How AI is Reshaping Work, Relationships, and Society with Emem Rita Usanga

Iyabo Oba

:: 00:14

Hi everyone, and welcome to Relationships WithAI. I'm your host, Iyabo Oba. This podcast explores the real-world impact of AI on human relationships in work, romance, family, politics and more.

We'll hear from thought leaders and disruptors in AI as they share their insights on how AI is shaping society through the lens of human connection. Let's get into this week's episode.

Iyabo Oba

:: 00:40

Today is my first program. I want to thank you that you honoured me with coming on and being my first guest.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 00:49

Honoured to be number one.

Iyabo Oba

:: 00:51

Yeah, it's good. Oh one love it.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 00:54

Exactly.

Iyabo Oba

:: 00:55

And unapologetically O number one.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 00:58

Hell yes.

Iyabo Oba

:: 01:02

And so what would be great is to introduce you. So please, Emem Rita Usanga, please tell us who you are and tell us a bit about your background.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 01:15

Okay, so I'm Emem, I run Tech Nigeria Advocates which is part of the 39 plus country groups that are part of the global Tech Advocates network. Basically they are basically champion the tech ecosystem, the countries in which we represent.

So there's some of the fastest emerging tech ecosystems around the world. There are two that are currently in Africa, so there's Tech Ghana Advocates as well.

But you know, you've got groups in Korea, in Malaysia, UAE, China.

I'm going to say five, it probably has more than five now. I'm actually speaking because basically what happens is you say a number and you said the number and it's changed because you realise the information you have is too much weeks old. But yeah, China has five groups itself.

So because China is very specific in terms of the cities which are, you know, specialised in specific technologies. So yeah, there are different groups all around the world but it all started in London with Tech London Advocates.

Iyabo Oba

:: 02:17

Amazing.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 02:19

Which is, you know, which is how it all came about. Like what was it, 11 years ago?

Just bringing together startup founders, corporate companies, investors and getting them to connect and then facilitate relationships. That's literally how it started. And we will do it on a voluntary basis.

Everybody's doing their own thing but everybody gets together and do it on a voluntary basis which creates amazing connections, you know, throughout the network, but you know, across different geographies. And that's one of the reasons why I do it.

So for me writing Technology Advocates, I think about how can we connect Nigeria to those different tech ecosystems? What does Nigerian currently need with its existing, what it currently has as a tech landscape and how can those other countries help?

What learnings can we g. Sure. From Those places and where's the business opportunities, et cetera. So I do that.

I wound it down at the end of: 2022

Building a business that's Africa focused, or even just one country focused in Africa is hard. Like, it is hard in so many different ways that, you know, people don't expect it.

And even as a Nigerian and understanding the culture, there are just things that happen. Anything. Okay, yeah, I can sit here and back my head against brick wall, or I can let it go.

And I'm very good at being very practical about building business.

You have to know that you've got certain KPIs, and actually if you're not moving towards that, know that when you're in a tarp, let it, let cut, cut loose, let it go. Yeah. So, yeah, I did that. But originally my background was actually in advertising.

Iyabo Oba

:: 04:21

That's amazing.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 04:22

Yeah. Did that for 16 plus years and then decided, enough of that jazz. Like, I totally fell out of love with it. Yeah, I'm over it. I'm so over that.

Iyabo Oba

:: 04:35

And then there's the ultimate pivot. Well, not the ultimate, but like, I.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 04:40

Mean, it was a crazy pivot. Cause I quit. And everybody said, what are you gonna go and do? I was like, I don't know, I'll go figure it out as we go along.

So it's just a journey of discovery. I've always been tech curious. Yes. I mean, for very, very long time.

And I learned to code, like, at some point in the early noughties out of frustration because, you know, trying to get the tech department to do update something on the website. And they didn't. I was like, well, I'll do it myself. Then I was like, well, what do I need to do? Right, Right. So it's called HTML.

This is what you need to do. I give you the access to get into. So I wrote a piece of HTML code and that was that. And I'm like, huh?

Because I've always been interested in how things work.

Iyabo Oba

:: 05:25

Yes.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 05:27

So for me, that's why I'm like, if you can do it yourself, then why not? And with coding, it's never as hard as people think it is. I'm like, it's just a language.

