THIMUN Singapore’s Keynote Speaker:
Meet Ms. Leanne Dehaye!
By Kendra Wuisan
Photography by Evaristo Daporta
In line with this year’s conference theme of “Impact of AI on Humanity,” THIMUN invited Ms. Leanne Dehaye to deliver the keynote speech at the Opening Ceremony. Currently, she serves as the Senior Vice President at Chemin AI. She brings with her experience from Meta, Google, and IBM.
The “Thread” team caught up with Ms. Dehaye after her speech, asking relevant questions about her career and the impact of AI on the present and future.
The THIMUN Thread (TT): You have mentioned the importance of having a distinct voice. As AI has the power to both create and draft, how would you encourage others to hone their creativity instead of allowing AI to replace this?
Ms. Dehaye: Go on a digital detox, highly recommend! Go out, go for one day without technology—see where that takes you. The more dependency that you create on these tools, the less you are inclined to try it by yourself. And to me this is really one critical skill that we should never lose, it’s critical thinking [and] it’s creativity.
Remember, AI is a very… sophisticated prediction machine. It actually just predicts, it does not think. People are under [this] illusion… because it’s so good, but there is no replacement for human critical thinking and all the creative ideas. So go on a digital detox!
TT: To those who may be apprehensive about AI’s rising popularity, what would you say to them?
Ms. Dehaye: It’s here to stay, you cannot deny by… not doing anything about it. So the sooner that you understand the power of [AI], the sooner you can also understand what you can do.
I still believe that humans are the most efficient machines… AI can’t do [certain tasks] but it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to get to that point. So… in order for you to understand what your position is in the future, [remember] there are things that AI cannot do.
Empathy is one of those things. Can you imagine going to a hospital and just talking to a robot? That’s not gonna help you to heal, right?
Another thing, they’re not as agile as us… there’s always [going to] be a position for humans or a role for humans to play. I work in AI, I’m a very, very big proponent in humanity.
TT: Lastly, what are your biggest goals in your endeavors? And what values do you wish to impart through your work?
Ms. Dehaye: Well, we always put humans first. I work in the CX (Customer Experience) industry as well. Again, can you imagine buying a product or a service and not having any kind of support? So if the product breaks, you’re on your own. This is not a good experience. So for us, it’s really just providing the human experience at the centre. Everything should be around that, not the other way around.
Machines are here to help us, AI is here to help us. But… I don’t think we’re in a world where it’s going to replace us anytime soon.
