Robot revolution: rise of the intelligent automated workforce

Losing jobs to technology is nothing latest. Since the economic revolution, roles that were once exclusively performed by humans have been slowly but steadily replaced by some type of automated machinery. Even in cases where the human employee just isn’t completely replaced by a machine, humans have learnt to depend on a battery of machinery to be more efficient and accurate.

A report from the Oxford Martin School’s Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology said that 47% of all jobs within the US are prone to get replaced by automated systems. Among the roles soon to get replaced by machines are real estate brokers, animal breeders, tax advisers, data entry employees, receptionists, and various personal assistants.

But you won’t must pack up your desk and hand over to a pc just yet, and actually jobs that require a certain level of social intelligence and creativity corresponding to in education, healthcare, the humanities and media are prone to remain in demand from humans, because such tasks remain difficult to be computerised.

Like it or not, we now live in an era dominated by artificial intelligence (AI). AI may be seen as a group of technologies that may be used to mimic and even to outperform tasks performed by humans using machines.

We may not first see it but we cannot avoid running into a number of systems that use some type of an AI algorithm in our day-to-day activities – corresponding to looking for some information using Google, purchasing a beneficial product on Amazon, or recognising faces in a picture uploaded to Facebook.

Deep learning

Recent breakthroughs in AI are largely attributable to a way called deep learning. Often often called machine learning or neural networking, deep learning involves “training” a pc model so it might recognise objects from images. The power of deep learning-based AI systems lies of their ability to mechanically detect noticeable features and use them to unravel hard recognition problems.

Although humans could easily perform such recognition tasks almost unconsciously, it is commonly difficult for a human to clarify the precise procedure at a sufficiently detailed level in order that it may very well be programmed right into a computer.

With deep learning all this has modified. Now, deep learning-based AI systems can work out the necessary features for solving difficult problems that were once considered solvable exclusively by humans.

And consequently, humans may have to mentally prepare for the incontrovertible fact that a few of our jobs will likely be lost to AI systems. We might even should call AI systems our colleagues or bosses within the near future.

But despite the deeper level of information that our computers will soon acquire, losing our jobs to machines doesn’t should be a foul thing. Letting machines do the majority of the work signifies that humans will likely be free of routine tasks that computers are higher at performing with higher accuracy rates, corresponding to driving cars.

This should enable humans to think like humans as an alternative of machines. It may even release time and energy for humans to have interaction in additional creative and intellectually stimulating activities, possibly assisted by AI.

Emotional intelligence

AI systems have already turn into far too complicated for the typical person to grasp, let alone repair, so there will likely be latest roles created which is able to require individuals who can act as intermediaries between computers and humans.

Similar to professions corresponding to medicine or law, where professionals with specialised skills are required to interpret technical details for on a regular basis folk, we are going to need professionals who speak the language of AI. These professionals may vary of their skills and are prone to consist of software developers, computer scientists and data scientists.

But ethical issues arising from human and AI co-working environments is an actual concern. It is one thing getting a face incorrectly recognised in a picture uploaded to Facebook, but a completely different matter if cancer is misdiagnosed by an AI, which could very easily occur. After all, computers make mistakes, just as people do.

Although AI-based systems have gotten smarter than humans in lots of fields, these systems are removed from perfect and are unlikely to ever be perfect considering the unpredictable learning mechanisms they use.

That said, it’s prone to be the social and cultural changes that will likely be the true challenge, moderately than the technical challenge of AI itself. So while robots taking on our jobs may be thing, only time will tell if we’re ready to just accept them as our co-workers.