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Smart robots set to test management skills

October 1, 2018 Articles, Media / Op-ed
Published in MEED 30 SEPTEMBER 2018 11:58 AM In the second part of our series on managing intelligent machines, Aiowala’s Kai Chan looks at the challenges faced in creating a thriving AI ecosystem in the Gulf. Link to article (requires subscription). Click here for full article. © MEED MEDIA FZ LLC Company number 18693 (Dubai Creative Clusters Authority) Registered address: C/O GlobalData Plc., John Carpenter House, 7 Carmelite Street, London, EC4Y 0BS, UK  

Staying ahead of smart robots

September 1, 2018 Articles, Media / Op-ed
STAYING AHEAD OF SMART ROBOTS Published in MEED Business Review Sep 2018 With the advent of artificial intelligence, managers will need to learn how to oversee smart machines. Click here for full article. © MEED MEDIA FZ LLC  

Parlez-vous polyglotte?

August 24, 2018 Articles, Media / Op-ed
Isabelle Paré, 24 août 2018 (Le Devoir) Ici, on se brûle la langue régulièrement. La partie de sumo à laquelle se livrent le français et l’anglais sur le ring cosmopolite de Montréal figure toujours, pour tout politicien sensé, en haut du palmarès des sujets à fuir comme la peste en campagne électorale. Là où la polémique du « Bonjour-Hi » est devenue une affaire d’État, le sujet fait invariablement exploser le baromètre de la sensibilité collective et fait l’effet du poil à gratter sur le délicat équilibre du vivre ensemble. Mieux vaut donc tourner sept fois l’organe de l’élocution avant de causer diversité linguistique. Or, il en est que la dualité linguistique n’égratigne pas, ou prou, voire ennuie comme un cheveu sur la langue par sa banalité. Toute une délégation d’ici et d’ailleurs converge cette semaine vers Montréal, une légion entière de poly-amoureux des langues qui auraient volontiers vendu leurs chemises pour être nés aux temps bibliques et se faire citoyens de la tour de Babel. Nouba polyglotte Montréal accueille ces jours-ci le LangFest, un rendez-vous qui réunit pour la première fois dans la métropole des polyglottes du monde entier, des athlètes de la diphtongue qui collectionnent les langues comme d’autres les…

Kai Chan – The Power Language Index

August 24, 2018 Articles, Media / Op-ed
The below is my presentation at LangFest 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfNaP_ySFrE There are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, but some 2,000 of them count fewer than a thousand speakers. Moreover, just 15 of them account for half of the languages spoken in the world. Which are the world’s most influential languages? The Power Language Index (PLI) is a measure of a language’s efficacy by measuring its influence in 5 domains (“opportunities”): (1) geography, (2) economy, (3) communication, (4) knowledge & media, and (5) diplomacy. Altogether the PLI uses 20 (cardinal) indicators to arrive at an assessment of the power of over 100 languages. Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD. Previously he was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country's positioning on global performance indices. Prior to his stint in the UAE, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm. Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power…

Interview with Dr Kai Chan

August 23, 2018 Articles, Media / Op-ed
The below is an interview I did for the 2018 edition of LangFest (a polyglot conference) in Montreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM-2-xtowvs Bio: Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD. Previously he was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country's positioning on global performance indices. Prior to his stint in the UAE, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm. Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power Language Index, Gender Progress Index, and Intelligence Capital Index. Dr Chan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and PhD from Princeton University. Kai grew up in Toronto, Canada, but currently resides in Montreal. He speaks English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and German, and is currently learning Russian. Copyright 2018 - LangFest.org

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