Are we going to benefits or lose with robots and artificial intelligence taking over parts of human life? Maybe at some point in the long run it will be of greater benefit, but in the short term there is going to be a lot of people that are going to suffer. Dr. Subhash Kak, a computeing expert from Oklahoma University, sees a devastating and grim future for humanity with AI taking over in the human economy.
Instead of automation and self driving cars helping humanity, Kak sees us driving ourselves into a meaningless future with our untempered desire to automate everything. If self-driving cars take off, local and global employment opportunities will be taken from most humans in that field within less than a decade. "The beginnings of the dystopia are already there".
According to statistical models, it's estimated that self-driving cars will be the norm by 2030. Adoption of this technology will displace millions of people from their jobs, requiring them to get jobs elsewhere even if jobs aren't available. As robotics advances into more efficient artificial intelligence that potentially gets closer to real artificial general intelligence, other industries will become greatly affected by their adoption, with again more people out of jobs and looking for work.
Automation is already replacing much of factory in warehouse work, such as at Amazon. Amazon is such a powerhouse, that many department stores are closing because they can compete with the online retail market anymore. This will expand, not only into more jobs that require physical labor, but also into the intellectual labor, as Kak worries:
Why would professors like me be needed if the lectures of the best instructor in the world are recorded and made available on the Internet?
The rise of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence will produce a rise in unemployment and cause a "meaningless misery" from the struggle to find work that gives people meaning in their lives. Kak sees a future of people sunk into despair. Kak believes governments need to take action and ensure people will still have work despite more jobs being taken by robots.
Is this dark warning an accurate prophecy about our future? Sing the potential misery that awaits us on our present course can help to push us into facing that potential reality in our future and possibly avoid it if we choose to.
Maybe these visions of the future are too dark and too pessimistic. But a 2017 McKinsey report suggests it will cause a disruption in how humans find work and maintain work, with the most impact seen in physical work related jobs like equipment officers, food-preparation workers, and general mechanics.
Jobs that require relatively simple and repetitive tasks can be replaced by robots that are programmed to do it quicker and better. Robots can work indefinitely compared to humans, and don't need to be paid. Their precision in repeating tasks also tends to produce less mistakes. One robot can do the job of several humans. For businesses, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence will save money and increase efficiency. The McKinsey report predicts the American workforce will see one third of humans replaced by robots by 2030.
The domain of physical work will become obsolete for humans, as we are pushed into using our minds more. Intellectual skills will be where people can find work, the potential surge in the need for computer engineers and specialists. This will also create more demand for teachers. Seeing the future around the corner can allow us to better prepare for this eventuality by increasing the growth in these fields ahead of time.
Automation should have no effect on jobs that involve managing people, as that is a highly intellectual and social department that would require an advanced artificial general intelligence to possibly be able to compete with. Greater technological developments are required in order to match human performance in this and other fields.
Maybe that will come someday as well. Maybe one day everything will be done by robots and humans will have almost nothing to do, as all our needs are met by technology. At first, there might be a lot of misery and suffering from those who are displaced from their jobs, but in the longer run this may just shift the job market and force humans to get more skills that are less physically oriented. Less people will be employed in manual labor, and more into intellectual labor.
Do we have anything to fear? Should we prevent the long-term freedom from technological growth into the job market in order to avoid short-term pain, suffering and misery as people lose jobs to robots? Will that long-term goal never come, with us instead leading ourselves into self-destruction?
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
References:
- Meaningless misery awaits: Self-driving cars, robots and AI will leave a THIRD of the population unemployed, expert warns
- Self-driving cars and AI will leave a 'THIRD of the population unemployed' and cause people to slip into a meaningless life of misery, expert warns
- What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages
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