3 Key Takeaways: Bloomberg Tech London

Visionaries, investors, founders, and policymakers gathered in London last week to discuss a topic that touches a wide-range of industries and has significant global implications: the intersection of technology and trust.

The Bloomberg Tech London event was specifically framed around this question: How much can we - and should we - trust technology? Structured in a series of panels and moderated conversations, the event's content illuminated views on both current state and future trends, encouraging members of the audience to think critically about the challenges, and potential solutions, that will help meaningfully advance the trust + technology narrative. 

Participants agreed that we operate in a world entrenched in deep fakes, misinformation, bias, and cynicism that requires the technology we build be secure enough to withstand the assault. Further, the group recognized the importance of developing tools that can establish, govern, and ensure the trust boundaries necessary to success in the digital ecosystem.   

The event illuminated three key takeaways:    

1. AI is a double edged sword. While AI is a tool and not inherently good or bad, its use by criminals is accelerating rapidly. Recent advances are making it possible to automate the 'cat and mouse game' to a greater extent than we’ve ever seen before. This increasingly makes trust a moving target — a very difficult operating environment for business leaders trying to get ahead of adversaries. 
2. Transparency yields trust, even in tech. Understanding how advanced tech such as AI works, at the appropriate levels, builds trust and fosters adoption. As tech leaders, we are challenged to ensure that understanding goes beyond technical users. If stakeholders in the broader organization understand the depth of the challenge we’re facing, they are more likely to act in a manner that helps us win. 
3. Privacy Enhancing Technologies engineer trust. Just as some technology-enabled tools are being used to advance adversarial efforts, technology can also help in the fight against malicious activity. As a category of technologies that uniquely enhance, enable, preserve the privacy and security of data throughout its lifecycle, Privacy Enhancing Technologies create trust in a way that ensures the integrity of AI systems and allows us to extract trust-critical insights from data sources across silos and boundaries. In a world where data can be used against us, it’s important to have the clearest possible view of our operating picture and feel confident that tools and workflows have not been compromised. 

Opportunities to learn and collaborate as a broader community are essential to stay ahead in our rapidly-evolving market. Thanks to Bloomberg for creating this Bloomberg Tech event as a forum for these important conversations.   

Additional Bloomberg Tech London Content:

• Panel: Dude, Where’s My Data? Protecting Your Information in the Cloud
• Panel: Operationalizing Security