Obama Talks Tech And Values At Dreamforce: ‘People Don’t Know What's True And What's Not’

The 44th president swung by the massive Salesforce conference to chat with Salesforce founder Marc Benioff about the benefits and dangers of the current information revolution, and how to attract talent among an increasingly socially conscious workforce.

Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the benefits and dangers of our current information technology revolution Thursday in a broad-ranging discussion with Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff.

From the printing press to radio to TV, and now the current information age, we've seen the introduction of "big disruptive information technologies," Obama said. "That can be a dangerous moment."

"People don’t know what's true and what's not. What to believe," he told Benioff at the event in San Francisco.

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Many expected the internet to be a powerful tool to unify people. "But right now, it's splintering us," Obama said.

Technology is playing a profound role in shaping the modern world, and often, despite its power to do so much good, it's causing anger, resentment, restlessness and anxiety.

That's because "finding the right technical situation" doesn't improve peoples lives if those efforts aren't wrapped around common values.

The rise of extreme inequality, both within and between nations, is being "turbo-charged by globalization and technology," Obama said.

Tech offers humanity so much benefit from a "huge rise in productivity" and as an "amazing engine of wealth creation."

But those laudable attributes must be applied to solving problems like improving schools and combating homelessness.

For business, there's a direct benefit to minding such core values, he said.

The coming generation of talented young people care about the impact their employers have beyond enriching shareholders.

Future leaders of the kind Obama frequently encounters through his foundation often think, "I am entrepreneurial and I believe in the market and I believe in technology."

But they don’t want to work with organizations that don’t aspire to be positive forces in their communities, Obama said.

That lesson was plainly illustrated in his first presidential campaign, which Obama credited a bunch of young people in their 20s for winning for him in places like Iowa.

Those people dedicated their energies to his campaign because they believed in its mission. Had they not, it would have been hard to recruit such young talent, "even with some fabulous Salesforce tool."

Benioff interjected: "you had one."

That was "later on," Obama said in regard to his campaign becoming a Salesforce customer.

But Salesforce is one company showing the way, Obama said, noting the CRM leader's "terrific" workforce development programs.

"Being a leader is identifying the power of other people and unleashing that," Obama said, a trait that encourages good people to work with you.

"Every organization should be looking for talent in not just all the usual places," Obama later in the discussion added.

The former president said he's been spending most of his time of late on the Obama Foundation and developing the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. But Benioff, who just published a book, ribbed his guest on delays in completing his latest publishing effort.

Several times Benioff reminded that Obama told him some time ago he was close to completing a book project, finally prompting Obama to admit delays and ask to change the topic.

Life has changed a lot since leaving the White House, especially now that his daughters have both gone off to college.

"The whole empty next thing is rough. It's tough," Obama said.

But the lessons he still tries to impart on his daughters, when they visit, are "be kind and be useful," Obama said.

Benioff and Obama also reflected on Hawaiian values, as much of Salesforce's Ohana culture is motivated by the islanders' ideals of kindness, friendship, and shared responsibility.

That resonates with Obama, who provoked a burst of laughter in joking, "After I was born in Kenya, I moved to Hawaii."

"That's what my earlier memories are," the former president said, before digressing, "Lord, these are strange times we live in."