A famous American TV series, How I Met Your Mother has a folk song, “Marshall versus Machine”, which is interesting because it is exactly where we are heading to. “Marshall versus Machine” adds a small idealistic diversion in the plot of the series, overlooking at an age where man wins over the machine. In the present scenario, the war is still on, but with a difference. It is between human and artificial intelligence, and the war is more synonymous to the unity of the warriors-humans and AI.
As a result of manifold technological advancements, Artificial Intelligence is slowly taking over the humane world. Of course, AI is positive domination that will increase the research, labour, communication efficiency, and the overall development of the country. However, the fast pace with which the transformation is encroaching the ‘society of hands and mind’, is raising the problems of withstanding the change. Ushering in of the Artificial Intelligence follows scientific advancements, and unemployment and degradation of traditional education, simultaneously. Development of AI makes a mandate education in technical skills to survive when all the jobs are taken over by robots or other products of AI.
The Northeastern-Gallop polls conducted at Northeastern University examines how the world would be like in the new era of Artificial Intelligence. The poll was conducted with the participation of three major technologically advanced countries- the UK, US and Canada. The major issue reflected from the polling was how the world will deal with the immense loss of a job, the expenditure of the increased researches, and life-long education of technical skills with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
According to an article People want to keep up in the Artificial Intelligence age. The employers, educators and government are letting them down, by Ian Thomson from Northeastern University, there is no doubt that all the three countries are looking forward to the age of Artificial Intelligence. However, the impediment of the way, on common consensus of the three countries, is first, whether the Universities of Undergraduate programs are ready to impart skills relevant in artificial intelligence and the era of automation that follows; and secondly, is the country or the government ready to compensate the cost of the education and the loss of jobs and unemployment.
While all the three countries “strongly agree” that the Universities of their respective countries do impart the skills needed in the automation, the confidence in education is very low. “As we prepare for the age of artificial intelligence, people around the world understand that learning will need to become a lifelong endeavor,” said Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University. “This presents enormous opportunities for the higher education sector if we make the right decisions and investments. This can be the golden age of higher education.” But the problem is, according to Thomson and the poll, “all three countries believe large businesses and government are not doing enough to address the need for career-long learning and training. ” Majorities in the US and UK also believe that higher education is failing to provide lifelong learning opportunities.” The cost of education is also high and a barrier for enough encouragement from the country.
As a solution, according to the poll, the responsibility of making life-long education possible and affordable should be handed over to the employers, according to US or government according to UK and Canada.
Besides, the issue of loss of job and unemployment had diverse responses. Canada and the UK believe that the government should provide “universal basic income program to help people who lose their jobs to automation” (Thomson). But half of the Americans disagree with the program. While the three countries agree on the fact that automation will take away more jobs than it will create, the greater threat is the “outsourcing of jobs to other countries”. Though such complications exist, the counties are positive and confident about the advantages of automation, perfect if the impediments are dealt with positively.
The Northeastern-Gallop polls clearly show the ‘war’ between human and machine, where the human is trying to preserve a territory in the world being conquered by AI. However, the war is for a positive cause – for the unification of human skills and intelligence, and the artificial machine intelligence for a better world.
Rudrani Kumari