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Empowering with VUI | Zubair Ahmed | TEDxBaileyRoad | Zubair Ahmed | TEDxBaileyRoad


let me start off with a very interesting
story about how a boring banker ends up
in technology
I started off around seven years back I
was in Jakarta doing my regular stuff
just meeting people and try to scout out
different companies then what happens is
that’s how I was thirsty
me and my klieg we went out to a small
roadside Inn a mums and pop shop to buy
a drink and what we saw is that some
they had some sort of a scrap paper
where they were actually writing down
stuff so it’s very curious about what
they were really writing down and that
was what I realized is that they were
actually buying on credit that means
they were buying something today for
which they’re gonna pay back in about a
month or probably more and that sort of
struck me that isn’t that what was going
on in Bangladesh or what was going on in
Africa that’s how the thinking pattern
began about how to change that thing
from paper to something on PC or
software but the problem that we all
have is that in emerging countries it’s
very difficult to you know let people
well expect people to use software’s or
to expect people to be able to use one
why mostly because you know a lack of
education or a lack of willingness to
actually adapt to something new which is
actually not bad I mean that’s fairly
okay so today what I’m going to talk
about is how we can minimize the
disparity between uneducated and
so-called poor people to the one that’s
some successful in the eyes of the media
um right so our world today is pretty
much divided into several segments and
one of whit’s you probably know g7 and
then you’ve got g20 and then the rest
and what’s g7 is for you know some of
you that may don’t know g7 is the list
of the seven most richest countries in
the world and then g20 is so-called the
wealthy countries but not necessarily
the richest ones now in g7 what happens
is that well the color got very
different so it’s very difficult to
probably notice so this is g7 right
there so g7 today produces about 25
percent of world’s GDP output that means
if you can buy the whole world twenty
five percent of which comes from the g7
but ten years back this used to be
seventy five percent well around but
that changed to twenty five percent
today and this is the other g20
countries combined if you’d like like
aside from g7 the other rich countries
so that’s about nineteen percent today
now what’s interesting is that this was
not the situation just about ten fifteen
years back that means the world’s focus
was on the rich people if he got money
everyone’s idea or you know concept was
on the basis of how to extract the money
out of those people’s pocket no one
really cared about the people that had
fifty fifty three percent that produces
53 percent of world’s GDP as of today
but back then fifteen years back this
used to be below twenty percent now what
that means is that people like the you
know the grocery store owner or the
farmers or the fisherman or the rickshaw
pullers they didn’t matter
nobody really cared about them because
they thought it could not possibly have
extracted money out of them you could
not I mean in a in a in a positive way
of course I mean to sell something to
them but some what’s interesting is that
that perception started to change
because people realized that they matter
too but not in a way of how to how to
nurture them to a degree where you know
where it can cultivate their ability and
yet market eyes your products or
services to them because everybody
thought they’re uneducated they wouldn’t
know you know how would you sell us
after it to them or how do you how do
you you know sell an advertisement to
them just like I mean for an instance
these search engines that we got today
like you know but the big ones if you
look at them they’re penetration in the
emerging countries is so minimal like
they made this like very simple you know
service that they could those well
so-called him promote improvised people
could barely probably use that’s because
nobody really cared about them or saw
them as a market potential in the past
but about six seven years ago we started
to think that that may not be the case
if there was a way to inspire those
people to use software’s but the problem
is how you do that I went to several
people to talk about it and they say
forget about it don’t quit your job
you’d be the stupid person if you quit
your job over that kind of idea that’s
you’re gonna you know you’re gonna make
the most improvised people to use
software’s you talking about software’s
they’ll run away well they were actually
right and let me tell you why they were
right actually forty five percent of the
people that we have in Bangladesh and
probably this percentage is pretty much
standard
in other emerging countries too 45% are
extremely poor over here now
when you talk about extremely poor I
mean think about it
you you barely are having you know like
you barely can make it like day-to-day
on food so you barely can eat and we’re
telling you about software would you
listen you probably won’t you’d finally
think like you know what are you talking
about I’m thinking about how to get my
meal the next meal and he probably would
come to join different you know fairs
charities just to get a meal so people
that are thinking about meal as the
priority or the first you know of like
the most important thing you talk to
them about technology like oh you use
this this is fancy they’d be like yeah
that’s right now another fun part that
happens is that 35% people that we have
in emerging countries that’s again run
about right for any emerging countries
are barely able to read and write that
means well when I say barely able to
read and write I mean literally they can
just sign their name and that’s even
shaky so someone who doesn’t know
reading how to read and write you expect
them to use your smart phone apps or SMS
wow that’s that’s you know that’s like
far-fetched that’s like 30 years from
