In this week's news roundup for IT pros, articles on artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and the future of work.
Hype vs. reality among emerging technologies
Escaping the trough of disillusionment for virtual and augmented reality [TechCrunch]: S. Somasegar writes about AR/VR's long road to mass adoption, stating, “Gartner has placed VR within its tech hype cycle as precariously struggling out of the trough of disillusionment, described as a period of waning interest as 'experiments and implementations fail to deliver.'” However, while Somasegar says mainstream adoption is still likely three to five years away, “We still believe that in twenty years, VR will be a ubiquitous force and as pervasive and transformative as the internet was in the 90s or the smartphone was in the 2000s. Every 2D interface will be re-imagined and re-architected for 3D.” He goes on to outline some of the big opportunities in AR/VR just waiting to be tapped by “those brave enough to weather the trough of disillusionment.”
Google artificial intelligence guru says A.I. won't kill jobs [Fortune]: Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of artificial intelligence startup DeepMind, recently addressed some common concerns around AI at an O’Reilly event, and Jonathan Vanian recapped the highlights in Fortune this week. Namely, Suleyman dispelled fears that AI would eliminate jobs or that systems would be left to run on their own accord. As Vanian writes, “Suleyman predicated that humanity is still 'many decades away from encountering that sort of labor replacement at scale.' Instead, the technology is best used to help humans with work-related tasks rather than replace them outright.” Additionally, “Google always keeps 'a human in the loop,' he said, to ensure that the A.I. systems to don’t do something human operators wouldn’t want.”
Cyborg jobs are here to stay [Opensource.com]: Writing for Opensource.com, computer science professor Dr. Bryson Payne echoes the point of humans working with technology to “do more work, better, smarter, and faster than either humans or computers alone can.” But, as Payne points out, although there will continue to be jobs for humans in the future, those jobs are changing. He says, “Reading, writing, and arithmetic aren't enough anymore. Heavy science and engineering concepts are next, but still not sufficient. New technologies and coding (plus a creative dose of the arts) must be woven into our children's experiences, including—but not limited to—the K-12 curriculum.”
More news for CIOs
Barack Obama talks AI, robo cars, and the future of the world [Wired]
CIO Stats: Consumer sector CIOs first in board presence, Korn/Ferry says [Wall Street Journal]
Digital Disruption: Dealing with the flip side of digital transformation [Forbes]