Iyabo Oba

:: 05:35

Indeed.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 05:36

And I'm like, a website is a box in a box in a box. People look at me, go home like, it's a Box in a box in a box. That's what it is.

And then a box in a box and then you write stuff and it's just in a slightly different language, that's all. It ain't that hard.

Iyabo Oba

:: 05:50

So just a gentle steering of like there's always been sort of the relational side of things in all of the things that you've done. So just on that. So I mean we're, we're talking here about, it's fascinating here about your background and what brought you to this point.

We sort of the focus of our time here is going to be about AI specifically. So in your. One of the sort of key areas that we enjoy or we want to unpack is what things have.

How have you seen AI play out in your current like capacity within the startup world, within your tech, London Global advocates and Nigeria world? And then how have you seen it play out with regard to sort of relationally amongst those groups? What things have you been able to observe and see?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 06:48

AI is a funny one. I kind of sit there going, okay, we're going through a hype cycle. And I'm like, oh, two, three years ago it was machine learning.

Every startup and their dog was a machine learning startup. Now every startup and their dog are AI starts off and I'm just like, here we go again. Yeah, like literally that's how I feel. It is.

I mean, it's exciting in the sense that, you know, I've been reading books over the years about when we're going to get to super intelligence. So when you read those books and there's, and there's always disagree, there's such massive disagreement as to when that would actually happen.

When I say super intelligence, superintelligence basically means when we get to the point where, you know, the machines themselves actually do not need the input of humans and they start to do for themselves, but they surpassed human intelligence. So because they've surpassed them, we no longer have control of them. So there, you know, there's arguments.

You'll be in 50 years time, it will be 100 years time. He will never actually happen.

And it's funny because earlier this year I actually took one of the books that, because I hadn't read it, AI Ethics, I took it to Liberia. So I had to go and do a project in Liberia.

Iyabo Oba

:: 08:01

Yeah, who was that by?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 08:03

I can't remember who it's actually by, but you can Google it.

But it's called AR Ethics and it actually says in there, you know, we're not going to get to AGI and I'M like, and this book is about what, five, six years old? So five, six years ago, the idea that generative AI would get there was questionable.

Iyabo Oba

:: 08:27

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 08:28

So reading the book like earlier this year, I think it was in February or March, I just, I literally sat and laughed, went, wow, okay, well here we are. Because we are actually here. Yeah, you know, it has arrived and it's something that, you know, everybody's embraced.

Nigeria in particular have been, you know, that's the wayside. Nigerians are quick to, you know, to adopt technology as soon as soon as it comes out.

And there's actually a startup that's based in Ikurodu just in the outskirts of Lago, got something they call Awari. They are developing a local LLM.

Iyabo Oba

:: 09:07

Oh they.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 09:09

And then they haven't been at it for six months. No, they've been at it for, you know, a couple of years.

So but they've been quietly getting on with it and just being head down doing what they're doing.

But typically like everybody else, you know, Nigerian startups are like, okay, so we're going to integrate, you know, gen AI into, you know, what we're actually building. The question is what value.

Iyabo Oba

:: 09:32

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 09:32

Is extremely delivering.

Even the government themselves are heavily focused on, okay, so we need to adopt AI as a technology and encourage startups to use it to solve some of our big social challenges. But my fear is what value does it really bring? Do we truly understand how to utilise it?

Not for the sake of utilising it, but does the user case make sense? And I think it's the same across any of the GTA groups.

You can go to any of the vertical groups because we also have vertical groups or any of the country groups.

You will hear very similar conversations and very similar thoughts in terms of okay, beyond the hype, realistically speaking, what are the real kind of useful applications and does it stack up right? AI casts you.

Iyabo Oba

:: 10:30

Yes, it does.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 10:31

Like now you kind of have to rub your chest a little bit because I'm like GPUs compute power in Nigeria. I'm like power, you know, the amount of power that it actually consumes.

% in: 2023

Iyabo Oba

:: 10:58

Yeah, there's a lot going on there.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 10:59

So that net zero think that gun out the window. Forget that.

