First published at Hijacked on 15 May 2015.
While some are making fun of today’s pocket-sized artificial-intelligence (AI) systems, leading scientists and IT figures such as Steve Wozniak, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates recently warned the world about super-intelligent machines as potential threats to humanity.
Killer robots and the use of AI in military have been the focus, but what are the implications for current university degrees? Which streams would most likely be reshaped — or even made obsolete — by thinking machines of the future?
Robots and automation have been around for 50-odd years, first appearing on General Motors’ factory floor in the US. However, their use has traditionally been in low-skilled jobs to assist human workers with tedious and heavy manual labour. When it comes to high-skilled or knowledge-based jobs requiring tertiary qualifications, however, it may be the rise of AI becoming threat number one. Google AI expert Ray Kurzweil even predicted AI systems could be smarter than humans by 2029.
Journalism AI systems have the potential to more accurately and quickly write news stories such as sports and finance that rely heavily on data.
Read the full article at Hijacked.
