The definition of comfort has always been evolving for us. At the very beginning of mankind, it meant having proper shelter and food to solve our basic needs. Later it became the liberty of sparing some time from one's schedule...
The definition of comfort has always been evolving for us. At the very beginning of mankind, it meant having proper shelter and food to solve our basic needs. Later it became the liberty of sparing some time from one's schedule so as to attain rest and stillness. And now, comfort for us is being able to change TV channels with only moving a finger.
Isn’t comfort what gave rise to the concepts of robots, automation, and (now's trending topic) Artificial Intelligence? Because we wanted some comfort from our hectic daily lives by letting the technology do our work, when we could relieve tension and concentrate more on the social and cultural needs, self realization, etc.
Our objective may have been as beneficial as it could be for the entire mankind, however what if this comfort provided by this artificial technology could be equaled to unemployment?
Yes, this equation could become true or rather is becoming true. Artificial Intelligence has now touched almost every aspect of the human life, and how it is and will affect employment, let’s see.
Flying
The average pilot on the average commercial flight now spends less than 3 minutes actually flying the plane. And due to this, pilots ‘forgetting to fly' has become a major problem indicating the increased interference of AI in this field. No need to specify that perhaps in the near future, we may be riding an unmanned airplane, which will only see a considerable decline in the employment of actual pilots.
Transportation
Automation of vehicles will change the way of our commuting furthermore. It won’t be long before self-driving cars would be introduced.
Apps like Uber will gain further importance that are only a platform for providing transportation to people.
Along with automation, such vehicle-providing apps will become a viable alternative for owning cars (Reducing the car maintenance, servicing, parking charges), hence leading to the decrease in demand and production of automobiles. However, this is for only those car companies who won’t be able to keep up with their powerful competitors like Tesla, Google, Apple, etc. that will opt for a revolutionary approach for cars.
Not only this but the 1.2 million individuals who lose their lives in car accidents will be saved since the cars would be powered with the AI, ensuring safety and adherence to regulations.
Hence most automobile industries will face intense losses or shutdown. The individuals associated with such automobiles will also lose their jobs. From production, designing, assembling, technological all of the departments will face the unemployment crisis.
Medical
IBM Watson, an Artificial Intelligence, helps in the diagnosis of cancer 4 times more accurately than human nurses.
The Tricorder (Name adopted from Star Trek) is a medical device that will be built to function along with your phone making it smarter, by taking your retina scans, blood samples, and your breath. It then analyses the 54 biomarkers that will help to identify nearly any disease. It will be cheaper, and soon everyone will have access to the advanced medical facilities, perhaps for free as well.
Many surgeries are already performed by intelligent machines guaranteeing preciseness and accuracy.
Life spans will increase per year and there may come time when attaining a “century” won’t be a big deal.
The smart watches strapped on our wrists also does most of the work any of our normal physicians do and requires only periodical charging rather than hefty fees.
AI is useful in many aspects in this. Apps are being developed to understand the mentality of people, their moods and behaviors. As shown in ‘Big Hero 6’, AI will soon be able to maintain our physical and mental health. With AI, virtual friends can always be there for us, and solve several loneliness problems.
With such technology, however, the people who will suffer are doctors, surgeons, psychologists, therapists, pathologists, nurses, and many such ‘Gods in white coats' may lose their positions.
Legal
Even law hasn’t been left untouched by AI. Here also, IBM Watson comes into ghe picture. It provides legal advice within seconds with assured guarantee of 90%. For now, this advices are only limited to basic matter, hence it is estimated that specialists in law will remain undefeated for the time being.
Energy
AI will soon enough outperform our non-renewable sources of energy, and make solar, wind, tidal, etc. renewable sources a part of our daily lives. Those sources having unlimited quantities will have lesser costs and greater availability. The energy companies that rely on conventional sources like coal, natural gas, etc. will have to face problems in the future as compared to their above mentioned competition, and have the greater chances of losing. Other than those companies, the distribution of energies may also be done by an AI network, giving a ‘golden handshake' to countless individuals.
Education
The impact of AI on education is visible from now only. Numerous applications are available on the internet that provide level-based, qualitative education according to how the person progresses through the periodical tests (that are also taken on the internet). With attractive visuals and paying attention to the particular individual’s needs, considerable amount of people, unsurprisingly, prefer this mode of teaching.
This is seen in schools as well, where teachers adopt such educational videos and data to teach children. However, perhaps in the future, maybe such platforms could establish themselves as more significant than our human teachers, which could cause problems for them. Many educational institutions find this as a viable solution for replacing their teachers.
