In recent weeks Rob and Toby have veered slightly off the M&A topic to explore the emerging world of AI and how it might shake up M&A as we know it.  In doing that we've arrived at the challenges of adopting adequate regulatory and ethical controls for AI and never mind the slow cumbersome legal system and how that might cope with AI.

The key point is that AI needs global standards for regulation, ethics and legal controls and anyone with a degree of experience knows how difficult that might be to achieve. In Australia, it's almost impossible getting individual states to agree on a standard never mind a global scale.

Rob's view is that ethical and regulatory controls can be embedded into any AI programs at source and that if the big players (Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, SAP can be encouraged to do this, we might at least cover 80% of the challenge.

What are your thoughts?

Robert and Toby have been clamping at the bit to start talking about the need for strong ethics, regulatory and legal instruments to manage and control the global adoption of AI.

There's no doubt about it. AI has the equal potential to cause untold harm, and the scandal playing out with the UK Post Office is a stark reminder of how ethics can be completely railroaded. That is why it must be developed ethically. And that's what we're going to go into the next podcast. But today, we've been talking about the Post Office scandal because it offers a vivid example of when ethics and ethical principles play no part.

And I think the lesson we need to learn from this is that we must protect people themselves from the very real harm. that could be caused by AI. To do this, we need to build the ethical foundations and the framework around the technology for the common good of individuals, societies, and indeed all of humanity. Furthermore, those ethical controls must be universal. 

And that raises the question posed by Robert. Should an ethical framework be built into all AI platforms so that the user is offered no choice?  This and other questions at large will be the topic of our next podcast.

This week, the Dynamic Duo of Robert and Toby ponder on whether AI will drive a new wave of AI-influenced M&A transactions - or not.   Certainly, 2023 has seen a 40% downturn in M&A volume globally so what evidence is there that AI will offer a stimulus and create a new wave of transactions?

It's not a simple question to answer because AI is still in its infancy, but adoption is accelerating at an alarming pace whilst regulation and legal controls are somewhat lagging and undeveloped.

The duo give this topic a good thrashing and generally come out in agreement with each other that AI WILL drive a new M&A wave.  That said, Toby is of the opinion that it might be five years away because regulatory and legal reforms have not been developed.  On the other hand, Robert believes that scrupulous organisations might force legal and regulatory controls to be adopted much quicker and the expected wave might be only one or two years away. 

Time will tell.