by Pranay Mathur
If you’ve been to a job fair recently, you would know that machine learning and artificial intelligence are some of the hottest fields to work in right now. For businesses, they promise greater productivity. However, this comes at the expense of many human workers becoming redundant.
The phenomenon of automation isn’t new. Cars replacing horse driven carriages was in a sense a form of automation. But in the past decade, there has been an exponential rise in computer processing power that has been accompanied by the development of increasingly sophisticated algorithms. Tasks such as speech and image recognition, which were once thought too abstract for computers, can now be performed by tiny smartphones that fit in our pockets. Self driving cars are already safer and more reliable than their human-driven counterparts. Computers can make meaningful inferences from textual data from the news, and make investment decisions accordingly. Even creative tasks such as producing artworks or composing original music can be done by computers. The point I am trying to make is not that computers can already do all these amazing tasks, but that the rate of change is rapid, and even though it may feel like you are far ahead of computers at doing your job, computers may not be far behind.
But, as I have said before, automation is not exactly a new problem. In the past, jobs have been erased by machines, but new, better jobs came up to replace them. Sure, the early computers made some clerical work redundant, but they also gave rise to entirely new industries such as video games, online publications, software engineering and so on. This is true, and I expect something similar to happen after the current wave of automation as well. However, the creation of these new jobs is always accompanied by a time gap, a skill gap and a geographic gap. Simply put, new jobs will not be created as soon as the old ones are replaced, the people who lose their jobs will not have the skills to perform these new jobs and these new jobs will not necessarily come up in the same towns or cities where people have just lost their jobs. Sure, in the long run society will adapt to the changes AI and automation will bring. But, the transition period over the next decade will see a lot of people find themselves unemployed without a clear way to get back on their feet.
One solution is to regulate new technology. However, this is highly impractical. Computers are more cost-effective and less prone to errors than human beings. Businesses will prefer to automate as much as they can and will make it incredibly difficult for such legislation to go through. Another, slightly better solution is to retrain the workforce to adapt to newer jobs. This approach also has its fair share of problems though. Many people in the older generation have not attended any classes in decades and will be hesitant to spend time upskilling. The logistics of developing a course and teaching it to large parts of the adult population is also not an easy task. That said, reskilling does seem to be the best bet to survive the current wave of automation.
To summarise, automation is going to significantly impact our careers, but we can still be successful if we are willing to always be learning and have an open mind with regards to exploring new career paths.
References
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/pursuit-of-technology-what-happens-to-workers-skills-11309094
https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/highest-risk-jobs
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/01/the-false-promises-of-worker-retraining/549398/
https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/news-and-events/insights/manufacturing/automation-in-manufacturing-help-workers-ride-the-change.html
https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/12/19/16792294/artificial-intelligence-limits-of-ai
The Watercooler 
Thanks for your sharing, and I completely agree with you that once some jobs are replaced, some new jobs will subsequently appear with brand new technology. I think this is a kind of improvement of human society, so I am looking forward to seeing the progress. However, one thing regarding automation I concern the most is what will happen if AI has emotions. What if AI can hate, love, jealous, etc., like if I order AI to do specific tasks, but the AI feel lazy today and do not want to work. That would be extremely horrible if that happens. If we make good use of AI, it can undoubtedly facilitate our daily life; otherwise, we might be the slaves of AI.
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Thank you for bringing up this topic! I agree that having open minds and exploring new career paths is crucial to thriving (job-wise) in today’s world. Yet, in our constant adaptation to new technological developments, will old businesses fall away, and should we be okay with that? I am thinking about the bookstores selling physical books, and the music stores selling vinyls and old tapes. The cultural and social value of these businesses will likely disppear along with a lack of demand for their products. Do we see this as an inevitable loss, or something to worry about?
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Hi Pranay,
Thank you for sharing.
While it is important for us to constantly adapt and improve ourselves, I think we should also consider the psychological implications of technology on our society. Many may be discouraged due to unemployment, and we need to also keep them motivated and willing to learn. We should devise programs in our schools to prepare students for today’s uncertainty and to encourage adaptability.
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It’s rather ironic for automation, the very thing made to better human lives, to have made lives worse for the most disadvantaged in society. Instead of helping humans reduce their workload, it has arguably made life more hectic as we are busy upgrading ourselves everyday to distinguish ourselves from AI. It’s no longer just other potential employees we have to compete for jobs, but AI as well.
Retraining workers may be ineffective for some since learning itself requires a certain level of intelligence. As harsh as it may sound, some blue collar workers are simply unable to grasp complex concepts that white collar jobs require. These workers had no choice but to accept a blue collar job not because of a lack of education, but a lack of intelligence. While it is indeed true that hard work can overcome these odds, the time needed to do so may be too long, making it difficult for these workers to find a job immediately if they get retrenched.
At the rate in which AI is improving, humanity might have unintentionally sparked a ‘war’ between AI and humans. AI are only replacing human workers now, but what about the future? Will AI become so advanced that it can even replace human companionship? Will we live in a future where we compete with AI for a soulmate?
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Thanks for sharing, Pranay.
I also agree that the future will bring new jobs and opportunities. For instance, careers on big data were not such a thing five years ago. On the other hand, it is true that it looks like the rate at which jobs are being taken away by automation is greater than the speed at which new jobs are created.
This will certainly be an issue in the future, and although it has never happened in such a scale, it has always been there. During the industrial revolution, for example, workers at the factories would destroy the machines that had just taken their jobs. Similarly, this is also the case with something like uber taking over taxi drivers’ business: a new system that makes it easier and cheaper for the public (by diminishing the working conditions of the employees) makes it difficult for the previous workers to survive. In short, new systems appear and challenge the previously established ones constantly.
Although this is disheartening, these sort of changes are always going to happen, as the world can’t move forever at the speed of the slowest.
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The problem with automation is not that it’s bad, after all it has automated grueling and dangerous work in factories, reduce need for boring work like security guards and making background music. But for some god forsaken reason, all of those benefits also comes with the prospect of losing jobs wages for human beings. So why is this the case, and how can we decouple those two?
That point about automation creating new jobs is misleading. Before video games there were physical games like board games, card games, tabletop RPGs, sports. Before online publications there were newspapers. Coding is just a digital version of whatever we used to do physically. Web design was old fashioned graphic design, telecommunication was pigeon carriers, calculations were done by humans (mostly women), etc. The jobs weren’t new, they just changed form. And the one constant that benefited are company owners, cutting labor costs by disruption, racism, and dismantling unions.
The problem is not automation. We can make it work for us. But there are those who don’t want that. The problem is capitalism.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/513343/jobs-no-longer-exist
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/united-states-inequality-capitalism-billionaires-taxes
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thankyou for the sharing.
I agree that the development of technology and automation will replace some jobs. although new ones will be created, I think people will need plenty of time to adapt to this change. Those with their jobs replaced by technology will need to learn new skills that they may be unfamiliar.
With the development of automation, users will also need to adapt to the changes. For example, when I visited Beijing last year, I was so surprised to find out only Wechat QR code payment is accepted at many tourist destinations. This actually caused some trouble for me as ID number is needed to use Wechat payment. I think this will also be inconvenient for the elderly as they usually take a longer time to learn new technology. I hope as new methods are created using advanced technology, the older methods can still be available for those having trouble adapting.
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