Continuing from last week
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still in the early stages. How many more job losses shall we witness in the coming years due to automation?
Last week, one of the popular viral videos on Indian social media was about the views of Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha MP, and Mr. K. Annamalai, Tamil Nadu State President of BJP, on the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI). In the video, Mr. Annamalai is seen eloquently explaining the challenges of AI to young students, while Mr. Gandhi is seen doing some whataboutery to hide his lack of proper understanding.
Discussing the matter with many people who chose to forward the video to me, I found that the key reason for their forwarding this video is to show Mr. Gandhi in a poor light and not bother about the challenges of AI. They deliberately chose to ignore that both Mr. Gandhi Mr. Annamalai may not be in a position to make policies, at least for the next five years; whereas Chief Ministers of the largest populated and most industrialized states in India, and even some of the top leadership of the country, may be equally lacking in understanding about the challenges of AI, as Mr. Gandhi. Many of these may even fail to spell Artificial Intelligence correctly. That ought to be an issue these people should be worrying about and discussing.
Until a few months ago, India’s IT minister rejected the threat of AI to jobs in India as “nonsense”. Recently he reluctantly acknowledged that “AI may result in automating some routine jobs but will also result in job creation in various data science, data curation, etc.” This is in total contrast to what the global IT leaders believe. For example, Elon Musk insists AI will get humans to a point where “no job is needed.”
In a recent famous interview with Trucker Carlson, President Vladimir Putin expressed fears that the developments in AI and genetics could potentially be a threat to humanity as a whole in the future. He said, “When there arises an understanding that the boundless and uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence or genetics or some other modern trends, cannot be stopped, that these researches will still exist just as it was impossible to hide gunpowder from humanity... when humanity feels a threat to itself, to humanity as a whole, then, it seems to me, there will come a period to negotiate at the inter-state level on how we will regulate this.”
Notwithstanding the state of denial by politicians, the campus recruitment by Indian IT companies in FY24 was just 75000, the lowest since 2002.
The Viking expansion during the 8th – 11th centuries reshaped the history, culture, and commerce of the world, by laying the ground for global colonial imperialism. It was aided by the first industrial revolution (1760-1820). The Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914) redrew the contours of global strategic balance. The atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) established a new world order that was dominated by trade and commerce rather than military power. The development of Artificial Intelligence is a similar event in world history. It has the potential to redefine how people procreate, live, think, work, interact, transact, entertain, and die. AI could pose a much bigger threat than nuclear weapons; and could be a bigger service to humanity than any medicine or healthcare procedure.
Confining the discussion on AI to job losses would be beyond ridiculous.
On a lighter note, let me share a recent anecdote. An acquaintance (56-year-old) was running a 110-seater call center in Delhi for 24yrs. He had to shut the operations as his major clients automated their processes. He has converted the facility into a stock market jobbing facility by retraining all 110 operators. He is making 2x more money than the best years of call center business. Employees are also taking home 25-50% more. He told me, “Let Nvidia and Musk do whatever. We will make money trading their stocks. If we cannot compete with Nvidia, and Microsoft, we will own them!”
The point is that unemployment due to AI is a worry only for those who refuse to adapt, retrain, and reskill. For others AI is a major opportunity to move to higher orbits. The real damage due to AI could happen in social, personal, and emotional spheres.
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