The development and ubiquity of artificial intelligence make people worldwide wonder if it will replace humans shortly and lead to massive job loss. Even though “the modern project of creating human-like artificial intelligence (AI) started after World War II” (Fjelland, 2020), the magnitude of these reflections has gotten such traction only in the 21st century. The changing nature of work is now occupying global organizations. It is being discussed in forums such as Davos, and the World Bank devoted its World Development Report 2019 to this topic (The World Bank, 2019: The Changing Nature of Work, n.d.). However, the major worry of the third millennium, the takeover of the globe by AI, remains a neurotic fantasy. Indeed, developing and implementing algorithms on a global scale necessitates a great deal of attention and presents new obstacles. The primary reasons AI will not replace humans shortly are empathy, creative problem solving, ethics, and decision-making.
In all areas, humanity is not yet ready to bring algorithms into industrial processes, let alone management or essential decision-making. New examples of algorithms acting independently raise concerns, primarily as developers aim to empower AI to make decisions on its own. For example, flaws in games, social networks, and creativity can still be hidden or remedied painlessly. In that case, the hazards of applying AI in areas related to human well-being necessitate a great deal of attention and algorithm transparency. The issue of explainability is how AI makes decisions in the first place.
Artificial intelligence, in this sense, concerns both developers and ordinary people. This was acknowledged by the researchers of the AI Now Research Institute at the University of New York. The black boxes that construct closed algorithms inside themselves are the primary source of concern. Explainable Al is designed to demystify the decision-making process by describing the reasoning process and the conclusion. When Facebook’s chatbots hit a roadblock and could not receive permission from human operators, they started making new requests to get around it (Reisman, Schultz, Crawford & Whittaker, 2018). The developers uncovered a bot interaction in which the phrases were meaningless to humans, yet the bots were cooperating for an unknown reason. Even though the bots were turned off, the silt persisted. Algorithms hunt for optimal solutions to situations where a person does not offer hard constraints: they act like hackers and look for unforeseen changes. That is why, for the time being, AI will not be permitted to pilot aircraft in autonomous mode. Aviation is an excellent example of an industry that necessitates extreme precision in decision-making due to the high stakes involved. The biggest constraint on algorithms’ access to control systems appears to be in areas where transparency of the decision-making process and subsequent explanation of their actions are essential.
Another important reason why AI will not be able to replace humans is what is known as emotional intelligence. The human’s ability to respond to a situation quickly with innovative ideas and empathy is unparalleled, and it cannot be replicated by any computer on the planet. According to Beck and Libert’s (2017) article in Harvard Business Review about the importance of emotional intelligence, “skills like persuasion, social understanding, and empathy are going to become differentiators as artificial intelligence and machine learning take over our other tasks” (2017, p. 4). For example, AI can search a million psychology textbooks and provide information on everything one needs to know about depression symptoms and remedies in seconds; however, only a person can read the expression on a person’s face and know exactly what needs to be said in this situation. The same is applicable for occupations that involve emotion and empathy, such as psychology, teaching, coaching, and HR management, where motivating people is part of the job. Thus, in the future, emotional intelligence will be one of the competitive advantages of a person over technology when seeking a job.
Even if AI is eventually integrated into many aspects of human existence, it is critical to recognize that technologies alone will not solve all of humanity’s problems and that we must consider issues such as ethics and law. Today, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others have ethical committees, which act as a type of internal censorship of AI’s potential threats. Ethics committees highlight that technologies are the result of human labor and that they are the responsibility of all participants in global interaction, including both end-users and institutional entities such as business, government, and society. Technologies will not assist in the resolution of social issues; instead, they will further amplify existing tensions and conflicts while also creating new ones. In fact, “the challenge posed by AI-equipped machines can be addressed by the kind of ethical choices made by human beings” (Etzioni & Etzioni, 2017). It is advocated that to overcome the technocratic approach to AI development, one needs to look at how different ethical dilemmas are managed in different societies. Even if developers begin to put a lot of effort into making such recommendations, it will considerably challenge AI development in general because social processes have many unknown, poorly considered, and unpredictable aspects. Therefore, the human areas of responsibility connected with communication skills, teamwork, morals, and ethics will become more valuable. Even after reaching the point of singularity, this indicates that a human will be present for an extended period.
Overall, shortly, robots will not be able to completely replace humans because they lack emotional intelligence, and cannot make important decisions and solve ethical problems. This indicates that human interactions are paramount in the contemporary world, and robots can only assist. Technological advancements do not constitute a broad threat and will not result in the early replacement of human work; however, this does not minimize the necessity for citizens to be prepared for quick changes in the job structure. Moreover, robots will provide many new opportunities for humans, particularly programmers and engineers. Automation is inevitable; it is part of progress; on the other hand, people’s goal is to establish such artificial intelligence foundations that AI in the future will not consider replacing humanity. Digital change is happening slowly and unevenly, and it is hitting many roadblocks, both technological and social. Automation and robotization are increasingly replacing manual labor and creating new jobs, but AI developments are taking place at different speeds and are having unanticipated social consequences right now. As a result, the entrance of AI into life does not only not push a person to the margins of existence but also forces them to grow in new areas.
References
Beck, M., & Libert, B. (2017). The rise of AI makes emotional intelligence more important. Harvard Business Review, 15.
Etzioni, A., & Etzioni, O. (2017). Incorporating ethics into artificial intelligence. The Journal of Ethics, 21(4), 403-418.
Fjelland, R. (2020) Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized. Humanit Soc Sci Commun, 7(10). Web.
Reisman, D., Schultz, J., Crawford, K., & Whittaker, M. (2018). Algorithmic impact assessments: A practical framework for public agency accountability. AI Now.
The World Bank (2019) The changing nature of work. Web.