Elon Musk and Others Call for a Pause on AI Development
This week in AI and ML news: An open letter urges caution in the AI race, Goldman Sachs reports on generative AI’s workforce-changing potential, and more.
Author’s Note
Analysts and executives agree that computer vision has transformative potential and that results are within reach. Gartner places edge computer vision at the center of its latest Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar. Computer vision as a whole sits ahead of all other solutions on its most recent Hype Cycle. As Plainsight’s Co-Founder and CPO, Elizabeth Spears, puts it in a recent article for Channel Futures, “this is computer vision’s time in the spotlight.” Check it out to learn about why many enterprises struggle to put computer vision into production and the benefits of channel partnerships for elevating stalled or failed initiatives.
Elon Musk and Hundreds of Tech Leaders Urge Caution in AI
Last week, Bill Gates shared his thoughts on the ‘age of AI’ in an open letter for its GatesNotes site. A different open letter, signed by a growing number of tech leaders, is dominating the headlines this week. It strikes a less hopeful tone than Gates’ commentary, urging caution and calling for a six-month pause on “giant” AI development to allow for research into their potential capabilities and dangers.
Signatories include Elon Musk, Apple-Co-Founder, Steve Wozniak, and engineers from Microsoft, Google, and other tech giants. Their letter characterizes the recent news-making wave of AI solutions as the results of “an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds,” and expresses concerns over potential unpredictability. If pausing development is not possible, they ask governments to intervene. Responses have been mixed, with some experts echoing the calls for a pause, others expressing skepticism, and still others falling somewhere in the middle. Speaking to NPR, James Grimmelman, a Cornell University professor of digital and information law, says, “A pause is a good idea, but the letter is vague and doesn’t take the regulatory problems seriously.”
On Thursday, OpenAI faced a more pointed rebuke in the form of a complaint filed by The Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP). The tech ethics group has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate OpenAI and charged them with exposing the public to a range of threats. Learn more about the complaint.
New Report: Generative AI Could Affect 300 Million Jobs
A research note published by Goldman Sachs this week explores the evolving capabilities of generative AI and the potential for emerging solutions to transform or replace jobs. If generative AI reaches its potential, the investment banker predicts the global workforce could experience “significant disruption.” Per Goldman’s estimates, roughly 300 million jobs are potentially exposed to automation in some capacity. While some of these workers face potential replacement, the report’s authors note that new job growth has historically tended to outpace worker displacement during periods of rapid innovation. They also tout emerging AI’s potential economic effects, including a possible 7% increase in the value of global goods and services over the next decade.
While jobs in most industries are vulnerable to at least some extent, the report identified administrative and legal positions as the most likely to be affected by automation. The top of the list is dominated by white-collar industries including law, financial operations, and engineering. Craftspeople and machine operators are on the other end of the spectrum, decidedly unlikely to see their jobs changed by automation.
Agriculture is one industry where automation is enhancing the human workforce and where leading enterprises are excelling thanks to a blend of human capabilities and technology. Check out our blog on the human-centric solutions that are transforming farms and ranches.
Generative AI Will Enhance Service Work, Experts Argue
In the Harvard Business Review, a trio of authors made the case this week that generative AI will empower and enhance rather than replace service workers. The article opens with a clear statement that — despite some unpredictability — businesses cannot afford to wait when it comes to generative AI any more than they can afford to automate away their teams. Forward-thinking organizations, the authors write, should start working toward an ideal mix of automation and augmentation, leveraging new solutions to supplement human potential.
AI is already having a transformative impact in the restaurant industry, offering a perfect case study in the ways it can allow workers to reinvent their jobs without replacing them. Visit our blog to learn more about how computer vision is helping redefine service excellence.
About the Author & Plainsight
Bennett Glace is a B2B technology content writer and cinephile from Philadelphia. At Plainsight, he plays a central role in planning and delivering content that supports Plainsight’s efforts to make vision AI success a repeatable, scalable reality for enterprises across a range of industries.
Plainsight provides the unique combination of AI strategy, a vision AI platform, and deep learning expertise to develop, implement, and oversee transformative computer vision solutions for enterprises. Through the widest breadth of managed services and a vision AI platform for centralized processes and standardized pipelines, Plainsight makes computer vision repeatable and accountable across all enterprise vision AI initiatives. Plainsight solves problems where others have failed and empowers businesses across industries to realize the full potential of their visual data with the lowest barriers to production, fastest value generation, and monitoring for long-term success. For more information, visit plainsight.ai.