Iyabo Oba

:: 11:04

I'm just, I'm intrigued by your point about the fact that you said what is the substantive impact for society for with AI and just obviously there are great, great benefits. But sort of, you know, well, how can that, how can we sort of, how can that be utilised?

What are the things that you've seen that you think, oh, this could be really good. And in regard to helping enhance human connectivity, what things do you sort of.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 11:33

I mean, from a, when I think about it from a business perspective, for me, I always look at mundane things, the repetitive things that we have to do. And that's the thing, that's the one thing that everybody's in agreement with that actually that's what AI is great for.

It doesn't matter whether it's a co-pilot or as an AI agent, the ability to actually use to take out a lot of those mundane tasks and allow, you know, allow people to actually focus on the real important things. Because if you think about 100% of your day, if you're spending 50% of your day doing repetitive tasks, that is costing business money.

Iyabo Oba

:: 12:11

Yes.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 12:12

If you're able to then go, well, I'll spend 100% of my day actually doing things that need to be done that, things that deliver value. Then as an employer, I'm thinking, yeah, I'm getting greater value out of my employees.

Iyabo Oba

:: 12:25

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 12:25

And also, you know, my employees or my team, they are actually getting more at the work that they're actually doing.

Because who wants to sit so with my UX design head on, because I'm a UX designer by trade, with my UX design hat on, the fact that I have to, when I'm designing and I'm thinking about, you know, a, you know, and I'm designing a, you know, a prototype and to do that I have to think about every single step of the product. So I am thinking about it as a storyboard. So you design every step and it's very long, it's very repetitive.

The beauty of I copilot actually assists you in doing that. So it's, you know, it assists you in part of your workflow. I can design, you know, the first part.

So if there are 10 different steps I'm not doing, you know, 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, then 2 to 1, 2.32, I just do 1 to 10. The copilot does everything else that comes underneath. Great. I can then just get on the prototype in it.

Or actually the copilot might figure, well, oh, it's done all this. These is what then needs to happen in terms of the connectives, in terms of how it's going to Work as a, as a flow.

When a human starts, you know, actually going through it and playing with it. And that's the beauty of AI. So I look at that and I'm like, yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that is amazing.

Iyabo Oba

:: 13:49

And then that, as you say, sort of, then that's where you can sort of demonstrate value to your employer or to the good of society.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 13:57

Because the value of. When you're thinking about the time that, you know, the development. Development time costs a ton of money.

So, you know, with any company that uses, I mean, every tech has across. Cuts across everything, right? Doesn't matter whether it's a web designer, even with marketers, they use in technology all day long.

And in a company, people use technology, it's part of their day to day, you know, whether they use an email, whatever.

But when it comes to development, the amount of time that it takes to actually develop, you know, a product, if you're able to shave 20, 30% off of that, do you know how much money that's saving you?

Iyabo Oba

:: 14:35

Absolutely.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 14:36

So you'll embrace that? Yeah, we'll take it.

Iyabo Oba

:: 14:39

Yeah, indeed. I'm just intrigued as well. Sort of thinking about like wider society as well.

We talked briefly, just you mentioning about sort of the use of AI co-pilots or assistants with regard to looking after different members of society. So you. There was a New York.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 15:02

Oh yeah, the new. That was an interesting one. So I saw that article and I was like, oh, good Lord. And I know a little bit about it.

So, I mean, over the years there's been lots of conversation in terms of, you know, vulnerable people who were at home, you know, who are ill. And first it started with Iot. Okay, right, Saying, you know, we're going to put cords in a house, are we going to put sensors in a house?

So if somebody, somebody's elderly and they're falling down on the floor, the sensor may pick up the fact that there's no movement, right? And so it will alert a family member, it may alert emergency services, whatever. That's one thing you go, okay.

But this particular article then highlighted the fact that there was a startup that actually built a product that actually was, you know, was providing virtual companions for the elderly. And I kind of had to sit down and think about that going, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

The Global north is so broken in terms of its family system and that traditional family structure because there's no such things as generational households. So as an elderly person, you're in a house by yourself. And so you need a companion, but it's a machine based companion, not a human companion.

I think there's something really sad about that. And literally I sat and thought about myself and I was like, good God, I hope I don't get to that point in my life where my companion is a machine.

