Goodbye to dangerous and boring jobs?
Workers and firms would benefit from automating operations
Despite fears of AI eliminating jobs, there’s one factor that could make us happy: having robots do hazardous work for us, experts say at
Khaleej Times’ Artelligence 2018.
Despite fears that artificial intelligence will end up taking a large majority of jobs in almost every sector in the coming years, experts have been quick to point out that most of the jobs that will end up being taken over will be those that are boring, repetitive, and dangerous for humans.
Speaking on a panel session about how the implementation of robotics and automation aided by AI will end up affecting the workforce of the future Artelligence – The Artificial Intelligence Forum 2018, Patrick van der Smagt, director of AI at Volkswagen, said that people will be happy that they don’t have to do menial jobs, or those in hazardous environments.
“There are still lots of jobs that require us to work in extremely dangerous situations,” van der Smagt said at the event organised by Khaleej Times, the UAE’s first English-language newspaper, and MIT Sloan Management Review GCC, with Smart Dubai as the official government partner.
“Companies are already working on ensuring that AI will be handling such jobs. In addition, there will also be no more staring at Excel sheets for long periods of time looking for patterns or correlations. Today, you have machine learning tools that can help you with such tasks,” he added.
Yuanyuan Liu, director of machine learning at AIG, was of a similar mind, noting that extremely labour intensive jobs need to be replaced. “Boring jobs should also be replaced, because they have a very negative effect on a person’s motivation at work.”
“It is beneficial for companies to automate,” added Dr Ash Booth, head of AI at HSBC.
“Imagine making big decisions based on having smart insight into the future, whereas before you only had your intuition. We are confident about the future of automation. The only real issue right now is that we have to start worrying more about the security and privacy of personal data when it comes to implementing AI systems.”
Liu noted that there are already instances of AI being used to improve lives and businesses.
“AI can be used to plan routes more efficiently at companies such as Uber. In addition, AI is being used to increase security in many parts of the world. Face detection software that incorporates AI was recently used to locate and arrest a criminal at a music concert in China. Organisations need to promote an AI first culture, but there are challenges to making this happen such as rigid hierarchy. You also need to ensure that the support comes from the highest levels in the company.”
A recent Gartner study says that by 2020, AI might create more jobs than it eliminates. AI is predicted to create 2.3 million jobs in 2020, while eliminating 1.8 million.
The number of jobs affected by AI will vary by industry: through 2019, healthcare, the public sector, and education will see continuously growing job demand; while manufacturing will be hit the hardest. Starting in 2020, AI-related job creation will cross into positive territory, reaching two million netnew jobs in 2025.
Highlighting the importance of staying updated, Van der Smagt said that there is a need for organisations to do their own research to keep up with the latest trends. In addition to this, they need to provide proper training to their employees. Many universities often have trouble preparing their students on how technology is affecting the roles that they will play at work, so it is the responsibility of the organisations provide the necessary training at work.
“In-house universities are a great way to keep up with the demand for newer specialises roles,” Van der Smagt said. “All the top companies today boast an open culture for the exchange of expertise; no more isolated islands of knowledge - those days are over. You have to work with research teams of different companies to create a flexible structure to better incorporate technologies such as AI.”