impACT leadership by Omdena

In this episode with Vishal Ghotge, CEO of kiva.org we discuss:

1. Background of Vishal Ghotge: Journey from Microsoft, Groupon, and Payscale to Kiva.

2. About kiva.org: What has Kiva achieved so far and what the future looks like for Kiva.

3. How growth for impact products/platforms like kiva.org different than growth for other products/platform?

4. Challenges and Learnings from product development, especially for products/platforms like kiva.org whose primary focus is to make positive impact.

5. What characteristics make good leader?

About kiva.org

Kiva was founded in 2005 and the first micro-lending platform. To date it has lended over $1.88B to over 4.4M people in 80 countries.

In this episode, we speak with Janti Soeripto, CEO of Save the Children US, about her journey, challenges, and future.

What you will learn:

• What are the big differences between working in an NGO and a corporation?
• How has the pandemic affected children and their rights?
• How can technology be used in solving problems?
• What are the opportunities and challenges of using AI to help children?
• What makes a good leader and a success?

Despite significant progress in the global fight against child labor, slavery, trafficking, and prostitution, these issues continue to exist and influence millions of children worldwide. It seems unbelievable that in the 21st century, we still have to deal with such social problems, but the numbers speak for themselves. According to estimates by the International Labor Organization (ILO), around 152 million children are engaged in child labor worldwide, and millions more are victims of slavery, trafficking, and sexual exploitation. In this episode, we discuss what is the future of leadership and how we can use technology and AI to create a better future for children. 

What you will learn:

• How we can fight children’s slavery, trafficking, and prostitution in the 21st century using AI?
• Why education is a solution to the child labor?
• How data and technology can help to protect children?
• Why do we need compassionate leaders to create a better future for children?

In October 2017, Sophia, a humanoid robot developed by the company Hanson Robotics, got Saudi Arabian citizenship. This event caused a heated debate in the technology world about whether society is ready for robots to have the same rights and responsibilities as humans. Some of the comments were right insofar as we can already see AI algorithms suppressing people’s opinions and trying to control us. In this episode, we discuss what is the future of robots and why we need to build conscious and compassionate AI.

What you will learn:

• What is the future of robots and what role they will play in human life
• How Sophia Robot was created and if we are ready to give citizenship to robots
• Why we need to build conscious and compassionate AI
• Why diversity, creativity and inclusion are important for creating robots

In 1972 Bhutan introduced Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As the most important factors taken into consideration while shaping government policy are sustainable and equitable socio-economic growth, the country is often called the “last Shangri-La”. In this episode, we explore why Bhutan is such an extraordinary country and how AI can help in the pursuit of happiness.

What you will learn:

• How is the concept of happiness different in the West and in the East
• Why Bhutan is called the world’s happiest country
• What is missing in the current focus of AI
• How technology and especially AI can help us in building a happy and meaningful life