agree, the way technology is used will be pivotal to its success – and wider trust. But the way that technology is designed can also support a more trusted future.
Here are three examples of ethical technology in practice that we are developing at Fujitsu.
- Explainable artificial intelligence
Machine learning models, and particularly deep learning technology, can lack transparency over the way that results are reached – and this can create serious challenges.
How do we determine who’s to blame in a self-driving car crash? What if the health of patients diagnosed with AI deteriorates?
The scope of use of AI, if decisions are not open to scrutiny, is limited, especially in fields like healthcare, financial services and critical infrastructure. AI decisions must be understood – and safely controlled – by people.
With this in mind, Fujitsu has developed the very first explainable AI – capable of showing how judgments are derived directly from information.
It incorporates two elements: the first is a ‘Knowledge Graph’, that visualizes the relationships between pieces of data. The second is a function to explain how decisions have been reached, known as ‘Deep Tensor.’
Kyoto University has already used these tools to estimate the gene mutation that caused cancer in 180,000 cases and accelerated diagnosis from two weeks to one day.
With this greater transparency, artificial intelligence can be applied to complex business and social issues with confidence.
- Trust in data
With the constant risk of data breaches, cyber-attacks, and fake news, it is important for security to keep up and for data to deliver value, rather than vulnerability.
Identity management is becoming increasingly vital, with four billion people – and tens of billions of devices – already connected to the Internet.
Biometric identification can help to prevent impersonation and enable secure transactions with private and public organizations. By combining facial, fingerprint and vein biometrics, we can be more assured of personal identities.
At a larger scale, applying AI to detect and combat cyber threats will help to create more intelligent defenses. Our Deep Tensor technology is learning and graphically mapping the patterns of security incidents, to enable teams to respond more effectively.
Using technology to protect data privacy will be fundamental to ensuring trust in it.
- Boundaryless blockchain
Sometimes termed a ‘trust protocol’, blockchain is a powerful means of underwriting transactions without the need for third-party validation.
Blockchain can, for example, support supply chains, logistics, and distributed energy transactions.
But existing technologies have struggled to ensure the reliability of data transfers across different blockchains and organizations.
At Fujitsu, we’re developing technology that can connect different blockchains – and create data trails between different companies.
In the future, this boundaryless blockchain can help to build secure networks to enable collaboration across private companies, governments, universities, groups – the list goes on. And this technology will ensure that data is shared safely and securely.
Success and trust
Technology has delivered huge benefits to our professional and personal lives.
However, technology has undoubtedly also been one of the forces that have contributed to a loss of trust in recent years.
How we implement technology in the years ahead will be critical to realizing further societal, as well as commercial, benefits, and that includes the way that technologies from AI to blockchain are developed.
With human-centric innovation, businesses can use technology to drive a future full of success – and trust.
Read more about how you can use technology to drive a trusted future in the Fujitsu Technology and Service Vision.
