Is Artificial Intelligence Coming After Our Jobs?
Before we get into the details, you need to understand some basic terms.
Firstly, what is artificial intelligence?
AI is a system that can perform a task using intelligence that mirrors or is better than human intelligence. In theory, AI can do any task that needs human intelligence to be accomplished, assuming the system has adequate information and capabilities programmed.
AI is really powerful because it takes the data accumulated from machine learning, analyses it and optimises operations to improve processes.
Wait, what is machine learning?
Machine learning is the process of teaching a computer system on how to make accurate predictions when data is fed to it.
Let’s say that you want your system to find out whether a picture of fruit is apple or banana. In the traditional method, a human developer has to write a code that instructs the system how to tell the difference between the banana and the apple. But this is a tedious process.
But a machine-learning model has been taught how to reliably differentiate between the fruits by being trained on a large amount of data. In this case, the model will possibly be fed a huge number of images labelled as containing a banana or an apple.
In short, the biggest advantage of using an AI is that there is very little possibility of making errors. If the ultimate goal of AI is to mirror human intelligence, does this mean that AI will lead to job losses? Are computers coming after our jobs?
Is AI Replacing Humans?
This is a difficult question to answer because there is no definite answer to it. After machines made their way into factories, several jobs were lost. One study estimates that around 4 lakh jobs were lost to automation in the U.S factories from 1990 to 2007.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has made things only worse. As the fear of infection continues to grow amid people’s minds, a lot of us now wouldn’t mind robots serving us in restaurants or billing our stuff in grocery stores. In fact, we would even find that to be a safer alternative than having actual human beings and the data suggests the same thing.
The U.S lost around 40 million jobs at the peak of the pandemic and one group of economists predicts that 42% of the jobs lost are gone forever. As stated in a recent paper by economists at MIT and Boston University, robots could replace nearly 2 million more workers in manufacturing alone by 2025.
We understand that these figures are scary but even companies agree to the fact that AI is more efficient than humans. JP Morgan said that it now has AI reviewing commercial-loan agreements and it finishes the task in seconds which used to take 3,60,000 hours of lawyers’ time over the course of a year. In May, Microsoft laid off dozens of journalists at MSN and its Microsoft News service amid declining advertising revenue. The journalists were replaced with AI that can scan and process content.
Forrester VP and Principal Consultant Huard Smith told Fortune, that 73% of all cubicle-related jobs will be automated by 2030, equating to more than 20 million jobs eliminated. Location-based workers, which include people who work as grocery store clerks, will also be significantly affected by AI. Around 38% of location-based jobs will be automated by 2030, eliminating about 29.9 million jobs.
In short, the jobs that will be most affected by automation are the ones in data-keeping, has low-level customer interactions and other jobs with predictable, highly routine tasks.
On the bright side, automation can create new jobs directly via the production, maintenance and sales of its products and services. Also, jobs that involve using one’s creative energy, such as writers, editors, graphic designers might be harder to replace as well. It is also said that the jobs which require people to apply their expertise such as chief executives, medical professionals and managers can’t be replaced by AI as well.
Head to moneyguru’s Insight section to stay updated on all major financial news updates of the day!
