The Straits Times | Lunch With Sumiko: A.I. is like a tsunami: Jefferson Chen - video Dailymotion

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In just eight years, Advance Intelligence Group has become a fintech powerhouse valued at $2.6 billion. Co-founder and CEO Jefferson Chen discusses the future of artificial intelligence with Sumiko Tan and says that AI is like “a tsunami coming”.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Artificial intelligence is meant to be acting like a human as much as possible,

00:04but we're still far away from the AGI, human-level intelligence.

00:08It will take some time.

00:10Jefferson Chan is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Advanced Intelligence Group,

00:16a technology startup providing products and services powered by artificial intelligence.

00:23Its brands include Atomi, a buy-now-pay-later platform

00:27allowing consumers to split their bills into multiple payments.

00:31Born in Fujian, China, the 42-year-old Singaporean was a hedge fund manager before starting at Vance.

00:39I'm Sumikri Tan, executive editor of The Straits Times.

00:43I'm meeting Mr Chan for lunch at Tong Le Private Dining in Oyu Itawa.

00:57Your most consumer-facing product would be Atomi. How did that come about?

01:01So, Atomi means available to me.

01:04In my first year of business planning, we started different fintech business models around the world.

01:11And one of the companies that we started was Klarna.

01:14They were the pioneer for buy-now-pay-later products back in Europe.

01:17And then around 2018, Afterpay took off from Australia in a very similar space.

01:24Fundamentally, it's a platform that connects the merchants with the consumers

01:28and be able to help the consumers improve their affordability of the product

01:32and also help the merchants achieve higher commercial rates on their sales process.

01:36So, we learned about the story about Afterpay and Klarna.

01:41And then around COVID, a lot of retail companies were looking for new solutions

01:47to improve the affordability of their customers.

01:51We launched that in Singapore and then we expanded to Southeast Asia.

01:56What's the biggest challenge or challenges of being in the AI business?

02:00I think it's about speed to learn.

02:04Because this space evolves so fast.

02:06Almost every other few weeks, there's a new breakthrough in the field.

02:12So, we need to really understand what's happening, understand what's the breakthrough and what's the boundary.

02:20What are the limitations of technology?

02:23And be able to articulate and define the ability of adopting this kind of technology

02:30in the financial services industry.

02:32Why did you choose to headquarter Advance in Singapore?

02:35I came here in 2006.

02:37So, I've been living here for the past almost 20 years, 18 years.

02:40So, Singapore feels home to me.

02:42When I started the business, I think the US, China and some other markets

02:45already saw the first wave of innovations in the fintech space.

02:48And AI, I think, was more developed in those markets.

02:51So, I think there was an opportunity for us to take the learnings from some of the other markets

02:58and bring it here to Southeast Asia.

03:00So, Singapore was the right place to be.

03:02And AI, I mean, is the buzzword.

03:04Are there any downsides to AI in our lives?

03:06Definitely.

03:07I mean, AI safety is one of the biggest concerns for people.

03:10And also, if you look at the transformer-based foundation models,

03:14essentially the backbone for ChargerBT,

03:16I think there are limitations.

03:18For example, hallucination.

03:19It means that some information or output generated from the model

03:23may not exactly represent the truth.

03:25What's an average person to do to safeguard against that?

03:29Be open-minded to try some of these applications

03:34so that you know what are the capabilities of this new technology.

03:40This is like tsunami coming.

03:41It's not like you can hide away from it.

03:43You know, Facebook, Google, Apple even now, right?

03:47Everybody is already integrating this technology into the device,

03:51the services, which is consumed by pretty much everybody.

03:54So, inevitably, they'll be exposed to that.

03:57To protect themselves against this potential risk,

04:00I think one is the platforms.

04:02They need to be very, very cognizant of setting up the right framework.

04:07And then the government, including Singapore government,

04:09I think they are spending a huge amount of time

04:11setting up the regulatory framework

04:13to make sure that there's a certain level of protection for the consumers.

04:16And then for the consumers themselves, I think,

04:18in a way, treat AI as the human also.

04:20It's like when you get to know someone new,

04:22that you need to have a certain level of awareness

04:25and be able to tell what to believe in and what not to believe in.

04:29And then gradually, the trust will really get built up.

04:32And there are certain things that you will tell the bots

04:34and certain things you wouldn't.

04:35And your hobby is very interesting.

04:37Could you share a little bit?

04:38Well, I like basketball.

04:40I watch NBA almost every night for 10 minutes.

04:42I play basketball every Sunday.

04:43My profile photo is always associated with some kind of basketball.

04:47Another hobby is that I like creative things, animation.

04:51I spend weekends playing with the AI tools

04:53for creating short videos and animation films.

04:56And that is the future, you think?

04:58I think it is.

05:00I mean, everybody's got a passion or a story

05:04that he or she wants to tell.

05:06And now finally, there are tools available

05:08that make that process of telling the story

05:10much more easily and also interestingly.

05:14Reading a book sometimes is not a thing for everybody.

05:16But a lot of people like watching videos, watching films.

05:19A lot of people, whether they are young or old,

05:20they like watching animations.

05:22And I think that kind of format is very welcoming for most people.

05:26So I think this creates new tools and new possibilities for people.

05:29And the cost of doing so is much less.

05:31It speeds much faster.

05:33If all goes to plan,

05:34what would the next eight years be like?

05:36I'll continue to devote myself to the AI field.

05:38I think we're pretty lucky.

05:40So from the technology cycle perspective,

05:42we are finally re-entering a new wave of upcycle.

05:46The previous one was mobile.

05:48The previous one was the PC for internet.

05:50Finally, I think after mobile, which is AI.

05:53So I think I will continue to devote myself to this field

05:56in different capacities.

05:58Thank you very much for having lunch.

05:59Thank you. Thank you so much.

06:01I didn't do so well when I was in the government as a citizen.

06:04In fact, I didn't get promoted the entire five and a half years as a government scholar.

The Straits Times | Lunch With Sumiko: A.I. is like a tsunami: Jefferson Chen

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