When people think of artificial intelligence (AI), scenes of android killers and computers-gone-rogue often come to mind.
Hollywood films like “Blade Runner” and “The Terminator” franchise have instilled in us a sense of dread at the thought of an AI going against its programming and turning on humans.
For an industry that could generate over $1 trillion in business value this year, and almost $4 trillion by 2022, any major doubts over its ethical implications could hold significant consequences.
AI is a buzzword that gets tossed around often in the business world and in the media, but it is already having tangible effects for a slew of industries — not least those that rely on a significant amount of manual labor.
As AI comes increasingly closer to maturity, and businesses continue to ramp up investments in it, some worry that not enough attention is being paid to the broader social and moral implications of the technology.
CNBC spoke with some experts to see what they think are the five scariest potential future scenarios for AI.
A common fear among analysts, and indeed workers, is the likelihood that AI will result in mass global unemployment as jobs increasingly become automated and human labor is no longer required.
“Job losses are probably the biggest worry,” said Alan Bundy, a professor at the University of Edinburgh’s school of informatics.
According to Bundy, job losses are the primary reason for the rise of populism around the world — he cites the election of President Donald Trump and the U.K.’s decision to withdraw from the European Union as examples.
“There will be a need for humans to orchestrate a collection of narrow-focused apps, and to spot the edge cases that none of them can deal with, but this will not replace the expected mass unemployment — at least not for a very long time,” he added.
Proponents of AI say that the technology will lead to the creation of new kinds of jobs.
The need for engineers will be heightened, as the sophistication of new technology requires the right talent to develop it.
Humans will also have to use AI, advocates say, in order to perform new functions in their day-to-day roles.
Research firm Gartner predicts that AI will create 2.3 million jobs and eliminate 1.8 million — a net increase of 500,000 jobs — by 2020. That doesn’t throw out the fact that it would result in steep layoffs around the world.
A frequently referenced 2013 study by Oxford University points out that some of the most replaceable jobs include brokerage clerks, bank tellers, insurance underwriters and tax preparers — critical, though less skilled, occupations that keep the financial industry in motion.
Although it is possible to minimize the damage to the labor market from AI through upskilling and the invention of new jobs — and perhaps even introducing a universal basic income — it’s clear the issue of job losses will not go away anytime soon.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/five-of-the-scariest-predictions-about-artificial-intelligence/
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