AI Should We Fear or Embrace it?
“The Future If,” a global community of business leaders, authors and futurists who explore what our future can look like IF certain technologies, ideas, approaches and trends actually happen. The community looks at everything from AI and automation to leadership and management practices to augmented reality and virtual reality, the 4th industrial revolution and everything in between. Visit TheFutureIf.com to learn more.
Challenge: On the one hand we hear people like Elon Musk say we need to fear AI and then we have folks like Mark Zuckerberg who say we don’t and we should embrace it. Who do we listen to? I recently spoke with Nolan Bushnell (Atari creator) for an episode of my podcast and he blatantly said, “the people who are pessimists (about AI) gotta get a grip, the only thing that causes unemployment is failure of imagination, laziness, and bad government policy.” This same dichotomy exists in the world of research reports and executive discussions as well. On the one hand we see research reports saying 70% of jobs can be automated and then when I speak with execs like the Chief People Officer of McDonald’s or Accenture they say they are automating jobs and not replacing people. So what do we do?
For the individual: All of us in this community are responsible for our careers and personal development. Regardless if you think AI is coming for your job or not, it’s in your best interest to become a perpetual learner. I recommend a few things: 1) pay attention to tangential areas related to your career not just to what is directly in front of you, avoid being “heads down!” 2) think of other areas where your skills can be applicable for example if you’re in financial analysis you can also work in people analytics, think beyond your role 3) be a perpetual learner, take classes online, participate in discussions, etc
For the company: I’m really amazed at the organizational discussions as they pertain to AI because regardless of what these companies believe, their course of action remains unchanged. In other words, if organizations believe that AI will have a significant impact on their people their course of action involves, training, innovation, education, university alliances, etc. If the organization believes that AI will NOT have a significant impact on their people, their course of action remains the same! In other words, from an organization’s perspective it’s two choices that have the same path, which makes no sense!
Fear or embrace AI? This question revolves around the assumption that we have a choice to control it. AI will eventually become a new reality whether we decide to embrace it or not, it simply is.
A futurist approach: Futurists are taught to approach things by looking at them as scenarios. No one scenario is correct or better, they are simply options that we should be aware of. In fact the goal of a futurist is to help people and organizations NOT be surprised by what the future can bring. From this perspective I see a few scenarios which can play out, and we should all prepare for all three (I can of course think of others).
Race with the machines
AI and humans will work side by side to improve productivity. Humans won’t be replaced but their jobs will be augmented, allowing us to focus on more creative and strategic areas of business.
Jobs apocalypse
We will see massive job displacement and perhaps greater abject poverty as corporations will focus on efficiency and profits at the expense of human lives. Countries will experience a state of emergency, income inequality will grow, and things will be…bad.
Safety net
AI will indeed replace a lot of jobs but we will have so much surplus and abundance that this won’t be too harmful. Governments will create social safety nets like universal basic income which will allow us to still live a decent life.
Really curious to hear your thoughts, what else would you add? Are there any other scenarios you can think of here? Visit TheFutureIf.com to join this community of 500 business leaders and participate in this discussion.
Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist. His new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to his newsletter, visit TheFutureOrganization, or become a member of the new Facebook Community The Future If…and join the discussion.
