FedEx Incorporating Artificial Intelligence in Trucks, Planes, Founder Fred Smith Says
FedEx Corp. board member and author, Joshua Cooper Ramo, believes in the power of supercomputers, meganetworks and artificial intelligence to transform humanity.
Ramo discussed his book "The Seventh Sense" during a panel discussion June 7 that included FedEx founder Fred Smith, fellow FedEx board member Brad Martin and University of Memphis President David Rudd.
Ramo predicts more powerful networks, coupled with artificial intelligence, will revolutionize medicine, politics, transportation and many other aspects of the world.
Smith, who launched FedEx in Memphis in 1973, agreed with Ramo's premise and said the company is incorporating artificial intelligence-driven safety features into planes and trucks. Smith said he's come to believe driverless vehicles "100% will happen" and will help put an end to carnage from highway accidents.
"It's not even in my mind a remote possibility that it won't happen," Smith said. "The network and the processing power overwhelms the ability of any human being to match it."
Ramo praised Smith for his vision in founding a business based on the power of connectivity.
"I think Fred's great business insight decades ago was that connectivity was going to be a part of our commercial landscape," Ramo said. "If you think about that, he ran that business and built it cash flow-negative year after year after year because he had this idea, this vision in his head that this world was going to be filled with connected commerce, and that's come to fruition probably even more than he expected."
Ramo, 47, is vice chairman and co-CEO of strategic advisory firm Kissinger Associates, as in former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Ramo splits his time between New York and Beijing. He has served on FedEx's board for five years and was in Memphis this week to attend a board meeting.
Ramo said Facebook and Google "arguably have more power in their hands than any one in human history has had." But with that power comes great challenges, such as vulnerability to cybersecurity threats.
"These businesses are natural monopolies in a sense because we want them to be concentrated," Ramo said. "It's that concentration that makes them that much more efficient. The very fact that Google sees billions of search queries a day is the reason that they can give you an answer very quickly."
Unfortunately, improved connectivity makes it easier for a small group or individual to attack the system. "Anybody can build a drone," Ramo said. "Anybody can hire a hacker. And that suggests we're entering a period where there's going to be a lot more danger out there. Building network systems that are resilient is very important."
FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
