According to the CEOs of Microsoft and IBM, instead of replacing human workers artificial intelligence (AI) should enhance them.
AI And The Future Work Place
According to IT World Canada, the tech giant has released a position paper on the subject. According to the paper, the purpose of cognitive systems and artificial intelligence as applied by IBM is to assist humans, not to replace them. IBM assures us that humans will remain in control of the AI systemsI. The paper also states that cognitive systems will not realistically attain independent agency or consciousness, but rather, they will be increasingly embedded in our services, products, systems and processes.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Satya Nadella and Ginni Rometty made clear their view of the role of AI. The panel discussion took place just a few hours after Rometty presented to company staff IBM's three guiding principles for the development of cognitive technologies.
IBM's three principles are less dramatic expressed than Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics. However, they have the same aim, intending to limit the harm the introduction of AI technologies may cause.
According to Java World, Rometty said that for IBM is not a question of whether will be man or machine. The company's purpose is to be in service and to augment what humans can do.
Another important principle for IBM CEO Rometty is transparency. In her opinion, anyone using a system should be informed whether this is artificial intelligence.
The users of AI systems also need to know how the systems got trained and what data was used to train it. The human should always remain in control of the AI systems, Rometty said.
Jobs Of The Future Will Require New Skills
Another important principle for IBM is to ensure that humans have the skills to work with new artificial intelligence systems and cognitive technologies. Most of the jobs in the near future will involve working with these AI systems and just a few jobs will be replaced. IBM and other top tech companies need to ensure that people are trained too, not just that AIs are trained.
While encouraging businesses to work with schools, Rometty said that not all the skills needed to succeed in this world will be high-degree skills. What is important is to provide students with mentorship and a curriculum that's relevant.
She also pointed out to need to assume responsibility for these emerging AI technologies as industry leaders. According to her, the Partnership on AI is a good example of the way AI industry is taking a lead.
Microsoft CEO Nadella echoed IBM's vision, considering that AI can help augmenting human opportunity and ingenuity. He also said that one of the hard challenges of the industry is to determine how far human responsibility goes for the decisions algorithms are making. Nadella also agreed with the need for transparency, considering that is the only way to trust an AI black box and to ensure that the framework of ethics and law is governing the black box.
