Beware: Artificial intelligence threatening jobs

LIKE the computer and the internet before it, artificial intelligence (AI) is here and here to stay.
It is the age of artificial intelligence and with all the will in the world, we cannot wish it away.
AI is not just occupying desk or palm space, it is getting inside our heads and is now about to take over our jobs.
One article on artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics begins with a rather insulting turn of phrase: “You would have been living under a rock if you did not know how artificial intelligence is set to affect jobs in 2024-30.”
In Papua New Guinea, one could say the majority have been living under the metaphoric “rock” spoken off here.
Apart from a very few in the know, the majority of our people do not have a clue what the hell this AI is. Many are way too busy looking for a job, securing one and holding down one that we scarce have time for “what if” propositions – “what if” artificial intelligence (AI) take over our jobs?!
The evidence worldwide, however, is that AI is taking over a lot of jobs.
It is easy to see why.
AI does not rest. It does not get hungry or thirsty. It is consistent always in what it does and it does it at top-notch efficiency. It does not have meals, or smoke or take toilet breaks. As a result, productivity is high. Quality is guaranteed. Indeed, it does all that top managements all over the world could wish for.
The National yesterday carried a report by Price WaterHouse Coopers that AI will take 60 per cent of formal jobs by 2030.
Artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI reportedly found some educated white-collar workers, earning up to US$80,000 a year, are the most likely to be affected by workforce automation.
Sachs also says that according to an MIT and Boston University report, AI will replace as many as two million manufacturing workers by 2025.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute reports that by 2030, at least 14 per cent of employees globally could need to change their careers due to digitisation, robotics, and AI advancements.
While all this sounds alarmist and distant, it is happening everywhere including in PNG.
Google has unveiled new AI software to build presentations, analyse and enter data, and write content.
Students in PNG are using Chatbot to do research and even to write homework assignments.
Soon AI will be assisting in more serious research, data collection and analysis for government and business.
The days where robots serve us at counters and drive our taxis are far off yet but not too far off.
Your smart phone has AI and the drones we send up into the air to take pictures is operated by AI.
It is not all bad.
The same reports that report loss of jobs also report that the same AI will help create even more jobs than it will take over. Productivity will increase and business will flourish.
The Goldman Sachs report referred to earlier states AI could replace a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom. The total annual value of goods and services produced globally might be increased by 7 per cent, it states.
The report also predicts two-thirds of jobs in the US and Europe “are exposed to some degree of AI automation”, and around a quarter of all jobs could be performed by AI entirely.
In Papua New Guinea, we face a far different and, perhaps, bleaker prospect.
It is not the risk of citizens losing jobs to machines but that they might never even get near a job in this day and age of the AI.
Unskilled workers hinder growth of companies. They delay production and efficiency and quality control is difficult to maintain. Therefore, it is so much more tempting to invest in robotics and AI. Whatever jobs the AI generate will not necessarily be for the semi-skilled or unskilled laborer as well.
In a country where jobs prospects are very difficult, the advent of AI does not auger well for our jobless.