Working in the Age of AI
- Aug 29, 2021
- 5 min read
Rise of Technology and AI and how it will re-structure our lives
Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence and Automation are emerging in a plethora of industries, ranging from fashion to IT, and are helping humans solve complicated problems. Almost a decade ago, robots and Artificial Intelligence seemed quite far away and the scope was limited. But not so much now. Computers don’t just win at chess; they win at games like jeopardy! And GO!
The growth of Artificial Intelligence in machines is exponential, causing some to forecast a future where humans cannot find work, being unemployable (but it is the media that causes such hysterical forecasts – check out more on Hype over AI). In the era where machines can read X-rays, cars drive themselves (to some extent), and even algorithms to actively acknowledge customer-service enquiries, we are now rapidly shifting towards a growth in automation and artificial intelligence – leading to an increased global economic output and productivity. Even though these technologies increase productivity and economic output, they will in the long run displace and substitute humans from a plethora job, and maybe create new ones.
I’m pretty sure that the term “AI” makes many visualize all the tech-based Sci-Fi fantasies like Blade Runner, I Robot, and sometimes make them scared about what the future holds for us. The media representations of AI are often vague, false, and far-fetched, causing many to conjure about things, most commonly “whether robots will replace me and take over my job?”. Even though we cannot predict accurately what AI brings in the future, however past and present AI developments and trends help us understand what AI might lead to.
“Will a robot take my job?” is one of the most Googled questions. Change makes people panic, making things evolve and confuse many and often making us force to either move on or live in-denial. Every industrial revolution has impacted some kind of industry. In the start of the first industrial revolution, human and animal power were replaced by steam power for efficiency. Then came the telephone and ended the career of messengers and telegraph operators. Then came automation of assembly line and mass production, replacing many labor jobs. Industries adopt robots to increase productivity and efficiency of mass-manufacturing. So, what does this mean for AI taking over our jobs in the future?
What makes a job automatable?
Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning are signaling towards a new age of automation – where humans could get replaced by robots and machines. This advancement is taking us closer to matching or outperforming human performance in fields such as transportation, logistics and healthcare. Automatable jobs generally would be the jobs that require redundant tasks, learning, predictable physical work, data processing and collection to name a few. While, the least susceptible jobs to be automated would often include tasks like managing, applying intuition, expertise, decision making, planning and creative tasks, and working in unpredictable environments.
I found a very interesting way to understand whether a career or occupation is / might be automatable, suggested in Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. Suggested method was to answer three simple questions:
Does it require interacting with people and using social intelligence?
Does it involve creativity and coming up with clever solutions?
Does it require working in an unpredictable environment?
“The more of these questions you can answer with a yes, the better your career choice is likely to be”, Tegmark said.
These three simple questions explain a lot about what jobs are automatable and what are not. Jobs that involve repetitive and structured talks are likely to be automated while tasks requiring social intelligence and creativity are not.
There is a misconception that automation will mostly affect low-skill, daily wage workers, however, a McKinsey & Company research suggested that occupations like financial managers, physicians, senior executives (including CEO) have a significant amount of activity that can be automated. Automating the job of a CEO is highly controversial, yet can prove efficient in certain situations. The main workload of CEO of a multinational corporation includes analysis of data like stock prices, recognizing various business strategies, digital transformation, creating short- and long-term strategies among much more. Such tasks are highly achievable by an AI model and would in fact work efficiently 24X7. A virtual CEO, if you may, would have the unlimited ability to analyze plethora of data available and eliminates the emotional and political side of things which at times clouds a human judgement. However, many might just say that the virtual CEO won’t have creativity and innovation and critical thinking to think out of the box, for the same – I recommend a human-CEO to work side by side a virtual CEO (however, I should keep this argument for later talks).
Other high paying jobs like judges, and commercial pilots having median wage in the US of between 80,000 – 90,000 USD have a chance of 55 to 64% to be automated.
To see more jobs, I recommend viewing this link (although the stats are debatable, you will get a basic idea) to understand more on top high paying automatable jobs.
However, for a job to be automated, there are several factors to be taken into account for technical feasibility:
Cost of developing, deploying and maintenance. For this, there is a contrast – if workforce is available and significantly cost less, they would be chosen over machines even if the task is redundant (but, this argument can further be argued over efficiency and productivity making this argument dependent on the type of work).
Regulatory and social, legal, ethnic acceptance issues are major factors. Many companies might not want to use automation in their field of work due to religious or other reasons. As a social aspect, people often take time to adapt to change, others working side-by-side the machine might become less productive, disrupting the chain.
Impact on other projects, for example – automating a car manufacturing plant will increase the efficiency of production, thereby a faster rate of supply will also be required and not cause a buildup. This point directly links to the commercial availability standpoint and whether or not the supply can be supplied for the efficiency of the manufacturing to be kept constant.
We’re living in an unpredictable environment – nothing can be certain. From what will happen to the climate, to what will happen to our jobs due to automation and AI. All we can do right now is make predictions as to what could happen. The above 3 questions are quite important for the newer generations while choosing career options as it will help them to keep their professional life safe from future technological advancements.
At the moment, Artificial intelligence is yet to reach its capabilities to the fullest. Keeping mindful about the use of AI is very important in order to ensure the power humanity holds as primary species remain for a longer time. AI takeover is repetitive and boring tasks is inevitable and necessary, thereby forcing us to shift to smart and more creative jobs.
Many experts in the field say that “AI will create more jobs than it will destroy, but we have to ensure the usage of AI is placed in the correct task”.
I suggest to check this website and see if your future job is at risk or not.
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