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Job Displacement by Artificial Intelligence Is the Awakening of More Skills and Opportunities
Waking up to the news that 40% of the US workforce would be displaced by artificial intelligence (AI) is a taunting moment. Whoever reported that got it all wrong. Essentially, AI is here to help humankind and not drown them in a pile of joblessness. Examples of this AI include fingerprint sensors, navigator apps, and operating systems interactive assistants, which abound in most gadgets. General AI is touted as the next step. It envisions an automated, digital entity that is capable of performing several cognitive and mechanical tasks at a very high level. AI offers more job opportunities and humankind reaps its benefits in gaining efficient, increased productivity, and advanced education.
The prevalence of artificial intelligence would not be the end of human labor. If anything, more jobs would be created. Studies have shown that in the past century when automation came about, more jobs were more created than the ones displaced (Reese, para 1). Most people found alternate ways of making a living. People diversified themselves into different industries, especially those that did not need automation. The service industry grew such as hospitality where people needed to relate with other human beings. Hoteliers employ more people ta machines to relate with other people. Machines only took over the secretarial parts, record keeping, and reservation departments. The whole cooking part is solely a part of the chef’s duty and not a machine. The machine would help in cooking and flipping burgers to help the cook but not replace them. Therefore, people were able to adapt and live with machines and find alternate ways of bringing themselves an income.
Artificial intelligence has led to worker augmentation which is the rapid development of jobs related to automated jobs. For instance, the 1980 to 2000 use of automated teller machines led to the hiring of more bank customer cares and tellers (Liang, Remanauskas & Kurenkov, para, 12). The ATMs led to the easy withdrawal of money thus making banks more efficient which people thought would have displaced the human tellers. People opened more bank accounts and thus they needed a human being to guide them through the bank opening process. It may be easy to open up a bank online, but one would still need someone to guide them through the terms of the bank and how they would benefit and also get real-time answers. The need for bank tellers grew thus increasing the employment opportunities for people. Nonetheless, the number of customer service people grew in the banks. Artificial intelligence grew more jobs in such sectors and did not layoff people.
Artificial intelligence leads to increased productivity. Everyone can attest that artificial intelligence has made life easier and production less tiring and more efficient. Joseph Schumpeter called this the “creative destruction,” an oxymoron that shows that artificial intelligence has helped in many of these sectors in which it is employed (Reese, para 4). For instance, automation has been adopted by manufacturing lines to assemble, pack, and form components. Amazon uses robotic machines to move and store packages in their warehouse, and other work that is tiring and monotonous to humans and may result in injury and physical strain over a long period. Such robots are also incredibly fast and efficient. Furthermore, in the weather forecasting world, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been fitted to weather observation and recording stations and equipment. The ANNs use an input-output system that relays findings to their operators defining the state of the atmosphere at a given time concerning the risks inherent therein (). For instance, a weather station with several weather measurement tools such as wind vanes and thermometers can use this recorded data to determine and communicate the likelihood of a storm or hurricane developing. Such predictions are invaluable for people who live in at-risk areas such as coastal towns so they can be informed well in advance and they can take the necessary precautions such as moving to higher grounds. Though people may have been displaced, life became easier for many other people.
As AI has displaced a lot of people from their jobs, it cannot fully take control of all situations in the world thus needing human beings in most jobs. The transport industry has experienced a major influx of AI-based technologies. For instance, there have been considerable efforts towards making self-driving cars. It is estimated that by 2060, most vehicles will be self-driving and fully automated whereby every occupant of the vehicle is a passenger (Reisinger, para 3). However, the owner of Uber taxis commented that a self-driven car cannot be fully reliable thus there will be a need for human beings. For instance, a car cannot load the passenger’s luggage and unload them. The car cannot drive in congested cities with traffic and complex routes. A driver can handle the traffic, complex routes, loading and offloading goods, and maintaining the vehicle. Though people are seeing the future with more technological efforts than the involvement of human beings, these sectors still need human beings thus there are employment opportunities.
To adapt to a society of artificial intelligence, people needed to acquire more skills thus many people have become more educated. During the industrial revolution, American workers were the most educated and most productive people in the world because most of them went back to school to get more sophisticated skills (Liang, Remanauskas & Kurenkov, para, 33). 73% of Americans aged 14 to 17 years enrolled in high schools at the time and later on advanced to technical schools to acquire more skills during the industrial revolution era. Artificial intelligence is replacing low-skilled labor which anyone could attain. Therefore, people needed to take further steps to earn better skills. There are loans and grants provided to ensure that students get a quality education. Nonetheless, there is free education in most countries in the world where the government caters to the tuition fees in public schools. The government prioritized education to allow people to have easy accommodation of this upcoming age of technology. Furthermore, what could be mightier than a sword if it is not education?
Additionally, artificial intelligence plus the skills human beings have has enabled human beings to work more complex jobs and efficiently. Ken Goldberg called it the “concept of multiplicity” where human beings and machines worked together to solve more problems (Liang, Remanauskas & Kurenkov, para 34). For instance, AI can become integrated into the operations of a hospital on a much higher level. It is conceivable that an entire hospital can be run by a supercomputer that stores information, makes meaningful decisions on personnel allocation and scheduling, and integrates patient’s medical history as well as their diagnosis and prognosis. This way all the information can be centralized and accessed by appropriate parties on demand in a timely and well-organized form thus making it easy for a doctor to diagnose a patient. If this work would be done by the doctor and human beings, manually skimming through millions of documents to find a patient’s record would take ages thus delaying the service for the patient. The internet also provides reliable sources and notes for the doctor to know more about illnesses and how to handle them. AI makes things easier for doctors and through them working together, treating patients becomes more effective. Therefore, human beings and AI working together solves more problems efficiently.
Nevertheless, just because a job is automatable does not mean it will be automated. According to studies, 40% of the jobs in the United States of America are automatable, but only 4% of the workforce will be displaced by 2024 (Reisinger, para 1). Some jobs prefer having a fellow human experience such as psychiatrists. There could be programs in which human beings could express how they are feeling and the program gives them feedback about what they could be experiencing and how to go about it such as Stoic. These programs could easily take away psychiatric jobs. However, some people prefer talking to someone they know they can relate to them and help them understand their condition; someone who may have gone through what they went through and can help them out of the experience. A robot cannot help like that. Therefore, there is a higher chance that some jobs will be available to human beings.
AI goes without question as a beneficial innovation to the human race. It has created more jobs than people could have imagined. It made people adapt to it thus creating a more educated society. Furthermore, not all jobs will go away because people need human experience. It may potentially wipe out human labor but people will be forced to look for better alternatives: thus, diversifying the economy. AI has greatly improved life on earth. It has become a major part of how society interacts with the environment and has embedded itself as a major part of commerce, infrastructure, and health. As AI is here to stay, so will job opportunities; one has to find their niche.
Work Cited
Liang, Jacky., Remanauskas, Ben., & Kurenkov, Andrey. “Job Loss Due To AI- How Bad Is It Going To Be”. SkyNet Today. 4 February 2019. https://www.skynettoday.com/editorials/ai-automation-job-loss
Reese, Bryon. “AI Will Create Millions More Jobs Than It Will Destroy. Here’s How”. SingularityHub. 1 January 2019. https://singularityhub.com/2019/01/01/ai-will-create-millions-more-jobs-than-it-will-destroy-heres-how/
Reisinger, Don. “A.I. Expert Says Automation Could Replace 40% of Jobs in 15 Years”. Fortune. 10 January 2019. https://fortune.com/2019/01/10/automation-replace-jobs/