An era of both peril and promise
The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an age of unprecedented advances, is under the spotlight at UKZN this week, writes A dire need to cultivate entrepreneurship and innovation in SA
IN GREEK mythology, a Cypriot sculptor, Pygmalion, carved a woman out of ivory. The statue was so beautiful and realistic that he fell in love with it, and prayed at the altar of Aphrodite for a bride who would be “the living likeness of my ivory girl”.
When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again. The statue of Galatea came to life.
Then there was the Greek god Hephaestus who, as a blacksmith for all gods, built automatons of metal to work for him. He also created – out of gold – mechanical handmaidens that could talk.
Another Greek hero and slayer of monsters, Cadmus is said to have sown dragon teeth that turned into soldiers.
Now, 2 500 years later, the concept of artificial servants, companions, workers, nearindestructible soldiers and war machines is fast turning into a reality.
How this will be managed is among questions likely to arise at a Spark Innovation workshop being hosted at the University of Kwazulu-natal (UKZN) this week.
Imagine what rogue inventors could conjure using robotics and artificial intelligence, said deputy vice-chancellor of research, Professor Denesh Ramjugernath, who will be the keynote speaker.
Ramjugernath said exponential advances in innovative technology today were as astounding as they were scary.
He shares the views of late British physicist Stephen Hawking who, in the years before his death, often warned of the possible consequences of artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence will be the best or worst thing to happen to humanity. We don’t yet know which,” said Hawking in a 2016 interview.
In Ramjugernath’s view, the concept behind the original movie, The Terminator, is not that far-fetched. The movie is about a battle for survival between the nearly-extinct human race and a “Global Digital Defense Network” computer system which becomes self-aware. SOUTH Africa needs to up its game in the world of innovation and entrepreneurship, says University of Kwazulunatal deputy vice chancellor: research, Professor Deresh Ramjugernath.
He will be the keynote speaker at this week’s Spark Innovation breakfast meeting at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.
In South Africa, he says, when people talk of entrepreneurs, they are often thinking too small-scale – survival entrepreneurial activity.
“If we really want to see the significant economic growth and job creation that we are seeing in developing countries, we must have real innovation in medium and hi-tech entrepreneurship,” he said.
“In the US, they have done it extremely well, leading to a number of tech start-ups.
“We are trying to develop the same kind of mindset and culture here,” said Ramjugernath. “That is what our Spark events are all about.”
He said that while South Africa was performing well in the biotechnology sphere, the country lacked real hi-tech companies like Apple, Google and Amazon.
He said it was important
Like Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Ramjugernath believes we have entered an era of great promise and potential peril.
In his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Schwab states that the evidence of dramatic change is all around us and happening at exponential speed.
“The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.”
Schwab also warned that while rapid advances in technology had the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life, it could also yield greater inequality, disrupt labour markets and give rise to a job market increasingly segregated into “low-skill/ low-pay” and “high-skill/ high-pay” segments.
“These are valid concerns,” said Ramjugernath. “Our workshops aim to engage stakeholders for all stakeholders in the public and private sectors and academia to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship as a means of socio-economic upliftment.
He said the future of jobs on how best to handle these technological advances responsibly and to the benefit of the society.”
“What we are trying to do is build a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and make sure these innovations happen in the right way”.
He said over the past few years, several new institutions and companies had started using artificial intelligence to successfully predict and halt the spread of infectious diseases.
He said artificial intelligence was also rapidly expanding into other areas covering all aspects of day to day life.
“These days you can go into a bank and, instead of speaking to a consultant, you end up chatting to a robot,” said Ramjugernath.
He was referring to Nedbank’s recent installation of 59 software robots, with plans to have 200 in place by the end of the year.
The bank has also introduced a humanoid robot, called Pepper, as its newest client and associated skills development in Africa rested on technological advances being made through what is now widely known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Last year, a study by the service champion “to excite staff clients so they can get used to interaction with robots.”
While Pepper, made headline news recently, it is nothing quite like Sophia, a more advanced, almost human-like robot which made history when granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia, a soverign Arab state, late last year.
“I am very honoured and proud of this unique distinction,” Sophia told an audience ahead of the Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative in October.
Sophia is not pre-programmed with answers but uses machine learning algorithms to form her responses.
She has cameras and artificial intelligence software that allows her to “make eye contact” and recognise people. She also has voice recognition capabilities and can become “smarter” by talking with people.
When moderator and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, asked Sophia about the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed that 39% of core skills, required across industries in South Africa, would be completely different by 2020.
While the WEF predicted large job losses to hit white-collar threat of evil futuristic robots depicted in films such as Blade Runner 2049, Sophia responded: “You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies.”
Scan the AR link to watch a video of Sophia. sectors worldwide, mostly among people in administrative roles, professions in IT, mathematics, architecture and engineering are expected to gain around 2 million jobs.
The third Durban Spark Innovation breakfast meeting is being held on Wednesday, April 4 from 7.30am-8.30am in K2, K-rith Tower Building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine campus, UKZN, 719 Umbilo Road.