I something. I just think that's something intrinsically wrong with society when it's like that's okay, that's fine. It's not fine. Yeah, it's not fine.

And when I think about technological development, there's always been that divide between Global north and Global south or the global majority. And I'm like, please don't let the global majority get there. No, because that's not right. It's not.

Iyabo Oba

:: 17:04

How do you so in that way, sort of with the global majority, how do we, how do, how.

What are the advancements that could be used whereby there are sort of the positive aspects of AI that can be used to sort of enhance the community setup? I mean ultimately I too am of the opinion that you need, you'll, you'll need a combination of the two that makes it work best.

But perhaps over reliance in the Global north means that it's due to the fracturing of relationship because of, you know, there's lots of studies about loneliness that takes place in the Global north at huge levels. Impacts on mental health, sort of what are the things?

Or phrasing it differently, if you ran the world, how would you use AI positively in the Global north to resolve the issue of loneliness? And then also what would it look like for the Global South? What would ideas come to mind?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 18:03

Global north needs less technology for a start off. I think there's an over reliance on technology and that is a huge problem.

Again, if you kind of look at, you know, tech ecosystems and you look at some of the tech startups on the problems that they're solving and I just kind of go, is that a problem? The amount of times we laugh, we laugh about this thing, it's just like western problems, like literally it's like that's, that's not a problem.

And yet they get funded and they do the thing. And I'm like, that really is not an actual problem. I just want to know what a proper problem is.

Get on a plane, go anywhere in merch market and you will see what our actual problem is. So for me, if I was, if I don't know, if I ran the world, what would I do in the Global South?

I think I, you know, I'd potentially look at some of the bigger social challenges that they have, anything that can even solve infrastructure problems. I'm like the basics, the things we take for granted here, like we've got 24 hour electric, we have clean water, we've got roads everywhere, it works.

But I'm like we still have that as an issue.

So before we start getting excited about what AI can do, I'm like, well, can we have the power in order, you know, to be able to do what we need to do with AI? That would be lovely. And you know, can we actually have efficiently running water? Because we need water to actually cool down the data centres.

Iyabo Oba

:: 19:36

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 19:36

And perhaps we need to get to that bit first before we even think about what AI can actually do. Just like the basics, we need to get around that.

But when I think about Nigeria in particular at the moment, one of the biggest problems they're actually having is with fraud. Ah, it's such a huge problem. So Nigeria is filling brilliant minded individuals.

Iyabo Oba

:: 20:00

Absolutely.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 20:01

And the pace at which technology is adopted, not just for good, unfortunately for bad.

So when it comes to things like loans, so identities are stolen quite frequently and literally they'll take somebody's identity and use it unfortunately, open a bank account, get a mortgage to get a loan, blah, blah, all that. But literally it's done so fast that they can't keep up fast enough. So it's one of the big issues that they're actually having in their.

When it comes to banks and you know, the finance ecosystem out there is how to resolve that. The Ministry of Finance, cpn, they're all over it and it's just like right, but we. Sub security, sub security, sub security.

Because fraud, fraud, fraud.

And it's just like okay, because the fraudsters are moving way faster, adopting technology, but unfortunately for negative purposes, for financial gains. I'm like okay, so that, that's on like AI good and bad thing. Actually, I tell you what I saw the other day, which was interesting. So Smile id.

So Smile ID is a KYC company. Smile id Literally they ran a video and said they basically make a video and it was a fake video.

Iyabo Oba

:: 21:27

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 21:27

So it's one of the, one of the issues that he had and it's literally just like right, imagine you get a call from your boss or a video call from your boss. That zoo says oh, you need to, we need to move money to, blah blah blah, you know, so there's a financial transaction involved.

But you're seeing his face, you're hearing his voice.

Iyabo Oba

:: 21:46

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 21:46

So of course you're going to do it. Why would you question it? But it's not him.

Iyabo Oba

:: 21:51

It's a deep fake.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 21:52

It's a deep fake.

Iyabo Oba

:: 21:53

Wow.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 21:54

And I kind of stopped and stared at it and went like, literally. That's all I could put, like literally and just retweet that. I was just like, why would you question it? Because it was a deep fake.