today not today now does that mean that
emerging countries will stop innovating
for the next 30 years and we just way to
educate or train our people up just that
just so that you know like they’re on
par where you can actually start
cultivating new scopes well there are
there are ways to change that and we
figured one way to change that
and before I get into that so obvious
solution let me show you what happens in
a typical emerging country situation the
first
one that you seen over there that’s an
NGO well Bangladesh is pannier for MFI
concept that means even without a
collateral people without you know
people with extreme poverty can actually
borrow money or lend money and start
some sort of business which they often
do and this is the collection process
that means loan collection process so
some person go to a xiaomi t that means
like you know it’s a group of people
that gathers around and they all sort of
pay back their own dues to this
collector he’s probably very hated
because well he’s actually hated quite a
bit and this guy what he does is he has
this scrap paper well it’s a book
actually where he writes down stuff now
the borrower’s when they go to that well
when they head back to their home they
literally have to wait about a week just
to know how much money you know she has
on her saving accounts because she
cannot read in most cases or she’s you
know and so there is that gap between
technology and her life because
technology it hasn’t been able to
fulfill her life where she could without
knowing how to read and write be able to
fill up that gap between technology and
then that person here there are garments
workers they face these similar troubles
to they you know they earn money they go
to do shopping in most cases what
happens is before the month ends their
honor ran out of cash and they all they
have to do is now shop on credit and was
the wants to do that they you know they
go back to the shop in a month in a
month in a matter of month then what
happens is that they realized that the
actual amount of money changed any of
you who probably did credit based
shopping I mean would you raise hands
like how many of you did credit based
shoppings oh okay a lot of you did so
how would you feel experience
that you’re the shop guy the Malinda
Gondar when you went to pay they say
something different about how many fee
expiry is that like often it’s higher
amount yeah honestly that’s right about
the percentage in Bangladesh right now
that’s about 5% in reality it’s actually
42% according to wall bank worldwide
that’s the crazy thing that happens in
Bangladesh alone you’d be surprised
we lose 123 million dollars on that
thing on that confusion just because
somebody did you know wrote something on
the scrap paper that means nothing it’s
just some bunch of numbers that can
anyone can actually produce and
worldwide that parity is 9 billion
dollars by the way that excludes China
and India so you can tell how bigger of
oh well it always happens due to
mistrust globally it’s really the same
story anywhere it’s really the same
story and another one want to send money
right you got so many fancy options like
GP you know you got your mobile phone
you tap somewhere money goes to you know
some of your friends or some other
services you got then you got this
ultra-modern technology called be cash
well copied from em caster I mean m-pesa
though
but still it’s a cool option – you got
this
you know you dial some ussd codes then
you got like five steps of English
instructions and you were a you know
imagine you’re this a poor guy from a
grocery shop that has to understand all
those English steps well they were
really intelligent when they design that
you I definitely I mean all this doesn’t
then what happens is you end of the day
what you do is just remember like one
two five seven
that means you send money now then you
gotta say some numbers right like how
many how much money you’re sending so
nobody really knows what the heck they
were actually doing
they were just doing because they were
told that way nobody really understood
and that simply because there was a huge
oh yeah this guy is angry because of
that mistrust pathway um is it working
well it kind of got stuck okay it did go
okay so this is gonna sound crazy but
let me run it through how many know or
use dos disk operating system like back
in days
okay many of you are probably familiar
than what da says he used to be you know
it was back in the 80s well he had a
keyboard you punch a bunch of codes then
again not many people knew how
to use a computer back then I mean it
was very difficult learning curve was
very high and then late 1980s you had
the mouse well I’ve got a lot easier so
once you had a mouse obviously you
removed to the Yui portion that means
graphical user interface that means you
see what you’re doing so it’s like there
was a very famous phrase back then like
see what you get with GUI then you got
windows you got like Mac iOS and
different other options where we can
actually see what you’re doing exactly
therefore learning curve got reduced now
more and more people without education
could actually you know give it a bit of
a bit of time probably an hour or
probably a day would be able to actually
sort of run through or navigate through
that option or that interface and then
in late mid-1990s you had this stylus
thing I’m sure a lot of you use the
product called Palm Pilot right you had
to you had a pen or probably many of you
still do on your smartphone to like you
stick something out and if you tap
something with it but well that didn’t
sell out very well either
then in 2007 something new came well one
guy from a you know from a well from
Syrian background you know did something
crazy people thought he was crazy but he
said something interesting your
fingertips could be your stylus
well you probably know all of you of
course know that guy anyway so Steve
first when he said that your smartphone
doesn’t require a stylus everybody
thought he was you know he’s not
definitely I went without stylus you
were tapping something it never gonna
