Why your company’s AI intellectual property fears might be overblown
In 2002, my startup’s investors — a group of Harvard Business School professors, private-equity directors, and self-made businessmen — gave me this advice:
'Excessive protection of intellectual property can hinder your business' progress'
What did they mean? And what does this have to do with AI?
Executives can become so engrossed in protecting IP that they fall behind their competition
For some companies, as I write this…
This is happening with regards AI
There is an understandable fear that using AI tools like ChatGPT can leak company intellectual property.
But…
Have your company’s IP concerns regarding AI been well-defined and verified? Or, are these IP-concerns an excuse to do nothing, maintain the status quo, and avoid the unknown?
For example, in a code base of 100,000 lines of code, it is unlikely that all but a few thousand lines are genuine unique IP.
Has your company identified the areas of code that represent true IP? Or, has your company taken the easy route and declared 100% of all code critical intellectual property?
An analysis could reveal that many IP concerns are un-vetted and thus an unwitting excuse for inaction.
Regarding AI adoption laggards, “The Economist” published an article, on July 16th 2023, discussing this concern
The article is titled: “Your employer is (probably) unprepared for artificial intelligence.”
In it, the writer discusses evidence that a persistent productivity gap exists between rich-world companies that are effective early-adopters of technology versus companies that are consistent laggards.
The below quote from the article explains:
“Speculation about the consequences of ai—for jobs, productivity and quality of life—is at fever pitch. The tech is awe-inspiring. And yet ai’s economic impact will be muted unless millions of firms beyond Silicon Valley adopt it…
That would mean far more than using the odd chatbot. Instead, it would involve the full-scale reorganisation of businesses and their in-house data.
...In 2020 just 1.6% of American firms employed machine learning
Firms that embrace tech are pulling away from the competition. In 2010 the average worker at Britain’s most productive firms produced goods and services worth £98,000 (in today’s money), which had risen to £108,500 by 2019. Those at the worst firms saw no rise. In Canada in the 1990s frontier firms’ productivity growth was about 40% higher than non-frontier firms. From 2000 to 2015 it was three times as high.”
The Economist article closes with the following words
“…The technology is undoubtedly revolutionary. But are businesses ready for a revolution?”
Don't let your company be an underproductive laggard
As The Economist article says, this is a REVOLUTION. But is your company ready for it?
Don’t allow unvetted concerns regarding IP, security, and privacy to become an excuse for inactivity and maintenance of a ‘safe’ status-quo.
Here are three actions you can take to make sure your company reaps the benefits of AI before your competition:
- Figure out what parts of your company’s digital assets hold genuine IP.
- Force those with unvetted “concerns” to prove those concerns.
- Quantify the risks versus the benefits for your company.
- Take your best ideas for boosting productivity and customer satisfaction with AI, and execute on them with urgency!
By doing these things, you can avoid allowing your competitors to out-innovate your company and team.
You will free your employees to immediately use AI responsibly, now.
And, as The Economist article highlights, by being a responsible, rapid adopter of AI, your company can build and maintain its productivity lead over the competition!
If you fail to seize this moment, you could see your competition pull further ahead of your business than ever before.
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To read the Economist article, visit: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/07/16/your-employer-is-probably-unprepared-for-artificial-intelligence