That's where we're at.

Iyabo Oba

:: 22:08

Yeah. Interesting times. Interesting times.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 22:13

Very. So. Yeah.

Iyabo Oba

:: 22:15

And so.

So one of the sort of other themes that we love to cover with, on, on the, with AIFM network is what do you see happening in the next 10 to 15 years within this space? How do you see it again?

The impact on focusing on how relationships can work or not, or the impact in business as we talked about, or all the economic stuff, sphere or sociologically, what sort of things do you see?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 22:48

I'm hoping the impact be more on the in, in terms of work and the business side of things rather than in terms of human interactions. As humans, we are social beings and I don't think anything should get in the way of us being social beings.

We've already seen, I mean, essentially we're all walking around with AI in our pockets, right. Mobile phones. We've already seen what that has done in terms of, you know, fracturing the nature of human relationships.

Because where you could have, you can meet somebody face to face, but. Oh no, but I can just talk to them on my phone because I can WhatsApp them, I can send them a Facebook message or I can talk to them via Expert.

Oh God. I go and sit down and chat. Yeah, A lot of people struggle with, you know, that face to face interaction.

They feel more comfortable actually interacting, you know, via applications. And again, and I think there's something quite sad about that. So how can I actually improve human interaction? I'm not sure that I see it.

I see it as an interruption.

Iyabo Oba

:: 23:57

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 23:58

Rather than an enhancement from a business perspective, however, you know, I think they, you know, the opportunities there are huge.

My concern is the jobs, you know, so the, when you look at things like virtual assistants, so you think about customer services department, how they've been scaled down because that low level end of the, of customers service, it's like, well, we'll put, you know, AI assistants in there or. Sorry, I say chat assistants and I'm like, yeah, but as humans we just get frustrated when we have to interact with them.

Because when you're trying to think about, you know, the reasons why a human, you know, a customer is going to interact there and how they're going to interact. That is one of the things that actually most businesses haven't figured out. I think over the next 10 years they will figure it out.

But I think that you know, that encroachment of going, oh, but it's the low level, it's going to move way beyond that. Yeah, way beyond that. Where it's not just going to be at that low basic level. It will be, well it will iterate, it'll get better.

So actually you can move to level two and then we'll iterate that, we'll conquer that and then we'll move to level three.

And there's a point at which you know, you can actually, because you can actually get them because the machines can actually then start to decide, well actually this is what should come next. Yeah, well when the machine starts to decide and all humans are doing are actually evaluating, that's when we're in trouble.

Iyabo Oba

:: 25:21

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 25:22

So I think that will happen quicker than we expect. But then I also think that a huge amount of jobs that don't currently exist now will also exist. Right.

So as much as everybody keeps, there's this whole again I can't look at, it goes a little bit, you know, it's too much hype. Oh, we're going to lose our jobs, you know, and all these jobs that the machines are going to take.

And I'm like, like there's no different from what's happened over the, you know, last two, 300 years. That's what happens. You know, humans, we evolved, society evolves, you know, we no longer an agrarian society.

Iyabo Oba

:: 25:52

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 25:53

You know, we moved on from, you know, industrial society and we're not a service based, you know, you know, society said we're technology based, we're just kind of moving to the kind of, you know, kind of further end of what it means to be a technological society. But I just think that we're just going to end up with a whole bunch of roles that right now we're like, yeah, huh. Well it's like prompt engineering.

Yeah. No, that did not exist like two, three years ago, but it does now.

Iyabo Oba

:: 26:20

Indeed.

So and even then like the pace of change of those types of roles, you'd think they're needed now, but like actually they may not be needed two, three years from now.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 26:31

Yeah, they may not be because again, you know, that is something that actually, you know, AI is intelligent and I thought the machine's intelligent enough in terms of, you know, the instructions you put into it.

Because when they're self learning they can actually learn and go, oh, okay, so, so these are the kind of prompts that put, okay, so just randomly say something. Don't even have to really think about how to write it. But I can then actually go, you know, the AI then go, oh, so this is what the prompt should be.

And then give you the answer. Or all you do is just look at the prompt, go, yeah, okay, tweak it. And then that's it.