tap on the right spot but it did now the
world changed user interface or
communicating with technology became a
lot more easier now more and more people
now can use now in 2011 the transition
finally started to take shape to a level
which we call view II or voice user
interface so what that means is people
started to realize that one way to
communicate with your device should be
your voice
that means you speak to it the only
problem is the person that you’re speak
I mean the thing that you’re speaking to
is not a person
it’s a machine well to be more precise
as software so how do you communicate
with the software how do you tell it to
do something that’s it will do that
means he has to understand your language
in the first place so the challenge
began that challenge brought us to a
different level called newer programming
or neural networking that means your
software has a brain it can learn it can
think it can grow that means you just
build a thing just like human being is
produced well in a different way but
let’s say human being is produced right
and once it’s produced it learns just
like today’s software with AI capability
or neural networking so what it does is
it learns by itself as time goes on it
learns now that’s really the missing
puzzle the gap between technology and a
normal person that I was talking about
so when I first came with that idea back
in seven years ago everybody thought its
back then nobody was thinking that voice
is gonna be very big someday everybody
was like you know back then voice
technology was at an still at an early
stage not at a stage where we are at
today so nobody could minimize that gap
on how I mean connect that gap on I mean
still we were probably struggling on how
to connect that gap between that rich or
poor to a high tech product how do we
connect that job well still there is a
missing link that is internet that guy
does this big eyes like Google Amazon or
even
Appl the problem that they all have is
their product needs internet without
internet it cannot talk to your device
it has to be connected to an internet or
else it will just say really like
Slurpee things right like what’s your
name sorry you are not connected to the
Internet or probably say my name is this
but sorry you’re not connected to the
Internet I don’t have access to those
info and get stuck so you know rickshaw
puller he’s connected to a you know 4G
network I think that’s still 10-15 years
ahead it’s it’s gonna be wishful
thinking today so the question is how to
connect that gap well the answer is very
obvious everybody knew the answer but
nobody just did it just like Juliana was
saying that some earlier that she tried
translating those a Tagore songs into
Russian and she realized there was
nothing available so she decided to make
one exactly that’s what I did so and
realized that there is nothing that
fills out that gap I decided to develop
that technology that requires no
internet so that means you can still
communicate with the device using GSM or
telephone companies because telephone
companies well you know they they are a
lot from us right they we we do make
calls they earn money the problem and
also another good part is that they got
this huge telephone networks all
throughout the country with 99% coverage
or probably 100% for some why not use
their capabilities you know and let the
people like richer puller use technology
at the same time this is just a graph of
showing like how the voice accuracy
level is increasing gradually every year
so now today we have come to a point
where if you talk to your just with a
use of a sensor of course if you talk to
your
and tell it over a phone turn on it’s
gonna turn on and what’s funny is that
you can do that in Bangla too
you can talk to your fan you can talk to
your phone you can talk to your software
you can let’s say you’re using a you
know you using something right let’s say
Richard puller he wants to know or you
want to know how much he’s in your bank
account you can know that you want to
send some money on be cash or whatever
you could do that just by talking I
think that’s the world
we needed to create where as everybody
becomes has an equal playing field where
there is no gap just because somebody
knows how to use that ASAP product or
Microsoft Excel against the person who
doesn’t know and just because he didn’t
know how to use that he was inferior
before but with this technology
diffusion where as voice comes into play
to mitigate that gap I think that world
is not far away where it’s find the
farmers or the fishermen or even the
beggars are counting their money is
using their mobile phone just by talking
and I think that should be the platform
for the emerging world in order to in
order to really fight neck to neck for
the g7 or g20 s that’s our only option
to get all our people up and running and
mitigate that gap between technology in
their lives whereas they themselves each
of them individually becomes a soldier
and that’s our collective power and
that’s why the g20 today realizes we
produce 53% of world’s wealth but we
didn’t know how to manage it but with
voice we have a means to manager today
that means even though we’re not
educated we can manage our wealth
far greater than they did yeah actually
I pretty much all the only pretty much
end of the boring session
so just here it’s a crazy you know graph
that just shows high learning curve here
and sort of you know high learning curve
and large-scale service providing and
this is where the most of the big
companies lies on Apple Google we name
it everyone’s here the problem is no
one’s here
low learning curve and high productivity
or high level of expansion and I think
tomorrow somebody should come up with
something that’ll eyes here somebody
should fill out that gap there are a lot
of contenders but somebody should become
the winner and I hope that comes from
the emerging countries yeah
well I talked about it already so yeah
that’s all so yeah sorry that’s it that meant it was not a joke it meant eggs
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