Mass redundancy because of AI is unlikely to happen, an expert from UCC has predicted.
The technology is advancing at a rapid rate and there has even been speculation by experts that it could lead to the extinction of humanity.
Barry O’Sullivan, Professor of AI at University College Cork, is not quite so doom-laden in his prophecies - but he does expect it to transform employment.
“Certainly, jobs will be changed quite significantly,” he told The Pat Kenny Show.
“I don’t think we’re going to see in 20 or 30 years’ time anything like a form of massive unemployment or redundancy.
“People’s jobs will just change in very, very subtle ways over the next number of years.
“Tasks and jobs will be replaced with technology but we will be doing more valuable and interesting things over that time.”
Automation
In many ways, this is just a continuation of a trend that has been ongoing since the invention of the printing press; jobs once carried out by human hands are now performed very capably by machines.
Supermarket tills once operated by people are now self-service and people get money from ATMs rather than bank clerks.
People should expect more of this as time goes on.
“The routine things, something like things like a piece of data, checking whether something is true or false or not - these things will be automated,” Professor O’Sullivan said.
“I don’t like talking to these automated machines, for example, on modern banking but I think we’re going to see more of that kind of thing.
“Hopefully, they’ll become more successful and more customer-friendly and more useful.”
An AIB ATM in Dublin. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNewsStill, Professor O’Sullivan believes “most people’s jobs” are safe and the more important question is how to harness AI to generate greater prosperity for the average worker.
“I think there’s some evidence to suggest in manufacturing - which has changed significantly over the last 50 years - that the salary levels and the wages that have gone to workers haven’t increased in step with what productivity should predict,” he said.
“So, I think the big question we need to ask ourselves is… over the next 40 or 50 years, how do we want the social fabric and the social mechanism in Ireland to change so that everybody’s boat is risen by the tide of AI?”
A global conference on AI is scheduled to be held in London later this year in the hope a global framework for the technology can be agreed.
Main image: Humanoid Robot AI. Picture by: Alamy.com