But I do think there's going to be a ton of roles that did not exist.

Iyabo Oba

:: 27:10

Absolutely.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 27:10

Just as, you know, as much as roles will disappear, there will always be a bunch of roles that did not exist. And then we're going to be in that situation again where it's like, oh, my God, we don't, you know, the education system is not providing for that.

My God, you know, there's not enough people in the bathroom cycles. It is what it is.

Iyabo Oba

:: 27:28

Yeah.

I mean, it is interesting that it was talking about the fact that, you know, from us moving from the agrarian society into the industrial phase, into the technological phase, into the services phase, and now into gen AI, it's sort of the actual patterns are very similar and the fact that there will be displacement, there will be.

It's natural, but then actually, as a result, there's going to be a real sort of need to empower individuals, be it and societies in order to be able to sort of grasp what's required for the new sort of the new.

Iyabo Oba

:: 28:02

Age, so to speak.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 28:03

And they will.

Iyabo Oba

:: 28:04

Yeah, and they will.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 28:05

Because that's what we humans, that's what we do.

Iyabo Oba

:: 28:08

Absolutely right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 28:09

So there's going to be a generation of children who are born who don't know any better. Just like the generation of children who don't know any better because mobile phones are there not. There will be. This next generation will be like.

Of course, AI is like, what are you talking about? Of course there's a world where they didn't exist sort of thing. But one thing to actually say, so we keep talking about AI as though it's new.

It's actually not that new. And I'm not talking about deterministic AI, I'm actually talking about.

akin to a chatbot was back in: 1967

Iyabo Oba

:: 28:47

Oh, wow.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 28:48

Yeah. So you can actually go to YouTube and you can actually go and play with, you know, can actually go and see Eliza. I think there's a. There's a.

liza would give you feedback.: 1967

But it's not new, but it's the now we've gotten to a point where it's like actually it's been refined in a way that now actually makes sense and we can, you know, it can actually scale. You know, when you think about the pace at which OpenAI acquired its first hundred users, it did it in two months.

Iyabo Oba

:: 29:28

That's.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 29:28

Yeah. YouTube. It took them 49 months. It took WhatsApp 40 months. Like two months. That is nuts.

Iyabo Oba

:: 29:37

Wow.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 29:37

So that's, that's where we've got to with. With gen AI.

Iyabo Oba

:: 29:43

And so and on that point about sort of acquisition of like sort of different groupings of people, we, I think just that whole thing of what do you think about sort of the relationships between the big dominant players sort of as OpenAI or Gemini or.

You know, we're talking about Microsoft and IBM and how Microsoft has done a sort of stealth move with regard to how it's brought up market share and doing sort of the land grab approach. What do you think about that?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 30:19

Well, I mean IBM has always played in this space with IBM, Watson, so they've always been there. Microsoft, however, it was very reactionary.

You think about Microsoft and Microsoft is not, you don't think of it as the most innovative company out there.

And it's not, if you look at search, you know, being a kind of lots of position, you know, so long ago to Google that, you know, Google is a noun, right? So sits there talking about Bing. And for Google, you know, I was actually reading articles.

So for Google it was actually a conversation, you know, around, you know, the fear that Google were moving at such a pace with AI and they were losing ground to them. That's what actually prompted the purchase, you know, that actually the $1 billion, the initial $1 billion investment in OpenAI.

But I look at that deal, I'm like, okay, that came out of fear. But it's a pretty shrewd move because it's not an equity investment.

It's actually in $1 billion that they gave them and they've since given them another 10 billion. But what they actually get in return is half of OpenAI's revenue until, you know, a certain amount of that 1 billion is actually being returned.

I don't know exactly how much, but a certain amount of it has been returned. So I'm like, right, so you've given them money in order to get back your money, but also, you know, also have the ip.

But it gives them enough time to actually, you know, to make sure that AI is truly integrated into their software. Because it doesn't matter where you go in the world. Every man and his dog uses Microsoft.

Iyabo Oba

:: 31:59

A fact.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 32:00

So when it's integrated and sit, they're good to go. This is not a question about Bing. This is a question about Microsoft's, you know, Microsoft's product, You know, full suite of products.

