Is artificial intelligence (AI) bad for Africa’s labor market?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation is one of the technologies that will transform our world. These are technologies that drive societal changes but these technologies have always engendered concern and fear. According to a study from McKinsey Global Institute, suggests that by 2030 intelligent agents and robots could replace as much as 30 percent of the world’s current human labor. This shift has caused fear and concern, and in this post, I’ll be exploring where the impact of artificial intelligence will hit hardest, and the future.
Artificial intelligence refers to software technologies that make a robot or computer act and think like a human. According to some software engineers, it is only artificial intelligence, if it performs as well or better than a human. Performance in this context is human computational accuracy, speed, and capacity. As humans we learn from our day to day life, in other words, humans learn from experience, and machines with AI can also do that (learning from training data). This is called machine learning.
African Governments are presently confronting some of the highest levels of unemployment in the world. Many of these governments see industrialization as the most important long-term way to reduce unemployment. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), some people see this strategy as fundamentally flawed. They assert that AI enables machines to perform tasks that are currently done by humans with greater precision, speed, and at lower cost. It is believed that AI will ultimately rob people all over the world, but most especially in Africa, of their jobs.
Jobs that are most likely to be replaced with AI
Digital consultants is a growing technology in healthcare. It’s AI that is backed by deep learning data to produced informed decisions and diagnoses for clinics. Also there is a technology called the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) which already perform simple surgeries cleaner and more accurately than human surgeons, stitching and removing organs with less damage to the surrounding body parts. But this does not eliminate the supervision of a doctor during the process.
Couriers and delivery people are being replaced by drones and robots, it’s only a matter of time until this space is dominated by the automation process.
The food service industry is already seeing a rise in automation. This is particularly the case in fast-food restaurants, which typically focus on speed and efficiency. Computers can help customers place orders and make payments. They can also perform basic repetitive tasks in the back of the house, including dish washing and even some food prep. However, people will continue to fill food service jobs that involve creativity and skill (like chefs and cooks, particularly at fine dining restaurants), and human interaction (like waiters at restaurants that emphasize customer service). And jobs in management, such as restaurant manager, will need to be filled by people with strong supervisory skills.
Construction jobs are also threatened, but the good news is that construction jobs are growing due to today’s increased demand for new buildings, improved roadways, and other infrastructure development. However, some construction tasks are ideal for robots to take over. These include any predictable physical labor, such as construction equipment operation and basic installation and repair of materials.
Here is my opinion on this
I would agree with the claim that artificial intelligence threatens human jobs. Prominent services like automated stores, vending machines & driverless cars are a threat to job such as cashier & driver. Artificial intelligence is not bad for the African labor market, because when a machine takes on a task that would have been performed by a human, it gives the human more options and opportunities to learn new things(task). Also not to forget the fact that some of these technologies, still require human attention, for example, most unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) still needs a pilot to take some specific complex decisions and maneuverings. Also still looking at drone technologies it has very vast applications and large usage can lead to new jobs such as drone engineers for maintenance, drone pilots etc.
Another example is the technology called the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) which perform simple surgeries, stitching and removing organs with less damage to the surrounding body parts, but this robot is operated by a doctor remotely.
If this becomes commercially available, it is possible that many traditional surgeons will lose their job, however, with automation, it is likely that the price of surgeries will drop significantly. Cheaper surgeries will lead to higher demand and higher availability in poor regions like in Africa. This increased demand might in turn result in a greater need for new job types (e.g. remote surgeons) or may allow healthcare providers to focus on more labour-intensive aspects of care such as post-op work.
As we go further into the future, it is possible that even these new types of jobs (remote drone pilots and remote surgeons) will be taking away by AI as the AI improves. I believe general principle will hold — there are some jobs that will require human-computer cooperation, and in such jobs, it’s likely the computer roles will increase over time. As this happens humans will focus their labor on new problems that arise from the new paradigm or, in some cases, put more effort into solving previously low priority problems. Finally, there are some bunch of other jobs that cannot yet be replicated particularly well by a computer. For example, computers cannot express empathy or interact with people in the way humans can. Therefore, jobs that involve caring for others like rising a child, taking care of the elderly, e.g nurses, psychologists, teachers, social workers, and more are generally safe from automation. Any position that requires directly managing other people will likely also avoid automation. That is because robots and computers don’t have the emotional intelligence and skills to supervise humans (at least for now). Jobs that involve creativity are also less likely to become automated e.g writer, graphic designer, songwriter etc.
History shows that technology has always destroyed jobs. And when technology does, people eventually find other jobs. For example, 100 years ago when machines (tractors) where introduction in farms many people where jobless, but these made some people look beyond and they discovered that these machines are controlled by humans others became mechanics that repairs these machines, another example is when banks started using computer they trained some people on how to use the technology, and in a case where they could not train them, they laid them off and replaced them with people that know how to use the technology, this made so many people learn how to use the technology and got jobs related to that field.
Finally, I believe at the end of the day societies in Africa and all over the world will adapt to a world where AI is destroying many jobs. The only caveat is that each society must invest heavily in education so that they will be nimble enough to implement the painful restructuring that will be needed. Education systems need to focus on training students in roles directly associated to working with AI, including programming and data analysts because AI comes with a number of new job opportunities.
