CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT SOCIETY FOR INCENTIVE TRAVEL EXCELLENCE , ( SITE ), PADRAIC GILLIGAN , ON CHANGING OUR WAYS AND TAKING DIFFERENT ROADS …

y thoughts for this column were largely shaped by two recent London Financial Times articles on technology and sustainability , a duo of themes increasingly dominating discourse across the business events industry .

‘ AI will tear us apart ’ screamed at me in strident upper case , white type on a flat black background from the cover of the FT weekend supplement , clearly echoing English band Joy Division ’ s 1980 anthem Love will tear us apart . If lead singer Ian Curtis ’ s 43-year-old tune captured the ennui and alienation of Gen X , what could we read into Ian Hogarth ’ s long-form article on artificial intelligence ( with suitably surreal illustrations courtesy of London-based design agency Le . BLUE )?

Regarding the advances of AI , Hogarth , an AI innovator himself and angel investor , strikes notes of extreme caution with an underlying current of despair . His hopes around the future of AI can be as pessimistic as Curtis ’ s were about love . In 2012 , Hogarth shows , AI had developed “ superhuman ” capabilities at chess , and could recognise images at “ beginner human ” level . By 2022 , now drawing on the entire internet , AI had become “ superhuman ” at several games , including Go , chess and poker and is capable of passing the US Medical Licence Exam .

Worryingly , AI has already developed complex capabilities like power-seeking and the ability to deceive humans . Crucially , its expertise

is developing at a faster rate than its alignment with human values . The Holy Grail for AI , God-like AI , or Artificial General Intelligence ( AGI ) is now clearly in sight and that , according to Hogarth , “ could usher in the obsolescence or destruction of the human race ”.

AI technology has been deployed in travel and tourism for a decade or more but has only recently started to impact the business events industry . OpenAI ’ s ChatGPT is still a fascinating circus trick for many of us , but it already has radical implications for marketing , communications , promotions , blogging , journalism , and other creative pursuits .

“ AI , AR ( augmented reality ) and VR ( virtual reality ) may play a role somewhere along the incentive travel supply chain but TR ( tactile reassurance ) will always prevail .”

Should I spend half a day writing this column , for example , when ChatGPT can knock one off in five minutes ( maybe without the Joy Division reference , in fairness !)? Will DMCs spend a week creating , crafting and designing an RFP response when ChatGPT can magic one up for you in minutes ?

More fundamentally , there ’ s the existential threat to knowledge ; what it is ( versus data , for instance ) and how it ’ s shared — the raison d ’ être for conferences , congresses and conventions , the “ C ” in MICE . But incentive travel ? Decisively less so , as proven by the tsunami of travel activity