Iyabo Oba

:: 32:12

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 32:12

Not just Bing. That just takes them right back up to that dominant position that they once had before.

Because you're more likely, you know, to use Word than more people use Word than they use Google Docs.

Iyabo Oba

:: 32:25

I didn't know that.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 32:28

It is what it is. You know, you more likely to use that than, you know, use anything else. So, you know, think about it in enterprise. Yeah. When it comes to corporate.

Which corporate companies using Google Docs? Show me, you know, come and tell me about it. Because that's not what they use. They use Microsoft products.

So it was very important to make sure that actually, you know, that the AI capabilities are integrated into that. And of course, what Google showed was what it was possible to do with email.

Iyabo Oba

:: 33:02

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 33:03

So, you know, with the prompter, so you're writing email and then it basically finishes your email for you. And it's just like, yeah, I need to get in on that one.

Iyabo Oba

:: 33:12

And they. And yeah, sort of. And do you think that sort of Google missed a trick on that or did Google goo.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 33:21

Where Google missed out is they are taking so long to actually develop their product. It's like, how long was it taking? You know, Gemini.

All of a sudden they had to jump, but it's just like it was taking them so long that literally it just, you know, it felt they were caught napping.

When it came to OpenAI, you know, when Open AI suddenly came, you know, came out and it was just like, well, obviously, you know, ebay people would have known in the market, especially in Silicon Valley, et cetera. Nothing's kept quiet. But they came out.

And the pace at which they went from no one knowing about who the hell they were to everybody knowing who they were. As I said, two months for them to get 100 million users. Google Mate, Word. Somebody somewhere was asleep.

And then it was like they had to move at stupid pace.

Iyabo Oba

:: 34:09

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 34:09

To suddenly go, oh, okay, we need to move way faster to actually lease what we're actually doing. In the meantime, Microsoft has gotten via the back door. Wow. At the end of the day, this is all about who has control, who's controlling the market.

This is about dominating the market and it's a constant fight.

Iyabo Oba

:: 34:30

And that whole thing of those two core elements of control and fear, very human elements to how, or you know, just looking at how this tool of AI can be used just to perpetuate or just to ensure that you are dominant in the market, be it you being an individual or one a social, a big corporation. So.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 34:52

Yeah, because it ensures. Because once you start to use it on a day to day in basis. Right. So you're as a consumer, it becomes your norm.

And so again you don't really think about it because ultimately we're not going to be using it as consumers, we're not going to be using OpenAI as we do now in the future. It's going to slip into the background that you don't even notice it.

Iyabo Oba

:: 35:15

Yeah, indeed.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 35:16

Right. And that's what's going to happen. And everybody's jostling, you know, they're all the players who are all jostling for.

Well, this is what has been used in the background, that's what they're jostling for. Because at the end of the day it equates to dollars. That's what it all comes down to. Yeah.

So you want to be the one that has the last largest market share in terms of the use of, you know, any kind of air product that's out there. So that whole we're not going to be running around saying the word gen AI in ten years from now.

It's like he's in the background there somewhere, you know. Who's this again? Yeah. Oh, you know that Python. But nobody says Python I'm afraid. Oh yeah, yeah. React is used to build, you know, my app.

No, it's an app. I interact with the app.

Iyabo Oba

:: 36:02

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 36:02

The fact that it's built on React, whatever, like average person on the road, they don't know that, they don't care. They just want to open an app.

Iyabo Oba

:: 36:12

Yeah. They just want to be able to do the function, the functional thing that will help life along. Exactly. I've just got one more question.

What do you see as the biggest innovations with regard to AI in this space? I know we talked about sort of the next five to 10 years and what it looks like currently. So what's the big innovation piece?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 36:35

I think some of the things I am most fascinated by is around healthcare.

Iyabo Oba

:: 36:41

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 36:41

Because when you're thinking about, you know, things like diagnosis, you know, the pace at which you can actually diagnose a problem because the amount of data that is actually fed into AI systems to be Able to spot things that. Anomalies that you would otherwise not be able to spot or it may take a damn long time to spot that. And I'm like, now you're talking.

And some of those things can be. Because I'm trying to remember. There's a. Who the heck.

