In brief
Navrina Singh, founder of Credo AI, argues that AI governance is a competitive advantage, not a compliance chore. Her image is that governance is the brakes and pit crew on a fast car, which lets a company move faster and win. Companies that treat it as an afterthought, she says, have already lost. It has to start with leadership and be built in from the beginning.
The central tension is speed versus responsibility. Companies are excited about AI innovation, but few want to be accountable for its risks, and regulators struggle to keep pace with a fast-moving technology. Singh's answer has three parts: companies should first find where AI is actually used, leaders should agree on what 'good' looks like, and public-private partnership and 'adaptive policymaking' should let rules be tested and revised quickly.
Facts
Stated by the speakers. Each quote matches the transcript, which shows what was said, not that it is true.
By 2020, Navrina Singh had worked more than two decades as a computer engineer at companies including Qualcomm and Microsoft.
“By then, Navrina Singh had already clocked over two decades as a computer engineer in big tech, at companies like Qualcomm and Microsoft.”
0:02:32 · Rana el Kaliouby · Career · 2020
Navrina Singh says Credo AI created and coined the term 'AI governance' when it was founded in 2020, when no market for it existed.
“there was no market in AI governance, you know, so it was we actually at Credo AI created and coined the term AI governance”
0:07:32 · Navrina Singh · AI governance · 2020
Navrina Singh says she sits on President Biden's National AI Advisory body, which gave her a chance to bring AI governance into government policy.
“I currently sit on President Biden's National AI Advisory Commission, and so really getting that opportunity to bring AI governance to policy and government ecosystem”
0:07:32 · Navrina Singh · Policy role
Navrina Singh says she has served for about two years on the National AI Advisory Committee, which is part of the US Department of Commerce.
“it's just been such an honor past two years to be on the National AI Advisory Committee that is part of, you know, Department of Commerce.”
0:28:56 · Navrina Singh · Policy role
Navrina Singh says that when AI took off around 2018 and 2019, many analysts believed governance would not be important.
“when artificial intelligence started to take off back in 2018, 2019, there was a thesis that, oh, governance is not gonna be important.”
0:08:19 · Navrina Singh · AI governance · 2018
Credo AI gives customers an AI governance platform that works as a dashboard for responsible-AI work such as risk assessments, policy compliance and reports.
“Credo AI customers have access to their AI governance platform. Think of it as a dashboard of all things responsible AI.”
0:09:48 · Rana el Kaliouby · Credo AI platform
Navrina Singh says companies can align their AI systems to standards such as the NIST Risk Management Framework and ISO standards.
“you can align to standards like NIST Risk Management Framework. You can align to standards like ISO.”
0:11:15 · Navrina Singh · AI standards
Rana El Kaliouby explains that the EU AI Act also affects companies outside Europe, such as US firms that provide services to Europe.
“this doesn't just affect European companies, but also companies, say, ones based in the U. S. that provide services to Europe.”
0:12:16 · Rana el Kaliouby · EU AI Act
The production company behind Pioneers of AI has a 'listener's bill of rights in the age of AI', which includes disclosing when an AI voice or clone is used.
“at the production company that produces this podcast, um, we actually have a listener's bill of rights in the age of AI.”
0:14:55 · Rana el Kaliouby · AI disclosure
Rana El Kaliouby co-founded Affectiva, which developed computer vision algorithms such as a smile detector and a drowsiness classifier.
“at Affectiva, the company I co-founded, we were developing all these computer vision algorithms, say, a smile detector or a drowsiness classifier.”
0:15:28 · Rana el Kaliouby · Affectiva
Rana El Kaliouby describes the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) as a global network of about 40,000 CEOs, and says she is a member.
“a member of the Young Presidents Organization. It's a YPO. It's a global network of about 40,000 CEOs globally.”
0:19:10 · Rana el Kaliouby · YPO
Rana El Kaliouby says she spent a few weeks in Belgium on an Eisenhower fellowship and met several European Union AI Act legislators.
“I was in Belgium for a few weeks on my Eisenhower fellowship, and I met with several of the European Union AI Act legislators”
0:25:14 · Rana el Kaliouby · Fellowship
Navrina Singh says the European Commission began work on the EU AI Act almost five years before the interview.
“European Commission started working on this almost like five years ago.”
0:25:34 · Navrina Singh · EU AI Act
Navrina Singh says the EU AI Act sets risk categories and different requirements depending on whether a company develops or provides an AI system.
“EU AI Act has a certain uh risk categorizations, uh, depending upon whether you are a developer of artificial intelligence system or you're a provider of artificial intelligence systems.”
0:26:19 · Navrina Singh · EU AI Act
Navrina Singh says there is no common definition of fairness for facial recognition systems, and that about twenty-one definitions exist.
“There is no common definition. I mean, there are twenty one definitions.”
0:27:43 · Navrina Singh · Facial recognition
Navrina Singh says the US AI Safety Institute was recently established and, with NIST, is working on AI evaluations and benchmarks.
“I am thrilled for the work that National Institute of Science and Technology and the US AI Safety Institute, which was recently established, is doing in that space.”
0:29:27 · Navrina Singh · AI evaluation
Navrina Singh describes watermarking as embedding information in AI-generated content so it can be identified as machine-made, and says it is only one piece of the solution to misuse.
“We've been discussing the concept of watermarking, where essentially you are embedding some information into AI generated content that you can decipher that this is AI generated and it's not human created.”
0:31:33 · Navrina Singh · Watermarking
Navrina Singh argues that voluntary commitments from technology companies don't work and that big tech must be held accountable to guardrails.
“Because as you and I have seen, and and you've been in the space for a long time, is that voluntary commitments don't work.”
0:33:24 · Navrina Singh · Regulation
Navrina Singh says she is testing 'adaptive policymaking' at the state and local level, in which policies are tried in a sandbox and revised before being finalized.
“But a concept of this adaptive policymaking is something that I've been socializing and testing out at state and local level to really understand when we let's put something out there within a sandbox, see how it gets implemented.”
0:34:19 · Navrina Singh · Adaptive policymaking