Asia's tech titans say people will be at the heart of AI age

Alibaba founder, Softbank boss emphasise need for right focus to breed curious minds

SoftBank Group's founder and CEO Masayoshi Son and Alibaba Group Holding's co-founder Jack Ma at the Tokyo Forum 2019 on Dec 6, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS

People will be at the heart of the age of artificial intelligence (AI), two of Asia's tech titans and investors said yesterday, as they urged a fundamental shift in how schools and workplaces are run to breed curious minds.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Softbank's Masayoshi Son - two kindred spirits and friends who regularly debate and discuss philosophy - said innovation will be held at a greater premium in the future.

"People have to learn, and the best university is society. The best teachers are the mistakes," said Mr Ma, 55, who retired in September as chief executive of the e-commerce giant to focus on philanthropy.

"We used to teach people to remember more, calculate faster, make them more knowledgeable," he said. "But now we are making machines like people. So we have to change the way of education to make sure our kids are creative, constructive and innovative."

Mr Son, 62, concurred, saying concerns that AI will cost jobs are overblown, noting that it would be similar to when Japan shifted away from an agrarian society with the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

He said: "New jobs will be created, and we will always find new exciting stuff to do."

The duo were speaking at an hour-long dialogue session at the first Tokyo Forum, which is jointly organised by Japan's University of Tokyo and South Korea's Chey Institute for Advanced Studies.

Mr Son was arguably instrumental to Alibaba's eventual explosive growth, investing US$20 million in the fledgling start-up in 2000.

He continues to be a pivotal player in the global start-up ecosystem through the US$100 billion Softbank Vision Fund, which has invested in companies such as Singapore ride-sharing firm Grab, Hong Kong-based travel firm Klook and Indian hotel chain Oyo.

His investment strategy recently made headlines for the wrong reasons with the implosion of shared-office start-up WeWork, and write-downs in firms like Uber.

Last month, he said he had misjudged WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann's character, after faltering bets led to a second-quarter operating loss of US$8.9 billion (S$12 billion) for the start-up.

However, he said yesterday that he continues to prize his instinct-driven strategy, looking for the "passion, the gleam in the eye" over properly laid-out business plans, as he had done with Alibaba. "I always say that dogs and wolves look alike, but dogs can tell a wolf. I can smell (Mr Ma) - we are the same animal, we are both a little crazy," he said.

Acknowledging his recent missteps, he stressed his singular vision on building a successor to the Vision Fund that can "invest in the same kind of scale (to find) young, crazy, passionate entrepreneurs and help them change the world".

Whether a start-up or a long-established firm, both agree company leaders must lead the direction and invest heavily in their employees.

"The first and most important product of every company is your employee," Mr Ma stressed. "If you cannot improve your employees, I don't believe you can improve your service or your products."

He added: "You have to encourage, enable, inspire them... Build up a great team, find the right people, enable them rather than discipline them. Only if you build a good culture can people feel comfortable to become better."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 07, 2019, with the headline Asia's tech titans say people will be at the heart of AI age. Subscribe