What I learned about AI fears, facts, and opportunities from Moonhub Founder and CEO Nancy Xu

It’s not every day you get to spend time with one of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence. When Nancy Xu, named to TIME Magazine’s inaugural AI 100 list, joined me on The Next Great Thing podcast, I knew I’d learn a lot. 

Nancy is the visionary Founder and CEO of Moonhub, an AI-powered recruiting platform that handles tedious recruiter tasks like candidate sourcing and outreach. It assists them in reaching larger, more diverse candidates whom they wouldn’t have found otherwise, giving recruiters more time to focus on building candidate relationships.

“Eighty percent of work that recruiters are doing – that they don't honestly in many cases particularly enjoy – is something where if we could build an AI to assist them, recruiters can be unlocked to spend more time helping candidates make those really meaningful decisions in their careers,” Nancy says.

Listen to the episode on our website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

One great thing I learned: Before AI can really transform society, we need to quell people’s fears, educate, and support them as we transition to our AI future.  

The media often conflates AI technology as a whole with negative outcomes from specific use cases. That can fuel a generalized fear about AI that could ultimately stall its progress (and societal benefits).

Nancy points to an example of a self-driving car crash. It happens once, and people think, "AI is bad!" But that distracts from the real conversation we should be having. What regulations and barriers should be put in place before AI is deployed inside self-driving cars? How many car crashes are avoided because of self-driving technology versus human error? It’s just one example, but the point is: the tendency to make sweeping judgments about AI could hamper its vast benefits across sectors, like healthcare, education, sustainability, and, yes, recruiting. 

That’s not to completely dismiss people’s fears about AI. That fear is real, especially when it comes to their jobs. Eight in ten people (78%) are afraid of losing their jobs this year due to the growth of AI, according to a survey by MyPerfectResume.

As both an AI realist and optimist, Nancy acknowledges this fear – and that it’s the responsibility of today’s AI innovators to ensure AI is a benefit, not a bane, to society. “A lot of people within the AI community think about AI from the perspective of building AGI, but the reality is 99.9% of individuals out there in the real world are thinking about how AI might automate their jobs. And it's very scary for them. We have a chance to build AI systems over the next couple of decades to help individuals find more opportunities in our AI future, and also to think about how we use AI to power society's most interesting ideas.”

How do we build a positive AI future that benefits us all? First, we need to fight fears with facts. We can do that by giving people access to education, training programs, and learning hubs on practical, responsible AI use. We also need balanced regulations and policies that allow AI innovation to spread opportunity. Finally, we need to spotlight progress, not just pitfalls.

Nancy’s nuanced perspective is refreshing, and I love how she’s incorporating it into Moonhub’s ethos and mission, which she says is to “democratize access to opportunity with AI.” AI can unlock human potential – but only if we build it with opportunity for all in mind.

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