Is AI phobia a myth
Chairman & Managing Director,
Nass Talent Management & Studies LLC.
Welcome to the first edition of NT Flash, a dedicated e-magazine highlighting local news and views, as well as regional coverage including global perspectives on the subject of Human Resources and general management.
In the upcoming series, I would like to pen down my thoughts on Artificial Intelligence (AI), the buzzword of the business world. I would be happy to receive your views and ideas for publishing along with our other valuable articles.
Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) phobia a myth?
Artificial Intelligence (known as AI), has been a hot topic post Covid-19, as AI has revolutionized all walks of life. AI is the capability of computer systems to understand, interpret, analyze and present information in forms of texts, visuals, audio or images. It assimilates the available information in digital space in the shortest possible time, learns the contents, does self-reasoning and content auditing before it presents it to the user.
Wonderful! So it simulates a human brain and does its task to some extent? Yes, that is true. But is it a worrying thing? This issue could be approached from different perspectives.
From an anthropological perspective, if we question, “Is this new for humankind since the Stone Age?” The straightforward answer is no. Mankind, across various generations, has seen changes and disruptions at every stage of development. A Bloomberg opinion columnist (Andy Mukherjee, June 11, 2024) recently quoted in a blog about how, in the early 1700s, the capacity to spin 100 pounds of cotton took 50,000 man-hours compared to a mere 300 in 1795. So within a span of a century, 99.5% of man-hours were displaced. Did job markets end and labor face a crunch at the end of that century? They did not. Rather, history reminds us of various revolutions that took place in the political, social, and economic world. Based on this logic, is it not prudent to conclude that, so far, no technological developments, which have from time to time been proven disruptive, have affected the ability of human intelligence to excel further and stretch their limits?
One of the researches conducted by McKinsey & Co. (2023) concluded that Generative AI (GenAI) is capable of slashing code generation time by up to 40% and documentation time by 50%. Is this not good news for industries that are dependent on software? Through AI, the software industries could see the benefits of lower operational costs resulting in price reductions for the end user. The reduction of software development costs will reduce the demand and remuneration for software professionals, bringing a labor market correction at a particular skill set level globally. Due to demand pressures, code writing will no longer be executed by a set of talented people who can otherwise be used for the next level of technology development, which will pave the way to ensure the optimum utilization of talent. Then, will code writing be completely taken over by AI? Though the projections appear so, it depends on the cost overrun of such a takeover. Code writing will still remain in the market unless the cost of acquiring and updating code-developing AI is kept lower than that of codewriters’ remuneration.
For a little while, step back two decades earlier, and imagine how the Etisalat (now E&) office used to be. Floors full of offices, packed with tables, chairs, computers, printers, filing cabinets, data entry operators, and a noisy environment. If you visit now, you will find a good ambience, no office environment, individuals to guide, and almost zero paperwork. Technology helped us move to this level of a greener workplace. If investments were not made and visionary steps were not taken, we would not have reached this level. Are the jobs available then now slashed, or can we say they went mundane? What happened to those data entry operators and their positions? When jobs become mundane and pose a lack of demand, the workforce seeks new talents and skill sets that are in demand and progress further. This is fundamental to labor economics. The same is the case of AI and its so-called alleged invasion of the labor market.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, in one of his recent keynote speeches, has expressed his views that the capabilities displayed by AI software are not equivalent to human intelligence. He said, “I don’t like anthropomorphizing AI. I sort of believe it’s a tool.” He also added, “It has got intelligence if you want to give it that moniker, but it’s not the same intelligence that I have.” So the takeaway is “AI is only a tool, just that.”
Yejin Choi, one of the computer scientists in her TED conference speech, relayed on LinkedIn recently, has had the following reasoning behind why AI is never and can never be a superior force to Human Intelligence. She asserts, though AI is capable of acing all competitive exams, “can AI, without robust common sense, be truly safe?”. Questions like:
How much time can I expect for drying 30 clothes in the sun on a sunny day, when usually it takes 5 hours to dry 5 clothes? (Answer as per present AI capability is 30 hours)
I have a 12-litre jug and a 6-litre jug. I want to measure 6 litres. How do I do it? (AI suggests using the 6-litre jug 3 times so that 12 litres are also full in the same way as the 6-litre jug.)
With these and other examples, she categorically put that AI cannot have common sense, cannot differentiate between moral and immoral, ethics and non-ethics, secret and non-secret. She says, “AI today is unbelievably intelligent and then shockingly stupid.” So there is a long way to make AI sustainable and humanistic. Here is the scope for future technologists, human science, and behavioral science professionals to shape and reshape AI. It is not a one-time task. It’s going to be an evolution, an evolution beyond imagination. AI would have reduced repetitive and mundane jobs but has opened avenues for new fields of machine learning where all facets of life will need to be embedded with professionals from various fields to collaborate and synergize. It requires physical, social, and visual common sense to relate with theories of minds, norms, and morals.
At present, AI is almost like a new intellectual species with unique strengths and weaknesses compared to humans, and she concludes by saying the next step in Gen AI is to teach AI common sense, norms, and values. So the scope of AI is never-ending.
Will discuss more on AI and its influence in my upcoming episodes. Stay tuned.
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