Artificial Intelligence

Seen the headlines?

  • Robots replacing people.
  • 25% of US jobs severely disrupted by artificial intelligence.
  • 36 million Americans will need to change jobs fast.
  • AI will create unemployable humans who can’t compete with machines.

At a recent Society of International Business Fellows’ Silicon Valley Business Forum an attendee asked, “How do we smoothly transition into the AI world; for example, truck drivers losing their jobs to self-driving vehicles”?

Speaker, Alyssa Simpson Rochwerger, VP Product at Figure Eight, shared, “There is a huge shortage of truck drivers. Truck drivers will still be needed for the last mile of transportation that is not as easy to automate”. She is not convinced this is an issue, and neither am I.

For hundreds of years, technology has progressed steadily while US unemployment has stayed between 4-10% for most of that time. We’ve experienced radical change with steam power, electricity and the Internet. Since 1993, we have new jobs that never existed before, such as web designer, data scientist and online marketer. Overall, new technology has created jobs and raised wages.

Yes, the impact of AI will be different than electricity, mechanization, and anything that has come before it. But, AI combined with human collaboration and the willingness to adapt to changing needs will create more jobs and a better standard of living for everyone.

We should strive to remove fear of technology. Humans have learned to adapt since the beginning of life. The human mind and body are amazing machines, and we will continue to evolve.  Look how far we have come. Let’s have faith in our human race, and our ability to adapt and thrive in the new technological world.