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A Sentence IBM Wrote in 1979
In 1979 IBM put a sentence into an internal training document that is more relevant now than it was then.
“A computer can never be held accountable. Therefore a computer must never make a management decision.”
In the middle of the AI debate, that hits a point which often gets too little attention.
AI is an enormous accelerator. For analysis, forecasting, modelling. In corporate steering, language models and agents can take on tasks that currently cost weeks. The potential is real.
But between AI as a tool and AI as a decider lies a clear boundary: accountability.
Who is accountable for a forecast an AI produced? Who signs an investment decision based on a model whose logic nobody in the room can follow?
In controlling there is a lot of discussion right now about what AI can and will be able to do. And rather less about who ultimately carries the responsibility.