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Bruce Reed addresses the audience on AI. Photo: Universities Australia
Thinking machines
Universities will matter more than ever as
automation takes over from humans.
By Loren Smith and Kirstie Chlopicki
I
n the US, people are literally dying because of automation.
These ‘deaths of despair’ occur when, for instance, factories
replace human workers with machines. As the only developed
country where working-class people’s lifespans are declining, the
US is rightfully soul-searching about how to deal with this new era
of artificial intelligence.
Bruce Reed, co-chair of the Aspen Institute Future of Work
Initiative, opened his Universities Australia Higher Education
Conference 2018 presentation with these sobering facts.
“The question used to be, ‘What do you want to do when you
grow up?’ Now, it’s ‘What do you want to do when the robots grow
up?’,” he said.
Australian jobs are just as vulnerable to automation as American
ones. Already, up to half of Australians are insecurely employed,
working, for example, in the ‘gig’ economy or as freelancers or
casuals. This proportion is set to increase as AI’s dominance grows.
The trucking industry will likely be the first and hardest hit, with
autonomous vehicles already being trialled by the likes of Tesla.
Australia has 230,000 truck drivers. The retail sector, which
employs one in 10 people in both Australia and America, has
already been crippled by online shopping: there have been 10,000
retail closures over the last five years.
But there’s a counter-argument that technology will create more
jobs than it destroys. Is this true?
“We don’t know,” admitted Reed, a domestic policy adviser to
former US president Bill Clinton.
From there, however, his talk became more optimistic. He
believes universities are the key to arresting AI-induced joblessness.
The link between higher education and employment, as well as
longer, healthier lives, has been well established.
His thoughts are supported by an Oxford study that found
education will be the ‘decisive factor’ that determines whether
a person’s job is affected by automation. Although a fifth of
those with a tertiary degree will be at risk of job loss due to
automation, this quota is much higher for those without degrees.
Besides, “robots certainly have no aspiration to be VCs,” he joked.
However, Reed said, universities can’t remain in stasis. With
a changing job market, students will demand better choice,
flexibility and value. For example, Purdue University in Lafayette,
Indiana, is now offering shorter undergraduate degrees, which are
cheaper as a result.
Also, universities must remember and put into practice their
crucial point of difference to machines: their humanity. As Reed put
it, “higher learning must hone the skills that keep us human”. These
include a willingness to challenge orthodoxy, critical thinking, a
search for meaning, and collaboration. He illustrated his point
with the following example: computer algorithms may be able to
ascertain how to combat climate change, but only humans can
persuade others to adopt these policies.
Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, who also spoke at the
conference, wasn’t as sanguine about universities’ ability to produce
employability. Although the former director of the Centre for
Translational Data Science at the University of Sydney thinks ‘super-
intelligence’ – the kind that can enslave us – is a long way away,
automation has already devastated blue collar jobs. For instance, by
using autonomous mining vehicles, Rio Tinto has put many people
out of work in Western Australia.
The next jobs to be staffed by machines will be middle-class,
‘predictive’ ones, like law and medicine. These fields are university
stalwarts. Only “jobs that require engagement with people, creative
jobs, and jobs involving higher-order technological skills will remain”.
So, like Reed, Durrant-Whyte thinks universities will have to
change their offerings. However, unlike Reed, he believes this shift
must be drastic.
Millennial students, too, will have to change, Reed offered. As
the job market remains in flux during this technologically transitory
period, patience and mental fortitude are increasingly required. ■
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