i3 - January/February 2019 - 10

Tech
People have legitimate concerns about
who is collecting their data, when and why.
They want to know how AI is affecting their
world. As a result of some very high-profile
mishandling of consumer data and manipulation of online platforms, we are seeing a real
crisis when it comes to trust in technology.
IBM is a 107-year old business. The reason
we've been successful for that long is because
we know how to earn the trust of our clients.
We have long followed guidelines around the
responsible handling of data and the stewardship of new technology, and we published
them a few years ago and invited others to
adopt similar commitments.
In our principles, we make clear that the purpose of AI is to augment - not replace - human
expertise; data and insights derived from it
belong to their owners and creators (not their
IT partners); and AI must be transparent and
explainable so that people and businesses are
not being asked to trust a black box. We realize,
of course, that principles alone won't address
the trust crisis. That's why we're also putting our
technology to work on the problem.
A new offering we've introduced called
IBM AI OpenScale provides an unprecedented new level of transparency and trust to
AI - irrespective of how the AI was built and
where it runs. OpenScale lets business people - even those without deep technical or
data science skills - look inside the AI "black
box" to understand how AI makes decisions.
It also continually monitors and corrects for
bias to prevent unfair outcomes.
Finally, we recognize that governments
around the world are considering whether and
how to get involved. In the past, some within
the tech industry have resisted regulation. But
we believe that, given the state of trust today,
"just say no" is no longer an acceptable stance.
We speak with government leaders on a
regular basis, and our recommendation to
them has been straightforward: fix the real
problem. That means carefully targeting any
regulation or legislation to the irresponsible
handling of consumer data. It means using a
scalpel, not a sledgehammer, that could hurt
or derail the broader digital economy.
The key here, again, is trust. Companies
must earn and strengthen it every day - as
IBM has done. We must work together to get
this right. The opportunities that data and AI
have to offer are just too important and too
positive for us not to.
10

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

2019

Q How can people best build skills for

jobs in this new era and what role
should companies and educators play?

A There are two important realities we all

need to prepare for. First, AI is going to
change 100 percent of jobs. I'm absolutely
certain about that, and the transformation
is going to touch every field and every role,
including mine. Second, we're moving into
an era where learning will never stop. As
individuals, it's going to be increasingly
important that we continually reinvent
ourselves with new skills to match the ways
technology changes how we work.
We know a thing or two about reinvention at IBM. We've done it countless times
over more than a century to deliver the new
technologies and skills our clients need,
and we've done it again for the era of data,
cloud and AI. A key part of that reinvention
is a rethinking of our approach to training
IBMers with the latest in-demand skills. We're
using AI to tailor that training and, to date, our
employees together with some of our clients
have earned more than one million digital
badges. These micro-certifications cover indemand skills that are relevant not just within
IBM, but across companies and roles.
We've also rethought our approach to
hiring and where we find talented professionals to join the company. One of the
most exciting trends today being powered
by technology is the reality that, in many
well-paying roles, you need to have certain
in-demand skills but not necessarily a
bachelor's degree. We call these new collar
jobs. Not blue collar or white collar, but
something new that's opening the technology industry to more workers with diverse

CES 2019 Ginni Rometty will give
the opening CES keynote on Jan. 8,
at 8:30 am, at the Venetian, Level 5,
Palazzo Ballroom.

backgrounds. If you have the right skills,
there's a job for you at IBM.
These jobs are in fast-growing fields
like cybersecurity, digital design and
cloud computing. These are areas vital
to IBM's long-term success. New collar
IBMers account for around 15 percent of
our annual U.S. hiring. At some of our U.S.
facilities, more than a third of IBMers don't
have a bachelor's degree. But they have the
skills, and that's what matters.
At the same time, we have a role in
preparing society for this future, as well.
We've seen great success in apprenticeships - a time-tested approach to skills
education. We launched a certified
apprenticeship program last fall, and it's
grown twice as much as we expected.
We've hired nurses and teachers who are
now full-time IBMers working in software
development and blockchain engineering. Starting in 2019, we expect to hire
nearly 500 apprentices per year.
We have also pioneered a public high
school program called Pathways in
Technology Early College High School,
or P-TECH. It's a six-year program that
lets students earn both a high school
degree and no-cost associate degree,
preparing them for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math.
Today, there are 120 P-TECH schools in
11 states and that will soon grow to 200.
There's a pipeline of 125,000 students
coming through these schools, and we're
expanding to 13 other countries. P-TECH's
on-time community college completion rate is 400 percent higher than the
national average.
We've also launched programs that are
training veterans of America's armed forces
in software that's being used by some of
our largest clients, so they can transition
to great post-military careers. And we're
providing "returnship" programs to help
women who have taken time away to raise
families rejoin the workforce in great jobs.
At IBM, we're on track to hire 25,000 U.S.
workers through 2020, and that includes
many new collar professionals and around
2,000 U.S. service veterans. We're committed to making sure more people have the
skills they need to land those jobs.

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

http://www.CES.tech

i3 - January/February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - January/February 2019