AUTOMATION
IS DIFFERENT
THIS TIME
utomation changed society and the new wave of automation is changing society in vastly different way. The age of automation changed industries like
agriculture as productivity grew exponentially and although jobs were lost, new jobs were created as machines required maintenance and repair. The new jobs created from the age of automation brought about better pay and working conditions.
The current automation trends are unfortunately not creating as many jobs as the previous shift to automation. Jobs in the information age and in the new age of automation require fewer people to make things work. We have machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can now learn complex tasks that would normally require human control.
A recent study revealed that up to around 30% of existing UK jobs are susceptible to automation from robotics and AI by 2030. The likelihood of automation appears highest in sectors such as transport, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail, and lower in education, health and social work.
However, while machines are able to replace many jobs, they ultimately need the help of humans to run. As explained in the IBM Watson video, humans assist the machine and without us they wouldn't be able to function, this is known as supervised learning.
One of the large things which AI can't do is make moral decisions. While the machines are able to make the best decision based on data, they don't have the same moral code as humans - they won't be able to have their own sense of morality. This is largely due to the connection with emotion. A human will have a sense of morality and emotion attached, while a computer can analyse and generate potential feelings it cannot feel itself - only react.
A final action AI cannot do is invent. Because AI works on the premise of previously known data, which has been inputted, it cannot come up with a completely fresh new and innovative idea.
So while AI has the potential to take over the world, without us it cannot function and if we continue to invent new, out of the box innovations we stand a chance to not let machines replace us. ■
A
JULY 2017 | MANE ENGINEERING | 13