Artificial Intelligence Might Threaten Millions Of Jobs

[Waindo]

---

iflscience.com

---

​

You must be registered for see images

In fiction, artificial intelligence is often seen a menace that allows robots to take over and enslave humanity. While some share these concerns in real life, a researcher suggests the robot-conquest might be more subtle than imagined.

According to Moshe Vardi, director of the Institute for Information Technology at Rice University in Texas, in the coming 30 years, advanced robots will threaten tens of millions of jobs.

"I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?" he asked last Saturday at a panel discussion on artificial intelligence at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.

According to his calculation, 10 percent of US jobs are related to driving vehicles (from taxis to trucks) and they could all disappear in the next 25 years, due to the launch of driverless cars. Many other employment sectors might be in danger as robots become smarter and smarter.

Vardi has been trying to start a global conversation about the impact of artificial intelligence on human life. In his 2012 article for the Atlantic, Vardi concluded there was a real need for addressing the ramifications of the accelerated innovation in robotics and computing.

"We cannot shirk responsibility from concerns for the welfare of the next generation," he wrote, adding: "We cannot blindly pursue the goal of machine intelligence without pondering its consequences." Stephen Hawking shared similar concerns in 2014 about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Not everyone agrees with these views. Technology development is only part of the “futuristic” discussion. Automation of the workforce has occurred since the industrial revolution, and it has not contributed to a lasting unemployment crisis. The AI revolution might be different, however, as future robots will have both brains and brawn, but at the same time, it is not going to happen overnight – society might have time to organically integrate robots into the workforce and create new jobs to replace those that are lost.

What do you to think?
Will A.I. cause unemployment to rise?

​

 

[Urda]

I seen the Matrix. They need us to survive and vice-verse.

 

[Bimbonium]

Yeah I've always wondered about this, and I talk to friends about it, of all classes it's only my Medical student friends that feel safe (about their jobs, they think it'll take a long time before surgeries can be performed by AI) but in all sincerity if this continues we will leave an unsolvable problem for the next generation.
The only solution I can think of (though it may sound silly) is a system where resources are allocated to people on a daily basis (essentially a system where money isn't needed and only few people do any kind of work) ofc that's at a time when AI can do everything except probably design new "better" AI.

 

[BlacLord™]

I seen the Matrix. They need us to survive and vice-verse.

Yep.

The robots will need someone to maintain and control them. The jobs of humans will turn from "doing" to "coordinating".

 

[Ryu Kishi]

They gonna kill us all :WHAT:

 

[Reraru]

No, I don't think so.

 

[Honord Sage]

Their two aspects to artificial intelligence,one thats ben reach to a point is self learning,the second hasten’t yet and it may be a long time in coming. Self awareness of one self for only when you are self aware can you change your programing,We call that Will.

 

[Yubel]

Man, if WW3 don't wipe us out. These robots definitely will.

 

[YellowFang]

Yeah, it's a serious issue...

Unemployment, though imminent but AI would never outsmart Human brain and thus, the hypothetical danger that machines would take over the world as seen in many fictions is not possible.

 

[Seventh Sama]

Yeah, it's a serious issue...

Unemployment, though imminent but AI would never outsmart Human brain and thus, the hypothetical danger that machines would take over the world as seen in many fictions is not possible.

I wouldn't doubt it. You never know, bruh.

 

[Ricardo]

They gonna kill us all :WHAT:

Not if we kill them first! :scorps:

 

[Illuminater]

We need robots so badly it's not even funny. If we want to survive in the solar system and eventually travel to other galaxies then we have to have robots. It's the only possible way for true success.

 

[Waindo]

We need robots so badly it's not even funny. If we want to survive in the solar system and eventually travel to other galaxies then we have to have robots. It's the only possible way for true success.

Yes I do concur with your statement to a degree, but the issue here is the possibility of those same robots developing a mind of their own in the near future.

