Address the following in your peers responses below:

• In what way(s) do you agree or disagree with their assessments of the impact of their chosen aspects of the Fourth IR on their strategic plans?
• In what way(s) do you agree or disagree with their assessments of the impact of their chosen aspects of the Fourth IR on their companies?
• How might other aspects of the Fourth IR impact their strategic plans, their companies, or both?

SHELBY POST

The company I chose for my final project was Comcast Corp. Comcast is currently headquartered in Philadelphia, PA and provides a wide range of services. The services Comcast is most commonly known for is cable television, home phone, home security and home internet services. In more recent years, Comcast has also launched a mobile phone service called Xfinity Mobile and a streaming platform called, Peacock. Comcast also owns NBC Universal, allowing a presence in the broadcasting, entertainment industry and ownership of the Universal Studios theme parks. 

Based off the current industry that Comcast leads in, artificial intelligence is something that will have a large impact on the future of the company and the strategic planning. AI is something that is gaining a much larger presence in everything technological in our society, so it is only a matter of time before it starts to impact the way people watch TV, use their internet, phones, etc. 

The biggest threat Comcast would have when it comes to AI would be that it would automate a lot of the current process that have man power behind them. With this comes the threat of Comcast having the ability to reduce headcount within the corporate functions because AI would allow them to automate things like reporting, or even customer service roles to a certain extent. Additionally, AI poses the threat of data breeches. The more companies do using AI, the more data they have stored, allowing possible hackers to be able to hack into their systems to gain access to the data. As a leading company in a technology industry, being able to think about and account for the potential risks is very important. 

JAYSON POST

For my project, I chose Deutsche Bank, since I am close to financial services due to my experience and current career choices. DB, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and having been founded in 1870, DB has a footprint that spans nearly 60 countries and jurisdictions. Deutsche focuses on providing all sorts of banking services ranging across asset management, commercial and retail banking, private banking and corporate banking.

                In the context of 4TH IR, Deutsche has already begun to make pretty significant moves, as in 2022, DB and Nvidia, who is world-renowned for computer software and hardware, primarily with respect to graphics processing units (i.e. graphics cards), both have partnered together to integrate AI-powered services into everyday banking and services. Looking at this from being inside the industry, it is a great advancement of interweaving industries, which DB is known for, particularly having done so back in the 20th century to further advance Germany forward by partnering with several other major players in industries such as insurance and manufacturing.

                This type of partnership is very strategic given DB’s current and future plans, between reducing emissions and also completing several technological transformations, it may not have had the full resources available to build out this new integration and technology, thus making a partnership the most ideal and the holistically only viable option to bring AI Transformation to banking. At current, the strategic advantages this provides are astronomical, as all DB has to really do is invest some resources into Nvidia, both financially and also in the form of labor, but at a significantly reduced rate compared to building out something on their own. This will allow them to further invest in the future, or complete a buy-out to further maintain any products that are created where they hold the IP

           QUESTIONS

                 1. What ethical questions do you think need to be addressed in science and technology? For help identifying questions, consider ethical issues  

                    you have noticed in television shows, movies, books, social media threads, video games, news reports, etc. Also consider ethical issues 

                    mentioned in this module's required reading.

              2.  Why do these ethical questions matter to you or people you know?

              3.  How can ethical decision making help to address these questions?