Today I have been assisting Janet Adams in her keynote speech on AI and ethics at the London FinTECHTalents Festival, in a rare meshing of disparate parts of my life: careers, technology and tai chi, which I have been practising for 7 years. What an opportunity!

Tai chi (or taiji) is an ancient martial art practised in China, based on slow movement. Tai chi formed the foundations of Kung fu, which we can now see taught in martial arts schools and projected on the silver screen. You may have seen tai chi practised in the park as a type of exercise. It is a sequence of movements, usually lasting about 30-40 minutes, performed slowly and smoothly, building strength, coordination, and energy. Qi gong is another aspect of this art, though with less movement. There are a number of different sequences (and confusingly, a variety of styles of tai chi and qi gong) but the relevant one here is the 7 Principles Qi Gong practice, taught by Jason Chan, which Janet has applied to her future vision for artificial intelligence.

The 7 Principles are (with their Chinese transliterated terms):

Alignment (Jeing)

Sincerity (Tsing)

Love (Oiy)

Trust in life (Tsun)

Wholesome discipline (Gai)

Stillness (Deng)

Universal wisdom (Wai)

As Janet delivered her speech, I demonstrated each of the Qi Gong movements that corresponded to each of the applications.

Janet has skilfully woven these principles with research and business practice to create a new way forward with financial technologies, calling upon banks to become more aligned with their purpose and with the laws of the land; cultivate stillness and implement technologies with wisdom; and to uphold principles that respect the trust of their stakeholders. Janet provided a voice for a gentler, more harmonious “future self” of today’s banking industry – an essential voice at a time when many hold a deep mistrust of banks and their motivations. It would be wonderful if instead of seeing banks as a necessary evil, they could be part of a more collaborative future.

Other highlights have included a panel on automation, where participants Ganna Pogrebna, Lou Smith, and Christian Paun discussed the future of work. They are more or less in agreement that while many jobs will disappear, not enough attention is being given to what jobs will be created from automation and what skills will be necessary in the future. Transferable skills in particular, they say, will be highly desirable, as well as thinking in terms of algorithms rather than coding; that is, understanding how systems work. Face-to-face roles and roles that require empathy -that is, distinctively human skills – also seem relatively immune. (Can a machine teach tai chi? Answers on a USB stick.)

I see a great applicability of the 7 Principles here. Humans are best positioned to decide what is aligned with their core values, which is critical to organisational harmony. No matter how well trained, can a machine arrive at the same answer through pure logic? Passion, sincerity, and love can motivate people to break their own barriers and do the extraordinary. Moments of inspiration and dedication create lasting change.

But my intention isn’t to set up another binary opposition. I hope that human and technology can complement each other, instead of competing. In terms of raw computing power, we will lose, so why not play to our strengths? And indeed that is what the panellists have suggested we do.