Some call AIs the fourth industrial revolution. According to a report of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in 10-20 years, all jobs will be impacted by the apparition of new technologies. With self-driving cars, taxi and truck drivers might not be needed anymore. In the USA, because of the technological improvements, the productivity has doubled between 1980 and 2017, while the median worker income stayed stable. Knowing the huge potential of AIs, serious questions are raised about the impact it will have on people and it is urgent to build responsible public policy on the subject.
Track how Technology is transforming work
By Tom Mitchell & Erik Brynjolfsson
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> The thesis
We are “flying blind” to the fourth industrial revolution
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> An interesting topic
But a lack of data
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> Main recommendations
Necessity of an integrated information strategy
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The authors are calling for the creation of an ‘integrated information strategy to combine public and privately held data” as well as for policy makers to stick to a 'sense and respond' approach, which, contrarily to “predict and plan”, allows to adapt quickly to a swiflty-changing environment, which is very much the one of AIs.
What also lack is a exhaustive index of AI, which would permit to have a better understanding of the development opportunities of the technology. In the end, this would help “to design programmes for the workforce of the future”, with a little idea where we are going.
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> Interesting propositions
This is not so easy to implement ...
Make public and private sector work together is a challenge nowadays, when data is also a valuable commercial good. Companies might be unwilling to divulge their data that adversaries could use. A smart legal framework needs also to be designed as to ensure the protection of privacy, to cultural inertia and other obstacles. The policymakers need to be more technology-oriented, which is not widespread for most countries.
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> Interested enough to read their article?
Please find the full version :
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> The authors
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Tom Mitchell
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Born in 1951
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Professor of machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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Author of the textbook Machine Learning
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According to the authors, the policy makers “fly blind” into this technology revolution.
What lacks most is data on how technology is affecting work. Right now, we cannot answer to basic questions such as the scope and rate of change of AI, the technologies that are transforming jobs, the emerging work opportunities.... The authors also note a lack of cooperation between the private and public sector in the sharing of data that could really be beneficial for all.