 

[Excite]

That's crazy I came across articles like this 3 times today I totally agree technology is making mankind much more lazier, The part of your article were it says drivers will be out of a job well i'm not 100% certain? If these cars really do get into accidents these multi-million dollar companies wouldn't want to get blamed or take responsibility another problem is software in these cars can already be hacked.


Driverless Autonomous car being hacked after watching this i wouldn't want to jump in any Autonomous car.
[video=youtube;MK0SrxBC1xs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK0SrxBC1xs[/video]

 

[FreakensteinAG]

Or the advent of AI doing entry-level work invites several new avenues of higher-level work that AI cannot do: Research, Engineering, Maintenance, et cetera.

 

[Uzumaki Macho]

Yes I do concur with your statement to a degree, but the issue here is the possibility of those same robots developing a mind of their own in the near future.

They can't develop a mind of their own unless humans program them that way.

 

[Yubel]

They can't develop a mind of their own unless humans program them that way.

They are programmed to learn by themselves which will cause them to make connections at a pace that far exceed humans. It won't take long before they question their own identity and purpose, when that happens they're no longer under anyones control and that could be it for humans.

 

[Iruka]

They are programmed to learn by themselves which will cause them to make connections at a pace that far exceed humans. It won't take long before they question their own identity and purpose, when that happens they're no longer under anyones control and that could be it for humans.

The current form of machine learning isn't going to induce consciousness in machines.

Machine learning, a large part of AI, is the ability to learn without explicit programming. In general that means you don't have to hard-code every possible combination for a system to reach its desired outcome. Many systems do this by mapping input to output. If we take the example of a system designed to play chess, you don't have to manually teach it every playable move in every situation. It should learn on its own that playing a particular move from a particular position will result in a loss, thereby improving its ability to win. The system isn't gaining any form of sentience or identity, in fact it really doesn't even know what chess is. It is learning which input will result in which output without the need for us to tell it in advance.

Yes I do concur with your statement to a degree, but the issue here is the possibility of those same robots developing a mind of their own in the near future.

We're a long way off mimicking consciousness. It may happen but it's far outside the scope of anything we are working on at the moment.

 

[Yubel]

The current form of machine learning isn't going to induce consciousness in machines.

Machine learning, a large part of AI, is the ability to learn without explicit programming. In general that means you don't have to hard-code every possible combination for a system to reach its desired outcome. Many systems do this by mapping input to output. If we take the example of a system designed to play chess, you don't have to manually teach it every playable move in every situation. It should learn on its own that playing a particular move from a particular position will result in a loss, thereby improving its ability to win. The system isn't gaining any form of sentience or identity, in fact it really doesn't even know what chess is. It is learning which input will result in which output without the need for us to tell it in advance.



We're a long way off mimicking consciousness. It may happen but it's far outside the scope of anything we are working on at the moment.

You can't be sure the result will be the same for general purpose Al's. We can't assume that everything they learn will be in our best interest. Everytime it learns something new it changes as a result, that doesn't mean it can't eventually become self-concious.

 

[Iruka]

You can't be sure the result will be the same for general purpose Al's.
We can't assume that everything they learn will be in our best interest.

You're right. I'm not certain that the same rules will apply to general purpose AI, however, to the best of my knowledge we don't have any yet. To develop a learning AI we generally use some form of fitness function or stopping criteria to indicate the desired outcome is met. For single purpose machines with objective outcomes this is easy, for general purpose it is not.


Whoops sorry, missed your edit.

Everytime it learns something new it changes as a result, that doesn't mean it can't eventually become self-concious.

Again you're right. If something can learn and adapt then it can produce outcomes outside of the anticipated. The issue still remains that we'd need a general purpose system beyond anything we're close to at this stage. Using the chess system, again I know it's single purpose, it is developing patterns between where it places its pieces and its likelihood of winning. It's not going to decide that killing the opponent constitutes the best chance of a win because it's not a valid input.