Within the next 10 years, AI will fast-track its advancement and will replace human jobs within the next couple of decades.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ken Goldberg, the professor of engineering of UC Berkeley took notes of the common fear that robots will take over the workforce & replacing humans together. There was an idea of singularity or single entity workforce. Multiplicity, on the other hand, explained the concept of humans & AI coexist.
The following explains how AI can act in the world of humans.
1. Automation of AI - AI makes decisions on its own
AI will act on its insights and carry the recommendations it would normally advise humans to handle. It will replace complicated processes. It can be seen as combative rather than collaborative. Hence, companies need to establish trust between people & machines.
Machines can perform more tasks done by humans, complement the work that humans do, even complete tasks beyond humans’ abilities. Workers in the future will acquire new skills & adapt to the increasingly capable machines alongside them in the workplace.
2. How AI & customisation can affect work
AI can automate half the activities carried out by workers. Certain categories of activities are more easily automatable than others i.e physical activities in highly predictable & structured environments, data collections and data processing. Least susceptible -to-replacement jobs include managing others, providing expertise & interfacing with stakeholders.
2. Job loss: some occupations will see a significant decrease by 2030
Automation will replace some workers. Up to around 30% of existing UK jobs could face automation over the next 15 years. Productivity & additional jobs will also be enhanced with new AI technology elsewhere in the economy. “UK has a lower proportion of existing jobs (30%) at potential high risk of automation than the US (38%) & Germany (35%) but more than Japan (20%)” John Hawksworth, Chief Economist at PWC commented.
Automating more manual & repetitive tasks will eliminate some existing jobs and could also enable some workers to focus on higher-value, more rewarding & creative work and it would remove monotony from our day jobs.
According to PWC, it is estimated that a lower proportion of female jobs are at risk of automation compared to male counterparts. This is due to the empathetic nature of the jobs females carry out. Its report also explains: “In the future, knowledge will be a commodity so we need to shift our thinking on how we skill & upskill future generations. Creative & critical thinking will be highly regarded as well as emotional intelligence”.
3. Conclusion:
Elon Musk has said: “Over time, I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence & digital intelligence… It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain & the digital version of yourself, particularly output”.
When the world has become more reliant on transparency and communication, we will have machine partners whom we can understand and work with, even though there might not be any more work one day. With more capability and intelligence, the machines will need the ability to explain their processes and results. Otherwise, we risk having all the answers provided and no insights.