Operators’ collaborative DNA will be key to their AI success

Amidst the current constant march of AI, and all the noise that surrounds those advancements, one question resounds: Where do network operators fit into the value chain?

In a recent essay, Bill Gates spelled out the social and economic risks of AI and called for policies and institutions that will help people gain more from AI than we lose. The hard questions he raises are pertinent to all sectors of society, including the telecoms industry. But there are also possibilities for communications service providers (CSPs) to draw on their historical strengths to provide some of the answers.

Gates contends that AI adoption is able to advance at a speed that makes it unlike any previous technology transition, including that sparked by the PC. Not only do people and businesses already own the smartphones and computers on which AI runs, natural language commands do away with steep learning curves. And whereas he argues that previous technologies created new jobs that require human cognition (albeit at the expense of others), AI can replace cognitive roles.

Gates’ concerns lead him to conclude: “If someone had a credible plan for slowing down AI advances globally, I would likely support it.” However, he considers a slowdown unlikely, noting that “geopolitical and economic incentives are pushing too hard to go full speed ahead.”

In outlining the risks of AI, he lists its ability to impact national security, employment, education, taxation, energy, elections, air and water, public health, the financial system, law enforcement, transportation, public lands and IT systems. 

But Gates is not alone in raising the alarm about the impact of today’s unprecedented expansion in computing power. Increasingly, the US and beyond there is a public backlash against AI data center construction that crosses the political divide.

Can telcos be part of the solution?

Telcos are not leading AI technology development. Nor are they typically today’s biggest investors in mega data centers. Instead, like many other industries, they tend to draw on AI advances to create new services or to drive internal operational efficiencies, which in turn may result in job losses.

At the same time telcos are more than just another AI customer. They provide the connectivity infrastructure on which AI services depend for cost-effective national distribution to homes and businesses. This gives them an important role in ensuring the security and energy efficiency of a crucial element of AI infrastructure. 

Some telcos already recognize the potential strength of positioning themselves as secure and sustainable national infrastructure providers. Former incumbents, in particular, are emphasizing their ‘trusted AI’ and cybersecurity credentials, while building out sovereign data and AI services and increasing their focus on national defense. And initial collaboration on network APIs, for example, has focused on exposing network capabilities that help prevent fraud and ensure trust at scale, such as number or location verification.

There is, of course, a limit to telcos’ influence. Deregulation of the 1990s greatly loosened the relationship between national government and telecoms infrastructure providers. And the last 20 years or so have seen a dilution of telcos’ relationship with customers, who may simply look to them for mobile data and broadband services.

Nonetheless, collaboration and the service of local businesses and people are in operators’ DNA. When Gates argues that “the highest priority is a monumental task: creating a domestic and international framework for dealing with AI” he speaks to an historic strength of the telecoms industry.

Telcos have long collaborated on developing and implementing national and international standards to ensure the secure and resilient interoperability of critical infrastructure at scale. And they are used to adhering to regulatory demands that have included serving remote local communities. What’s more they continue to collaborate in the age of AI, working across industry bodies, including TM Forum, to engineer ways to use AI that are secure, observable, energy efficient and possible to audit at scale.

As societies evaluate how to manage AI amid growing public concerns about technological overreach, the telecoms industry can do worse than remind us of the value of collaborating to provide infrastructure and services that emphasize security, privacy and trust.