In this week’s news roundup for IT leaders, we bring you the latest in the ongoing debate about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of jobs.
Debating the impact of AI
This week, The World Economic Forum took place in Switzerland, where political and economic leaders along with executives from companies including IBM, Microsoft, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet gathered to discuss the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the future of jobs and society. Speaking at the event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that the growth of AI has surprised him, but he’s optimistic overall. As Adam Satariano reports for the Chicago Tribune, Brin said that automation would ultimately free up people to work on more intellectually demanding, creative or artistic pursuits while AI took care of the mundane tasks. (Read more: Artificial intelligence is growing so fast, even Google's co-founder is surprised)
In a Wall Street Journal recap of the event, Sam Schechner reports that while many executives and economists share an optimistic viewpoint, “some said this week that they also worry the spoils of the next revolution could be inequitably shared – and that the transition to new models of work could be brutal for many workers.” The article points to driverless cars as an example, which could displace 1.1 billion full-time jobs. (Read more: Mulling the Economic Effect of Artificial Intelligence)
Writing for ZDNet, Timo Elliott reminds us that every new technology is viewed by some as a threat to society. He quotes Plato complaining about the invention of writing. But, he argues that artificial intelligence will lead to more collaborative, intuitive ways of working: “Almost every office job involves some amount of repetitive decision-making, such as determining which invoices correspond to a payment, which resumes to shortlist for an open position, or what products to try to cross-sell to the person at the cash register. Artificial intelligence can act as our assistants in these daily decisions, giving us extra time to spend on more strategic tasks.” (Read more: Artificial Intelligence Will Improve the World of Work)
More news for CIOs
How CIOs trap themselves by recycling the same talent [ComputerWeekly]
CIOs 'can't afford to lose technical roots' [Computing]
CIO Jury: 50% of IT leaders will invest in IoT in 2017 [TechRepublic]