Insurance
With all the lives being saved and protected by AI, what will insurance companies do? If medical facilities, even the complex ones, are available to everyone easily, the health insurance companies may face some changes.
Not only health, but since accidents will lessen with AI-powered cars, no one will simply ever think of the car insurances as well.
While other kinds of insurances will remain safe, health insurance does have the major scope. And if that only is absent, then those companies will have lot to think over.
Security
The utilization of AI robots on battlefields is, without a doubt, an idea that is always welcomed. Whether it is aircrafts, vessels, or armed robots, safety would be ensured- for us and for the brave soldiers who lose their lives in such wars. Those soldiers can supervise the robots, giving them the opportunity of serving their land as well.
The inclusion of AI in police departments may ensure peace for the civilians by avoiding crimes through AI, however this also means the lesser need for bottom-level police (the lesser need will move to the higher levels gradually).
Software are emerging that can anticipate human behavior, even their intentions to perform crimes. With AI, crimes could be stopped even before performing them!
When such Robocops can give us ‘peace in our time', then why rely on the small leeway of humans making mistakes?
3D Printing
Out of all, 3D Printing is believed to lead the most of unemployment. Space stations, airlines already use it to produce their equipment along with many scientists that require certain appliances for their extensive research. Even shoe companies use it for production. In the foreign countries, such as US, 3D desktop printers are bought and sold largely, the price range being $400 to $700 (28,550 to 50,000 INR). In 2018, according to a Forbes report, 528,952 3D desktop printers were sold- and it is said to be an astonishing amount of sale.
However, this certainly rings a bell of caution for everyone involved in the production sector of any industry, for it’s not long that we start using such printers for preparing anything and everything including food, buildings, machines, clothes, and what not.
Workplaces
Workplaces all over will be thoroughly disturbed with AI.
There will be disintermediation i.e. many middlemen will disappear and there shall only be the consumer and producer / provider as we already see with Big Basket, Amazon, Flipkart, etc. This includes advertising as well since now brands can tell their stories without TV or print by only using smartphones.
Automation will raise problems. The white-collar jobs that most people call menial will be endangered for sure, for AI will do it faster, better, accurately and without requiring anything in return. Happily is one of the many HR analytics software that measure the performances of their employees, and even decide who to hire and not!
With this progress of AI, there will be no strikes, no demand for promotions, no workplace conflicts. Sounds like a better option for corporations.
Also, apart from organizations, there would be no human labour or human worker class since there will be AI robots that will do all of such laborious tasks while selective humans will function as managers.
Tourism
Airbnb, TripAdvisor, trivago, makemytrip, goibibo.com, etc. apps are snatching the employment of traditional tourist agencies. While a large amount of people still opt for the latter, there is no doubt that in time, AI will conquer their chain as well.
Fashion
As if all the above mentioned fields weren’t enough, AI has even occupied the fashion industry. Designing clothes with more intricate details and complexities, producing them through 3D printers, maybe even arranging the fashion shows as suggested by the AIs for an enhanced experience.
Not only this, a tool named ‘Fashion’ will give fashion-related advices to people as well! A computer science team from Univeristy of Texas, Austin, USA has collaborated with Cornell Tech, Georgia Tech, and Facebook AI Research to develop such an app that can take a photo of an outfit and give ideas to make it more stylish.
Using Google Maps to reach our destination, facial recognition or other biometrics for security or marking the present days at workplaces, ordering Alexa to play a song, why even being suggested thousands of synonyms for one word while writing, we all use AI subconsciously. An intelligence that can overthrow the bureaucracy, or rather the humanity.
When we reflect on those many ways of how AI can replace us, there are bound to be several panic attacks. However, the motive of this was not to scare but merely educate and make aware.
Technology has been an indispensable element of the human lives. Innovation is in the blood of us humans, and one way or another, we will always keep innovating.
However, it should be understood that AI is only how we are trying to attain our objectives, it is not our the objective. From olden times, changes have happened and we all have been designed to accustom to any change that may come ahead of us. AI will dominate the future, but the most relieving aspect is that we will control AI.
We should know that as many jobs that AI will overtake, there will be more opportunities developed for us to try out our hand at. Adopting relevant skills that will be advantageous in the future should be instilled and developed. Instead of ignoring our problems like an ostrich, we should prepare ourselves for facing a change, and most importantly, adapting to the change. Like humans do.
Reference:
Future: The History of Tomorrow
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