Sin Fronteras Spring 2018 Sin Fronteras 2018 | Page 39

A New Wave of A.I. Is Coming, and it Could
Mean Unemployment for Millions
Diego Rubio
We are all familiar with the futuristic lifestyle humankind has envisioned
for hundreds of years. Be it Isaac Asimov’s novels on the way humans will master
robotics or Arthur C. Clarke’s predictions of how humans would live in space by
2001, we have always dreamt of reaching the outskirts of our imagination when
it comes to technology. Now more than ever though, our fictions about the future
are becoming realities. Instead of vainly wishing for them, we can now follow
their development in the news. These new products are bombarding our
newsfeed increasingly often, exciting our most adventurous hopes and dreams.
But is it all positives from here? The reality is more unsettling.
One of the principles that has always remained true throughout human
history is that progress requires sacrifice. Since a new technology is an attempt
to improve human capabilities, it requires that less efficient workers be replaced
if they can’t keep up. For example, lately there have been great efforts to release
self-driving cars around the world. In Dubai, these vehicles are even used for
police-patrol purposes, although they are not yet designed for arrests. When
the technology becomes good enough, however, who wouldn’t replace
policemen and drivers for autonomous vehicles? Robot police would mean no
more endangering of human lives, and autonomous vehicles would mean saving
billions of dollars by not hiring drivers for transport. What about construction
robots, one of which can lay bricks five times faster than human workers? The
SAM 100 model in particular is not yet fully automated, but with enough
modifications, it could very soon be. With faster construction rates and no need
for salaries, it is the perfect choice for building infrastructure in modern cities
instead of using humans.
Some people think that these A.I technologies will not be as pernicious
to our employability as we think, as their use could lead to the creation of more
jobs than they eliminate. Research firm Gartner is one such case, but I have to
pose the question of whether A.I can actually make amends for the jobs it takes.
Seasoned construction workers that lose their jobs would probably not get a
computer science degree