At a Rise of AI Virtual Chat in 2020, host Fabian Westerheide interviews Chris Boos, founder of Arago and member of Germany's digital council, about what he calls future optimism: the idea that AI-driven change is bringing about a new economic system. Boos argues the transition is evolution rather than revolution, and that industrialization is ending because machines now execute efficiently regardless of human process design, pushing society toward a knowledge or experience economy. He discusses why companies struggle to apply AI even when they know they should, arguing that unlike consumers, organizations need every internal stakeholder pulling in the same direction, and that the coronavirus crisis has forced overdue change management. He describes his own experience advising the German government and helping build a privacy-preserving corona contact-tracing backend, and argues Europe should focus on digitizing its established industries rather than trying to copy Silicon Valley or China. He closes by arguing AI is a neutral tool that amplifies human bias unless people also learn to combine rational thinking with emotion.
Key takeaways
- Chris Boos argues industrialization is ending because machines now execute processes cheaply regardless of how efficiently they were designed, pushing society toward a knowledge economy.
- Boos says company AI adoption is harder than consumer adoption because it needs every stakeholder pulling in the same direction, which he calls change management.
- Boos helped build the privacy-preserving backend for a German corona contact-tracing project involving up to 150 people, and says he faced public criticism for it.
- Boos argues Europe cannot replicate the US consumer-platform model or China's state-driven model, and should instead focus on digitizing its existing industrial base.
- Boos proposes the automotive industry shift its core metric from cars sold to miles driven, needing far fewer cars but creating new mobility-service jobs.
Detailed notes
Evolution, not revolution
Boos argues that the shift he calls a "new system" should be understood as evolution rather than revolution, since revolutions are typically violent and disruptive while evolution, even if fast, lets conscious beings choose their path. He rejects a simple framing of "industry bad, platform good," arguing instead that the age of industrialization, built on economies of scale and process efficiency, is ending because machines can now do those tasks cheaply regardless of how efficiently humans designed the process. He says this pushes society toward a knowledge economy or experience economy, freeing humans to focus on what he calls distinctly human activities: connecting with other people and making new experiences.
Does industrialization make people happy?
Discussing whether industrialization makes people happy, Boos cites higher depression rates in highly industrialized countries and argues that even people who love their jobs tolerate roughly half of what the job requires. He argues AI can multiply and automate accumulated human experience, freeing people to focus on two things he sees as evolutionarily human: closeness with other people, which he says cannot be replaced by intellectual closeness, and making new experiences, which he compares to what every child naturally does.
Why companies struggle to adopt AI
Asked why companies know they should adopt AI but often fail to, Boos argues that digitization has so far mostly happened on the consumer side because winning over one consumer is easy, whereas a company is an organism of many people who must all pull in the same direction, which he calls change management. He gives an example from his own work: an AI project that could triple productivity in automated animal feeding was hard to implement at scale, and gets unfairly labeled a failure as a result. He argues the coronavirus crisis has accelerated this change by forcing remote work and giving people a personal stake in digitization, citing Deutsche Bahn keeping trains running through the crisis as a symbol of institutions stepping up.
Trust, government, and the corona-tracing project
Boos describes advising the German government through its digital council and, during the pandemic, helping build the privacy-preserving backend for a German corona contact-tracing effort involving up to 150 people, saying he faced public criticism but would do it again because it pushed the debate about privacy forward. He argues democracies are built on trust rather than fear, that trust in German public administration and civil servants proved stronger than expected during the crisis, and calls for a better failure culture that does not punish people for trying and failing on digitalization projects.
Europe's path versus the US and China
Boos argues Europe cannot copy the American consumer-profit model that produced Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, or China's state-driven, society-based model, since both are already established elsewhere. He says Europe's opportunity instead lies in digitizing its existing industrial base, which is harder than changing individual consumer behavior but has a bigger lever because of interconnected supply chains. As an example he argues the automotive industry should shift its key metric from cars sold to miles driven, which would need far fewer cars and repair shops but create new mobility-service jobs, comparing it to how a hundred factory workers were replaced by five without eliminating jobs overall.
Q&A highlights: control, bias and solidarity
Answering audience questions, Boos says AI is a mirror that amplifies human behavior, including biases, discrimination and populism, if it simply learns from human behavior, so people need to bring rational thought back into how they use it. On who controls AI, he argues that in a democracy people are allowed to say bad things because open debate, not top-down control, is the corrective mechanism, and that facts need to be put before beliefs. He closes by arguing solidarity, not pure self-interest, will determine whether Europe manages the transition well, citing the start of the pandemic as an example of people successfully pulling in the same direction.
Quotes
AI is a mirror for us, it really, it amplifies our experience, and by amplifying our experience it also amplifies our prejudice and our biases.
Chris Boos
The AI is not the purpose, it's a tool.
Chris Boos
We need to put facts before beliefs, that is very important.
Chris Boos
Questions answered in this talk
Why do companies struggle to adopt AI even when they know they should?
According to Chris Boos at a Rise of AI Virtual Chat in 2020, company adoption is harder than consumer adoption because a company is made up of many stakeholders who must all pull in the same direction, a process he calls change management, unlike convincing a single consumer.
Did the coronavirus pandemic accelerate AI and digitalization adoption?
Chris Boos says at Rise of AI 2020 that the pandemic forced remote work and gave people a personal stake in digitization, accelerating change management that would otherwise have taken much longer, citing Deutsche Bahn's continued operations as a symbol of this.
Should Europe try to copy Silicon Valley or China's approach to AI?
Chris Boos argues at Rise of AI 2020 that Europe cannot catch up to the US consumer-platform model or China's state-driven model, since both are already established, and should instead focus on digitizing its existing industrial base for a bigger economic lever.