Will Artificial Intelligence have a disrupting effect on emerging economies?
At the 2016 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, a report was presented on the changing global employment landscape attributing it to the Fourth Industrial Revolution which included making technological headway in artificial intelligence, machine-learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing genetics and biotechnology.
The report said that these advances will cause ‘widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labour markets over the next five years'.
Where will #robots take over the most jobs? https://t.co/L4CKwoK5v8 #AI #technology pic.twitter.com/bM1jWBDccs
— World Economic Forum (@wef) February 21, 2016
The report also called for enormous change predicted in the skill sets needed to thrive in the new landscape.
#Robots Interesting twist for #DevelopingCountries @FastCompany #AutomationEffects https://t.co/5AOtlLLjgY
— C. Mohan (@seemohan) February 22, 2016
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington recently, senior computer scientists have cautioned that intelligent machines will soon replace human workers in all sectors of the economy.
"We are approaching the time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task; 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?" asked Moshe Vardi, computer science professor at Rice University in Texas.
#Robots will soon move out of factories to replace skilled jobs like lawyers and financial journalism. https://t.co/5ai4GRv6y2
— Steven Kotler (@steven_kotler) February 13, 2016
For countries like China and South Korea, which witnessed a booming economy thanks to the availability of cheap labor, this revelation will surely come as a discouraging news. Also, emerging economies such as India, Latin America and Africa may have to reconsider the threat of "premature deindustrialization" which means that low-skill jobs disappear before low-income countries start turning rich- with technology becoming affordable and available.
Robots are going to steal more jobs in less developed countries https://t.co/CGJN0WygdM pic.twitter.com/o8Vi644yU8
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) February 22, 2016
Back in 2013, two Oxford University researchers, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne had stated that in the coming two decades 47% of U.S. jobs were susceptible to "computerization".
Based
on
their
analysis
the
duo
have
now
revealed
that
:
"Industrialisation
is
likely
to
yield
substantially
less
manufacturing
employment
in
the
next
generation
of
emerging
economies
than
in
the
countries
preceding
them.
"Increased
automation
in
low-wage
countries,
which
have
traditionally
attracted
manufacturing
firms,
could
see
them
lose
their
cost
advantage
and
potentially
lose
their
ability
of
achieving
rapid
economic
growth
by
shifting
workers
to
factory
jobs,"
they
mentioned
in
a
joint
Oxford-Citigroup
publication.
Change is the only constant?
On the one hand where concerns are being raised about Artificial Intelligence (AI) having a disrupting effect on emerging economies, there is also an argument in support of the "Robot Revolution", highlighting the very premise of "change is the only constant".
"Innovative, creative and social skills will be in high demand and essential to making you stand out from a crowd of both humans and machines. Creative and technical roles required to maintain computers or robots will probably see man and machine working alongside each other rather than against," writes columnist Neil.C. Huges.
Huges points out that having machines to do all the ‘unattractive and time-consuming tasks' will enable us to concentrate on adding value to what is important to us, boost entrepreneurship and learn to fit the current workload around our lifestyle, rather than the other way around.