Artificial Intelligence – Role of the worker

“Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,

It will vanish and the stars will shine again,

Because, for all our power and weight and size,   

We are nothing more than children of your brain!”

                                                                        -  The Secret of the Machines (Rudyard Kipling)

The juxtaposition of human intelligence versus powerful machinery is explained in a very sublime manner through these lines. As we witness artificial intelligence replacing the human work, it becomes imperative for a modern worker to empower the human factor in performing complex and critical work requiring human judgement and creativity.

During the Industrial Revolution of the mid-eighteenth century, almost every aspect of the daily life was influenced in the transition from hand production to mass production; to the extent that it even attracted intellectual hostility towards the ‘monstrous machines’. Centuries later, it is acknowledged as a turning point in history leading to emergence of a modern economy and improving the standards of living.

We can draw a parallel, with Erik Brynjolfsson’s and Andrew McAfee’s argument in their book ‘The Second Machine Age’ that automation makes humans and machines substitutes, rather than complements. Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum has coined the termed ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ to represent the emerging technological breakthroughs. While the most disruptive changes can be traced to the AI Revolution, it will eventually bring in a new era of prosperity, wherein humans will no more need to perform routine low-value jobs, rather engage in flexible niche service offerings.

The commercial offerings from technology giants including Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Computer Vision, Cognitive Computing and so on, are pushing all boundaries of imagination. The stuff of science fiction a few years ago is now brought to life with systems that can see, listen, think, understand, learn, create and decide like human counterparts. This requires workers to demonstrate human aptitude and capability that surpasses our expectations from these intelligent machines.

Monotonous tasks would be the first prey to automation, for instance the Interactive Voice Response technology to reduce the customer care operations, robots for production lines to perform assembling operations, autonomous cars or drones to replace traditional transportation etc. Also, the Financial and Government sector requiring significant data processing will benefit, where AI can have a great role in eliminating bureaucracy and improving the service to citizens. In parallel, there would be numerous new roles that will need highly skilled professionals to manage and maintain these complex systems, and ensure its security and integrity.

On the other hand, the fact that AI is driven by huge investments, will deter an unmindful replacement of every human job by machines, rather limit it to situations that justify its business benefits. In scenarios where the cost of failure is too high or the risk tolerance is low; where it can solve major problems of the world today like identification of fake news, enhancement of digital security, improving medical diagnosis and so forth. A systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of a human interface versus a bot, will help determine the optimal solution, and the best approach to achieve social benefits in tandem with the social costs. While the worker may not be dispensable altogether, the real opportunity is to provide more personalized services by utilizing AI to empower better, smarter human experiences.

This new age of intelligent automation, requires a collaborated approach from institutions and individuals to prepare for the future. It requires societies to adapt to the new technological landscape by developing new strategies to assess the opportunities and the risks, and redesign social mechanisms to cover the lost employment scenarios. It requires organizations to develop an administrative framework to prevent an unbalanced concentration of technological control. And finally, it requires the individuals to inherit an attitude of lifelong learning and innovation to handle the disruption when the existing jobs become obsolete.

Computer professionals must continuously evolve and identify new initiatives to remain in the game. Can we design an AI solution for job applicants that can de-bias discrimination against specific populations based on gender or race? Can a program calculate risk assessment score to advice judges to sentence criminals without prejudice? Can a software grade students' essays more objectively and consistently? Can the spread of misinformation and hate speech on burgeoning social networks be algorithmically identified and stopped? As long as the human brain can the frame the problems for the intelligent machines to solve, they will stay ahead of the curve. The role of the worker is then to concentrate on problem finding and problem shaping,

To conclude, as humanity is acquiring all the right technology, it also needs to use it for all the right reasons. There are plentiful of examples to put it to context. A copy editor uses spell-check as a tool, but his or her value lies in improving the accuracy of content and its fitness to purpose. A digital assistant like Siri or Alexa can efficiently process the information request, a personal secretary adds the human touch to understand the implicit mood and empathize with the responses. An Oncologist can use AI to gain insights into the medical history and the potential treatment, but needs to act with compassion to instill hope to the suffering patient. The quote from the former IBM CEO, Louis Gerstner beautifully sums up “Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding”.