The need to retool

The impeachment initiatives have preoccupied some lawmakers these days. As if, that is the only thing important for them to address to move ahead. To think that some of those who were animatedly pursuing it have questionable deeds too made us feel like vomiting. One of them (in the lower house), in fact, is from Cebu and has a long list of cases involving anomalous deals in millions of pesos. Disgustingly awful.

Indeed, amid all disgusts and frustrations on the constant bickering among politicians in the country and their selfish desire to get off the hook from debilitating cases or to resurrect their careers, some important developments and policy briefs that are of much significance are overlooked. While both sides unceasingly trade barbs against each other, there is no denying the fact that there are much more significant developments that the citizens of the country must seriously pay attention to. These are developments that shall surely give us so much to ponder on and shall certainly affect us now and in the future.

For one, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) issued last year (October, 2016) a policy brief (Policy Brief No. 50) entitled “Robots and Industrialization in the Developing Countries”. Among others, it stressed that “Increased use of robots in developed countries erodes traditional labor-cost advantage of developing countries. Thus, it advised that “Developing countries need to redesign education policies and embrace the digital revolution – this approach should be combined with supportive macroeconomic, industrial and social policies.”

Some developed countries have quickly embraced this development. Their use of robots is slowly becoming prevalent. For one, UNCTAD reported that each year, since 2013, “China has bought more industrial robots than any other country” and “is likely to overtake Japan as the world's biggest operator of industrial robots, the policy brief says” by end of 2016 (last year). This is an attestation of robots’ growing popularity.

At the very least, we, the Certified Public Accountants in the country have started addressing this concern. Just last week, in our 72nd PICPA (Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants) Annual National Convention held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, issues and concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI) were tackled. The inevitability of going digital and the need for us to embrace it were both given prominence and significance.

The convention, attended by generations cutting through the baby boomers to the millennials, successfully made us aware who we are. Clearly, we, the baby boomers have accepted that fact that in this digital age, we are just immigrants, the millennials are the natives. Absolutely, therefore, it comes to them naturally. On the other hand, for us, the immigrants, we need to learn more.

Indeed, the pace of change is remarkably fast. So that, regardless of profession or occupation we are in, the need to embrace this development is paramount. We need to realize that in the coming years, intelligent systems will take all clerical and repetitious tasks from us. We must further realize that these systems will even take over more and more decision-making tasks from us, humans.

Clearly, therefore, there is a need to exploit these powerful technologies. How? By, first, understanding it. Just like any tool we can find in our households, we can’t use it if we do not understand how it works and what it can do. We don’t have to know how it is being made. We only need to know their distinctive characteristics and how they can help solve real and pressing problems.

Despite these developments, if one believes that there is no sense of urgency at all, then, think about this. One of the speakers in our PICPA Convention presented to us a result of a study/survey. Curiously, the study/survey revealed that the jobs or tasks that we do today will no longer exist by year 2030. Quite disturbing, isn’t it.

Admittedly, AI systems are already powerful today and are capable of improving quickly. It can surely surpass us in many aspects. If there is any consolation, it is the fact that we are human beings. That we are emotional beings. That AI systems can’t replicate that.

Therefore, what we essentially need to do now is to recognize the strengths and limits of both artificial intelligence and human intelligence and find the best ways for humans and computers to work together.