Rajat Khare on balancing AI innovation with ethics and social impact

Rajat Khare on balancing AI innovation with ethics and social impact

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has captured imaginations worldwide with its promise of convenience, efficiency, and transformative power. But as tech adoption accelerates, leading voices warn that AI should not overshadow fundamental human values. Rajat Khare, founder of Boundary Holding, emphasizes that AI must be designed to address urgent societal challenges rather than merely replace instincts or lessen human connection. 

The Allure—and Risks—of Convenience

Innovation tends to dazzle with possibilities: self-driving cars, voice assistants handling decisions, and algorithms simplifying everyday tasks. But Khare suggests the tech sector is increasingly investing in novelty and ease—sometimes at the cost of purpose. When AI is used to automate trivial choices, people risk losing touch with empathy, intuition, and the moral reasoning that anchors societies. 

Human feelings and instincts, Rajat Khare argues, are essential for ethical decision-making. They allow society to negotiate trade-offs, uphold dignity, and wrestle with gray areas that cannot be rendered into algorithmic logic alone. As AI becomes more pervasive, questions of ethics, value, identity, and purpose become more urgent.

Where AI Should Focus: Societal Challenges

Rather than focusing disproportionately on convenience or novelty, Rajat Khare believes that investors, technologists, and policymakers have a responsibility to steer AI toward solving serious global problems. He points to several priority areas:

• Climate Change & Environment: Tracking carbon emissions, monitoring deforestation, optimizing renewable energy usage. These are not merely scientific issues—they are existential for many communities.

• Healthcare & Wellness: Early disease detection, personalized treatment, predictive diagnostics. AI’s capacity to enhance quality of life and reduce suffering is profound.

• Education: Adaptive learning systems that meet students where they are, customizing content to each learner’s strengths and weaknesses. AI has the power to democratize education—but it must avoid reinforcing inequalities. 

• Data Security: As AI systems collect more personal data, privacy, transparency, and user agency are non-negotiable concerns. Safeguards must be built in from design, not retrofitted.

Khare’s view is that while many investments are flowing into AI, those that prioritize impact over mere convenience are the ones that will endure.

Venture Capital’s Role & Moral Responsibility

Venture capitalists are among the chief architects of where AI goes next. They choose which startups get resources, which technologies scale, and which ethical trade-offs are acceptable. In this context, Khare argues, VC firms should:

1. Invest selectively in AI projects that serve public good—not just consumerism. Clean-tech, green-tech, marine conservation, med-tech become not only moral but strategic domains.

2. Partner with innovators whose values align with more than just profit. Founders who emphasize governance, environmental responsibility, and impact are more than ethical choices—they tend to be resilient and trusted. 

3. Think regionally and globally: Khare mentions that Boundary Holding is focusing investments in clean-tech, marine-cleaning, and green-technologies, especially in regions like Eurasia. The needs differ by geography, and understanding local values, needs and norms is crucial. 

Preserving Human Values and Instincts

Khare warns against letting technology overtake the instincts and values that make us human. Things like empathy, moral reasoning, responsibility, and community cannot be algorithmically coded or replaced. As AI tools make decisions at scale, often in areas like healthcare, environment, or resource allocation, ethical frameworks and human oversight become essential.

Moreover, the intangible value of human connection, context, and judgment—things that are hard to measure—should guide AI design. It’s not enough that a tool works; it matters how it works, who designs it, who benefits or is harmed. Khare suggests that investments should uphold dignity, fairness, inclusivity and be subject to scrutiny. 

Challenges Ahead

Even with good intentions, the path is not simple. Some of the obstacles identified or implied in Khare’s discussion include:

• Over-prioritization of user convenience at the cost of societal priorities. The market often rewards features that reduce friction, sometimes overshadowing values like privacy or fairness.

• Imbalanced investment: Sectors like entertainment, consumer conveniences often receive more attention than climate tech, environmental monitoring or infrastructure renewal, even though the latter may have greater long-term importance.

• Regulatory lag: Ethics regulation, data privacy laws, transparency standards often trail technology development. In many regions especially, legal frameworks are not yet equipped to deal with AI’s wideanging impacts.

• Value dissonance between regions: What counts as ethical or just in one culture or country may differ in another. Global investment must be sensitive to local values and norms.

A Balanced Path Forward

Rajat Khare’s perspective points toward a balanced, value-centered path for AI's future.