Prepare to Work with Super Machines

Feeling anxious about your career in light of all the news coverage about Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Don’t be.                           

Yes, AI is going to change everything. Some jobs are going to go away and new ones will be created.

But the big—and positive—impact of AI will be on those jobs in which humans “with the right skills” get to  collaborate with super machines. 

Are you willing to do what it takes to seize those opportunities? Let me share my thoughts.

Opportunity will emerge

I’ll start by saying that I firmly believe that turbulent times always stir up opportunities for those willing to seize them (see my earlier article).

Whenever a big technological change comes about, you face turmoil, disruption, and opportunity.

I experienced that with the introduction of wireless technology. Yes, it caused disruption and did away with many landline telephone jobs.  But it also created far more jobs in wireless and related fields. And, what is more important, wireless paved the way for the creation of entirely new industries such as ride sharing and vacation rental, services you and I can easily book from our smartphones today.

We can expect a similar scenario with AI.

Doing my homework

Beyond trusting my personal experience, I’ve been doing quite a bit of homework on the subject of AI and jobs.

Just as I recommended to you in my previous article, I’ve been tapping different sources: reading, taking online courses, and attending conferences.

One of the things I did recently was to attend an executive workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the topic of innovation and the future of work. There were great speakers on the program, including two whose work I want to highlight here in regard to the opportunities for humans in the era of super machines.

Better together

They are H. James Wilson, co-author of the book “Humans + Machine. Reimagining Work in the Age of AI.” The other is Thomas Malone, professor of management at the MIT School of Management and author of “The Future of Work” (2004) and the more recent “Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together.”

Both support the idea that the AI revolution is not a zero-sum-game in which super machines reap all the wins.  

Rather, their separate research findings coincide in showing that the biggest gains in AI will come from the collaboration of humans with super machines.

According to Wilson*, intelligent collaboration between people and smart machines outperform automation by more than threefold. 

And, in a more specific example, he points to a breast-cancer cell-detection study, which showed that while doctors' diagnoses outperformed AI's 96% to 92%, the real win happened when humans and machine, that is doctors and AI, collaborated. That raised the level of accuracy to an impressive 99.5%.

Covering humans’ skills gap

We must face what I call the brutal facts: AI’s challenge to the workforce is not about jobs but about skills gap. 

Working with smart machines will require new skills and will create new job descriptions.

Many companies, including my former AT&T, are being very proactive about preparing their employees for this new era. 

In another example,  Japan’s technology firm Rakuten Inc. may soon require its more than 17,000 employees to learn an entry-level ability to code.

Educators rush in

I’m particularly excited about education’s efforts to meet this massive re-skilling need.

Just as an example, this September MIT will inaugurate its Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing to create what it calls “the bilinguals of the future” — the people with the skills to collaborate with super computers. 

Online educational institutions are rushing in to help individuals catch up.

In my last article I mentioned “AI for Everyone,” an easy-to-follow class taught by AI-guru Andrew Ng, available through Coursera. 

The class provides a baseline of understanding on which to build your knowledge of AI. And that alone, according to Ng, will make you more informed about AI than 99% of the population.

I strongly encourage you to take this excellent course. Too busy? You can binge-watch the sessions. And if you don’t care about getting a certificate, the course is free.

Are you willing to do what it takes?

After becoming familiar with Wilson’s and Malone’s findings, and taking Ng’s “AI for Everyone” course, I am more convinced that, as threatening as the prospects of AI may appear, the opportunity for you to thrive in it is enormous—as long as you are a first mover, willing to take the time to learn about AI, understand it, and embrace it.

There is no question AI will be disruptive. The question is: what are you going to do about it?

You can either embrace it and be one of the winners who will have the privilege to be among the first to collaborate with super machines in the AI Era.

Or you can be among those who refuse to acknowledge its potential and, in so doing, defer taking any action at the risk of being disrupted.

There is no middle ground.

I suspect that if you’re reading this you’re among the former. Congratulations on making that choice.

I wish you a great, disruptive journey.

Ralph

[*] As mentioned in https://hbr.org/webinar/2018/08/human-plus-machine-reimagining-work-in-the-age-of-ai