There's a startup in Ghana and they specialise in diseases that are prevalent or very specific to black people in the African continent.

And sometimes conditions, you know, occur when you're, you know, you know, act in, in the west that the doctors cannot identify what they've actually done. So they've been doing, you know, DNA sequencing and identifying all these diseases and they're actually working with those hospitals.

Like they've got a ton of data from American hospitals that's been given to them because they actually, I. Because it started with them identifying a particular condition with a patient.

Iyabo Oba

:: 37:54

Right.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 37:55

Because she happened to be, I should think she was Ghanaian, if I remember rightly. I can't remember, but it was unique because she. Because she had it. Because she was Gwen Lane.

And it's something that is, you know, would only occur because of the fact that she's black and she's from the African continent.

And so it was very easy for them to then, you know, kind of then start to talk to hospitals around the US and we give you the data again to be able to identify, well, what are these conditions that exist that we actually are not aware of or we've taken so long to diagnose, but that you guys are aware of. So.

Yeah, so when I look, when I think about AI from that perspective, I'm like, yeah, that, that is a total, you know, paradigm shift that kind of be able to use it to improve health outcomes of humans. And for me, I think that's one of the, you know, one of the areas where there's going to be some real positive momentum.

Iyabo Oba

:: 38:58

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 38:58

In healthcare, definitely. Just as, you know, robotics has been.

Iyabo Oba

:: 39:02

Yeah, indeed. Well, thank you so much for all of your amazing insight and knowledge and sharing that with us today.

I've certainly learned a huge amount and it's just. I know. I'm sure our listeners will have too. I was going to ask one final thing. In order to find you. Could you just give us a.

A little breakdown of your socials and where people can connect with you?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 39:30

You're assuming I want to be found.

Iyabo Oba

:: 39:33

Well, indeed. Would you like to be found?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 39:37

I like to like, keep, keep shtum and keep quiet over in a corner. My bit of business. Like, I mean, the best way to find me is on LinkedIn.

But if I don't know you, I don't accept people's LinkedIn because I'm like, I don't know. Because for me, I. And this is what I go back to human relationships. Right. I have to be able to go, well, I met you here and we talked about her.

Because I have memory like an elephant. I can, I can tell you all kinds of craziness about the time that we met.

So when somebody's reached out to me on LinkedIn and I was just like, who are you? I don't know.

Iyabo Oba

:: 40:12

Well, in the spirit of the relationship side of things and how to, and how to foster that relationship, what's the best way of fostering relationship with you?

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 40:20

And then, and then you have to cross paths. Yes. We definitely. I'm.

Iyabo Oba

:: 40:26

You're.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 40:26

I'm a social being.

Iyabo Oba

:: 40:27

You're in real life.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 40:28

I'm a social being. We have to cross bars, we have to wax lyrical.

Iyabo Oba

:: 40:32

Yes.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 40:32

I'm like, yeah. Because I remember what we spoke about.

Iyabo Oba

:: 40:35

Yeah.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 40:35

So that thing. And you know, it makes a. To me, it makes a huge difference. That context is the, you know, it's how I build relationships with humans. Yeah.

I want X, but like I'm barely on there. Yeah, like, good luck. You may see me on there like once every six months if you're lucky. But you won't see me.

Cuz I'm scrolling through stuff and I'm like, okay, I might comment on the thing or look at you go, okay, that's it. Yeah, like you follow me. I'm like, okay, great. But I don't really do anything on here, so not anymore.

Iyabo Oba

:: 41:06

Thank you.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 41:07

D. Connect with me, human. Fight me somewhere if you find me.

Iyabo Oba

:: 41:13

Love that. Well, I met you at an event.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 41:15

Exactly.

Iyabo Oba

:: 41:17

And here you are today. And I'm very appreciative of that. You give me just so much, sort of so many things to think about and this has been a really rich conversation.

So thank you. Really appreciate you being here.

Emem Rita Usanga

:: 41:28

Well, thank you for inviting me and having me.

Iyabo Oba

:: 41:31

Yeah, thank you.

Iyabo Oba

:: 41:34

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Relationships WithAI. If you haven't already and you like what you heard, click on the subscribe button and leave a review.

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