Artificial Intelligence — A Means of Revolution or a Weapon of Mass Unemployment?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the buzz words that have come out of technological advances in the 21st century. However, far from being a buzz word, great strides have been made towards making the technology a reality. AI’s goal is to create machines that can share in the intellectual capacity of human beings.
At present, it has been proven that machines can be given the level of intelligence as that shared by humans. For instance, an AI machine was able to defeat Garry Kasparov, one of the world most skilled chess players and the reigning world champion at that time, in a game of chess. Robots have been used to carry out surgeries with great accuracy and positive results. More recently, AI has been used to create virtual assistants that are now used in smartphones to execute voice commands, thereby, granting people an additional level of convenience when using their smartphones.
Can AI replace humans?
As AI gains ground in the performance of tasks earlier thought to be only possible for humans, a new threat has emerged. AI has attracted a lot of attention for its extraordinary capabilities in problem solving and creative applications in a range of industries. AI also has the ability to replace humans and eliminate certain jobs which were earlier considered the domain of humans. However, there will emerge several new tasks that will come into the picture along with AI. Let us dissect the problem.
It has become evident that individuals are at odds to determine whether progress made by AI is a revolution or a threat to employment. An assessment of current facts reveals that people have little to worry about regarding AI being a threat to mass employment. However, care should be taken not to ignore its potential disruptive capabilities so that society can align itself in a way that it will benefit from the technology rather than suffer from it.
AI’s abilities are limited to a single process
To begin with, artificial intelligence has proven to be successful in very specific set of tasks. In fact, AI’s design is highly specific since a machine cannot read between the lines as humans can. For instance, while the AI machine that defeated Kasparov could be considered highly intelligent, it is the only task that it can accomplish. Kasparov can carry out many more tasks, including playing a different game where he would definitely defeat the AI machine. Due to the specificity that AI machines require they are not able to be versatile to the level of replacing a whole occupation. For instance, apart from carrying out surgeries, a surgeon also has to collaborate with other health practitioners to improve the quality of care delivered to patients. The versatility required in many occupations makes it less likely that AI or robots will replace humans entirely.
AI will displace skilled labor, not replace it
Secondly, it is not always the case that new technologies destroy existing jobs. In fact, if one looks at history, there have been a myriad of technological innovations ranging from the creation of the pen to automatic telling machines. However, job opportunities have been on the rise rather than a decline. A case in point can be the invention of the automatic telling machine. ATMs replaced a lot of tellers and it led to the automation of mundane tasks. But it also led to the creation of more specialized branches which required skilled employees. Incidentally, this labor was more expensive.
AI cannot be held accountable
Thirdly, there is a larger issues of accountability. An example is the possible application of AI is in the medical field. AI robots can carry out complex surgeries with high degrees of accuracy. However, who will be held responsible when a robot malfunctions and causes harm to a patient? Will they blame the manufacturer, the programmer, or the operator who was possible overseeing the operation? Such bottlenecks will see that humans aren’t entirely replaced by robots in any profession.
AI needs human control
Despite the fact that AI does not pose any serious threat to the job market in the future, it should not be ignored that it can have significant disruptive effects. One such disruptive effect is that that people may be required to have new skill sets in the future to fit in a world where AI is used. It is possible that AI will be used as a mediating technology in many tasks where humans still remain in control. there will emerge several new tasks that will come into the picture along with AI. These tasks will require people.
AI-based solutions will be in demand, and so will experts needed to create it
Creators of AI solutions (programmers, developers, machine learning experts, etc.), trainers of AI, translators of AI output and performance monitors have already started being in great demand as businesses around the world look at using AI solutions to increase the efficiencies of their core processes and to enhance productivity. Obviously with the big role that AI is slated to play in the near future, there is going to be a great demand for AI experts who would take on the task of creating and customizing AI solutions for various industries. The creation of new tasks will also lead to the emergence of the learning and training centers which will make employees better suited for the requirements in the future.
Looking at the growing need for AI professionals by businesses around the world, MindSync is creating a robust community of global AI professionals so that businesses can benefit of this awesome collection of talent on a single platform. Customers can look for readymade AI based solutions in the MindSync repository or create a competition for a more customized AI solution. The best experts will participate in the challenge to offer cutting-edge solutions that can be run on any business platform. The MindSync platform thus seeks to overcome the problem of dearth of experts in this exciting field.
Policymakers should take into account such possible disruption and design systems that enable people to gain such skills in the future. Consequently, it will be possible to gain from the benefits of AI without the fear of mass unemployment.
Parting thoughts
The bottom line is that labor will not become redundant under automation through AI. AI will displace, rather than replace, labor, which will be absorbed under different capacities. AI must be seen as the utilization of the capital to perform tasks which were performed by labor, without making labor redundant or obsolete. Effective use of AI will lead to expansion of other areas like marketing or sales which will then require the use of employees. These employees could be the very same employees who have been replaced due to automation through AI.
