Why we should not be afraid of AI
over the last 500 years that jobs eliminated in one sector have been replaced by newer jobs requiring refreshed skill sets. As a corollary, countries such as Japan, Korea or Germany, which have the highest levels of automation, should have seen large scale unemployment over the past 4-5 decades. This is not necessarily the case.
Having said that, in the near future, every routine operational task is certainly likely to become digitised and AI could be running the back-office of most businesses. Over the next few decades, many middle skill jobs are also likely to be eliminated. However, AI is unlikely to replace jobs which require human to human interaction. Consequently, fundamental human thinking skills such as entrepreneurship, strategic thinking, social leadership, connected salesmanship, philosophy, and empathy, among others, would be in even greater demand.
Further, till a point of singularity is reached, AI will not be able to service or program on its own leading to new, high-skilled jobs for technicians and computing experts.
Globally, policymakers and corporations will need to significantly revamp the education system to address technology gaps.
In India, this represents an enormous opportunity for policymakers to make better informed decisions, tackle some of the toughest socio-economic challenges, and address the woeful shortage of qualified doctors, teachers etc.
We need to immediately plan for state and nation-wide university hubs, and MOOCs (massive open online courses) built on the framework of DICE (design, innovation, creativity led entrepreneurship).
Curricula should be focussed on developing basic skills in STEM (science, technology , engineering and mathematics) fields, coupled with a new emphasis on creativity, critical and strategic thinking. Adaptive and individualised learning systems need to be established to help students at different levels work collaboratively among themselves as well as with AI in the classroom.
The National Skills Development Corporation will need to evolve into ‘National Future Skills Development’, as we as a civil society prepare to bring the future into the present!