Logitech Open To Adding an AI Agent To Board of Directors, CEO Says (fortune.com) 28
Hanneke Faber, CEO of global tech manufacturing company Logitech, says she'd be open to the idea of having an AI-powered board member. From a report: "We already use [AI agents] in almost every meeting," Faber said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday. While she said AI agents today (like Microsoft Copilot and internal bots) mostly take care of summarization and idea generation, that's likely to change owing to the pace at which the technology is developing.
"As they evolve -- and some of the best agents or assistants that we've built actually do things themselves -- that comes with a whole bunch of governance things," Faber said. "You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don't have an AI agent in every meeting, you're missing out on some of the productivity." "That bot, in real time, has access to everything," she continued.
"As they evolve -- and some of the best agents or assistants that we've built actually do things themselves -- that comes with a whole bunch of governance things," Faber said. "You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don't have an AI agent in every meeting, you're missing out on some of the productivity." "That bot, in real time, has access to everything," she continued.
I know my next market move... (Score:3)
Time to short LOGI.
Re: (Score:2)
There was a Superbowl ad in 2000 where an "up and coming" dot-com* had a monkey dance the entire ad, and at the end said something like, "We just wasted 2 million because we can".
This smells like the same kind of arrogance.
* Oddly I think the company somehow survived the crash.
AI's first advice (Score:3)
Logitech are my go to provider of mice and webcams, I wonder if they will still make quality options next time I need them?
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Will it's first advice be get out of the mouse and keyboard market because in the future we will simply talk to our computers?
Why would there be anyone to talk to computers? Microphones are not much use for bots, a wireless connection module is all they need. Advice would probably be to get out of that puny human interface device market, and start making weapons for the killer drones to wipe those pesky competitors for energy from the planet.
World is crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why not relpace the CEO too while you're at it (Score:2)
Of all the jobs out there, CEO should be the easiest to replace with AI, and the most logical. If AI great, start at the top!
Bad idea (Score:2)
One request (Score:3)
As long as Logitech brings back their Trackman Marble trackball, they can do whatever they want with their board of directors.
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If you miss the TrackMan Marble, check out Nulea's trackballs.
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If you miss the TrackMan Marble, check out Nulea's trackballs.
Their M505 looks like a reasonable alternative. I'll give it a spin sometime, thanks.
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I have the M501, got it for Christmas last year. So far I've only had good experiences with it. Responsive, easy to clean, DPI settings, and a couple more buttons for your index finger than the TrackMan Marble had.
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Good to know, thanks. I find that thumb-based trackballs give me tendonitis pretty quickly, so I think I would have to use the M505. But I would think most of the highlights you mentioned for the M501 would likely apply to it as well.
why not replace the whole board with AI? (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone else see conflict of interest between shareholders and execs?
oh, also, this assumes that AI is really super fit for this task.
I'm saying there is a lot of unmoored wishful thinking going on here.
We don't even know if AI can perform these functions to a high level of competence.
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That's not a terrifying sentiment. (Score:4, Insightful)
"You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don't have an AI agent in every meeting, you're missing out on some of the productivity." "That bot, in real time, has access to everything," she continued.
Nothing scary about that at all. Nope. Nothing at all. Just hand the keys to the kingdom over to the AI. What could possibly go wrong? It's not like there are any warning signs available in today's AI market. Nor has there ever been any fictional depictions of AIs going rogue and causing mayhem. I'm sure this will all work out splendidly.
On the bright side, the quicker a few known name companies pull moves like this and blow themselves up, the quicker we can get the rest of the C-Suit folks to stop salivating over AI everything and start treating it as just another tool to be scrutinized and used sparingly and appropriately until it is properly vetted.
Treat AI agents as consultants (Score:3, Interesting)
Consultants provide information and give insight.
Corporate officers and board members make decisions and bear legal responsibility.
There is a difference.
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Also: Any AI "consulting" in an area where professional licensing is involved needs to "work" under the supervision of a licensed human professional who is responsible for all of the "work product" of the AI.
In other words, a company's board of directors shouldn't be allowed to consult with an AI on legal, engineering, or other matters without a licensed human professional "in the room" to confirm or overrule anything the AI "says." The AI is just a tool, nothing more ("Commander Data" is centuries away, even in the fictional Star Trek universe).
Stock up on hardware. (Score:2)
Liability? Taxes? (Score:2)
If someone sues the board, is the AI going to appear in court? Is it going to pay damages?
Is it going to get paid for its service as a board member? Will it pay taxes on that income?
What if it lies? Will it be held liable? What about insider trading, or facilitating insider trading?
This is a stunt. There's no way AI can really be considered a "board member."
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The guy at Logitech could be a genuine idiot, but it's equally likely he's getting some sort of reach-around from his fellow tech CEOs on this.
They need to have "important", "smart", "successful" people continually spouting off the sci-fi bullshit in public so that it sounds believable to a certain type of person. They need the visual imagery of I, Robot sitting in a boardroom. Typically they have some worse-than-clipart AI-image in the article depicting exactly that.
Turn off the modem (Score:2)
Remember when the film War Games came out? Half the audience were enamored, "COMPUTERS!" The other half grumbled "turn off the modem." I think we at the same threshold. The solution to your AI servant? Turn off the computer. You might have a more productive meeting.
Might be all for it... (Score:1)
How much stock will it hold? (Score:2)
wondering... (Score:2)
Just wondering, is this guy a moron or just an idiot?