2024 AESC Global Conference - London

As The Corporate Philosopher, I’ve worked closely with CEOs, their leadership teams, and colleagues to navigate multi-billion-dollar ethical challenges and opportunities. Each experience has been a story of reflection, learning and commitment to change for good.

Using AI Responsibly

In 2023, OLIVER, a global in-house marketing agency, asked me to help their employees explore the ethics of using generative AI in the right way. Rob Goddard, Director of Technology Solutions, reflected, “Roger facilitated an extremely well thought out and structured workshops on Ethics in AI and provided us with great insight and future thinking, provoking great interaction and feedback from our staff to set us up to think about how we can leverage AI responsibly and for the greater good”.

Since then, co-designer Pavlos Stampoulides and I have begun a research project to explore how ChatGPT, Genesis, Claude, and other AI chatbots complete our 200,000-user MoralDNA ethics profile. So far, every chatbot has deviated significantly from human moral values and reasoning, with a significant bias towards a simplistic rules-based response, devoid of any compassion. In 2024, we plan to share this emerging research not only with the developers of these chatbots but also with AI safety groups and with end-users.

Partnerships with Visionaries

In 2007, I embarked on an inspiring journey with CEO Joe Garner at HSBC, followed by collaborations at Openreach in 2012 and Nationwide Building Society in 2016. Our focus was on building a culture of social purpose and shared ethical values. Together, we worked with every leader and team on the art of making good decisions and doing the right thing. Reflecting on our journey in 2023, Joe penned a heartfelt reference, acknowledging, “Roger is brilliant in his field and thinks very differently from most. He can add massive value to individuals and organisations.”

Building a Fairer Society

In 2021, I was asked to work with the Prime Minister’s office for a national government to understand which ethical values help build a better, fairer society. We reviewed insights from anthropology, psychology and moral philosophy and identified Integrity, Humanity, Justice, Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Resilience as the foundations for a fairer and sustainable society. Whilst this work will always be a “work in progress”, for a national leader to ask this question is quite remarkable.