Mckinsey in an article “Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work” has said, and I quote:
- add value beyond what can be done by automated systems and intelligent machines
- operate in a digital environment
- continually adapt to new ways of working and new occupations
While I agree these are necessary, I feel Mckinsey has defined the skill too narrowly in terms of the future of work and life. First and foremost, the skill needed is not just adding value, but creating value to be able to manage and address the future of ourselves, our lives, our way of life (or what is left of it in the changing environment) our work, to think of rewards and risks of AI.
We define creating value as:
Creating Value is executing normal, conscious, inspired, and even imaginative actions that increase the overall good and well-being, and the worth of and for ideas, goods, services, people or institutions including society, and all stakeholders (like employees, customers, partners, shareholders and society), and value waiting to happen.
One of the skills necessary is to understand that creating value also means creating the future. While digitising and bringing in AI, one must:
- Create value and ensure that the environment is managed and designed for the betterment of life, and not just for efficiency and for giving up our control because AI can do it better
- Ensure our values and human values are incorporated
- Have controls and checks for human intervention and control And I add
- Be continually adaptive to create continuing value
- Become multi-disciplinary and multi-aware
These might sound trite, but the lure of technology is to do more with less, and that seems to be the technologist’s endeavour becoming eventually the human endeavour. We cannot allow this.
Ejaz Ghani thinking of India is 2030 says there will be a rise of the middle class and there will be a demographic dividend; India will be part of the global talent race; an urban awakening; India will be close to the largest digital economy; with a changing face of globalisation. There will be green growth and gender will be a growth driver. The problem is managing the transition.
So, we need to re-skill to manage the future and do so by creating value. Digital democratisation will make people more equal, unless our AI does not allow it. How can this happen. By poor design. By letting AI discriminate (and this can happen by not giving the tools or training to or re-skilling people and many other factors).
Quickly, Ai is now embedded everywhere
OpenAI’s GPT-3 engines and others generate texts cannot be distinguished from human expression. And AI is becoming ubiquitous.
More reason for humans to be alert and top of all this by value creation
Denis Rothman states You can either be the tool of AI or use it as a tool. Millions of microdecisions will be made every day, and all humans put together will not be able to slow this down.
You have to have the right mindset and creating value is a mindset that can set you ahead and design smartly. Cross disciplinary thinking becomes imperative.
We have to manage the risk versus the value creation potential of AI. Only people with a creating value mindset of risk and value destruction potential can do this if they are AI savvy.
Risks of artificial intelligence as told by Mike Thomas states there will be
Automation-spurred job loss
Privacy violations
‘Deepfakes’
Algorithmic bias caused by bad data
Socioeconomic inequality
Weapons automatization
“Once computers can effectively reprogram themselves, and successively improve themselves, leading to a so-called ‘technological singularity’ or ‘intelligence explosion,’ the risks of machines outwitting humans in battles for resources and self-preservation cannot simply be dismissed.”
Thus, skilling is necessary not only to use and understand AI, but to manage it and prevent a run-away AI catastrophe. People, governments, institutions, companies need to combine to mitigate AI risks in the future.
