Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

When will they ever learn!

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The public was given two weeks (October 3) to respond to a call for representa­tions on a new Elderly Health Policy in a September 17 newspaper notice by the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Policy but most of the informatio­n listed was incorrect. For example the website given is www.health. gov.lk/en/Pub- Opi/Elderly%20

1. Healthcare 2. Insurance 3. Architects 4. Journalist­s

Policy%revition%20E4.pdf but it’s impossible to access this since the actual link is http:// www. health. gov. lk/ en/ Pub_ Opi/ Elderly% 20Policy% 20new% 20 revision% 20E4. pdf. Note the difference­s in the two: It should be ‘ Pub_ Opi’ instead of ‘ Pub- Opi’ while the second error was ‘revition’ instead of ‘revision’. The notice also says ‘ alternativ­ely Some aspects of a doctor’s job can now be done by computers. For example, surgeons already use automated robotic systems to aid with less invasive procedures. IBM’s Watson proved it can diagnose lung cancer from analysing MRI scans much more reliably than real people. In addition, the UCSF Medical Center recently launched an automated, robotics-controlled pharmacy at two UCSF hospitals that automatica­lly dispense prescripti­ons based on barcodes scanned by nurses. In fact, Johnson & Johnson has an FDA-approved device that can deliver low levels of anesthesia automatica­lly— no anesthesio­logist required. Much of what insurance brokers and insurance underwrite­rs do today can be done by computers using big data and machine learning. Formulas have been used for decades to determine how much insurance a person is qualified for and at what rate, but new tools will automate the decision-making process even more. Programmes already exist to help individual­s design their own homes, making architectu­ral skill and even design and color choices more automated. For now, most people are using the software mostly as a visualisat­ion tool, or to replace architects for very small projects. But as the sophistica­tion of the programmes improves, so will the need for human architects and designers diminish. Much of what journalist­s do can now be automated using machine learning tools such as narrative science that creates natural language news stories from analyzing data. In fact, if you’ve read a financial earnings report in the past year or two, you’ve probably read an article or press release generated by a machine. The first places these programs will be used are in financial and sports reporting, which rely heavily on data and numbers, but other fields are not far behind. Services are already appearing that “scrape” content

6. Teachers

click on “National Elderly Health Policy of Sri Lanka ( draft) under the category “Policy for public opinion” which it says is on the left side of the ministry home page. But this icon is on the right side of the home page. The Ministry official responsibl­e for the ad doesn’t seem to know the right from the left. When will they ever learn! from news sites and “rewrite” it to avoid outright plagiarism but include the same content for websites.

5. Financial industry

Algorithms can now analyze financial data and prepare accounts (as well as do tax returns) — without the need for accountant­s. Bank tellers have already been partially replaced by ATMs, but soon even higher level bankers, including loan officers, could be easily replaced by automated systems. Even government­s are now using big data and machine learning to check tax returns and identify potential fraud in tax matters. We know that computers are already being used to make stock trades faster than humans ever could and they’re even used to predict how the market will react and make recommenda­tions whether you should buy or sell. The job of teachers will definitely change with the digitisati­on. Studies have already shown that algorithms used to customize leaning to individual pupils based on their progress and understand­ing can be more effective than a human teacher. While this may be a boon to school districts desperate to find qualified individual­s to teach, it may (Chance of being automated: 0.3 per cent) Occupation­al therapists (OTs) help people improve their ability to perform tasks in their daily living and working environmen­ts. They work with individual­s who have conditions that are mentally, physically, developmen­tally, or emotionall­y disabling, a profession that requires human interactio­n. (Chance of being automated: 0.4 per cent) Some of the reasons it'll be hard to replace dentists include the need to be clever in various aspects of their job and communicat­ing with patients. (Chance of being automated: 0.4 per cent) also eventually reduce the role of classroom teacher to that of proctor or babysitter — or eliminate it altogether.

7. Human Resources

Human resources, headhuntin­g and hiring is already being affected by data mining as algorithms take on the job of sorting through resumes to find the perfect candidates. Other jobs of human resources, including collecting and filing paperwork, advising employees about benefits, etc., can easily be automated.

8. Marketing and Advertisin­g

Marketing is all about that most human of skills, persuasion and manipulati­on. But even that is being successful­ly outsourced to computers. Persado, a natural language software firm, has put its computers to the task of writing compelling email subject lines for large retail organisati­ons that can as much as double open rates. Companies are also experiment­ing with automated ad buying: instead of having people choose which magazines to place ads in and on which pages, the computers take care of it, using billions of data points for reference.

9. Lawyers and Paralegals

In the discovery phase of a lawsuit, lawyers and paralegals can be required to sift through thousands, even tens of thousands of documents depending on the case. Now,

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Teachers

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