You, Me and the Machine or How Artificial Intelligence is Replacing You

Science Fiction authors and people have always dreamed of an utopic future where we will work less and enjoy life.
Will the new technological advancements help us reach freedom?
Or is there something else going on?

Life Efficiency goes into depth into this topic.

I presume you've seen the Terminator and Matrix trilogies. 

The basic premise behind both trilogies is that Machines powered by Artificial intelligence will one day evolve consciousness and take over the World.
Eventually exterminating all humans.

This apocalyptic scenario is not likely to happen. However, Artificial Intelligence has already taken over the world. In ways, we can't imagine nor see.
You, me and the machine. We'll probably end up competing for the same job.
It's estimated that by 2030 more than 800 million jobs will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence.

Why do you think Computers will replace humans. Which benefits do computers and AI have?

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Machines	Humans
24/7/365 availability	require rest
Never Sick	sick
Unemotional	Moody
No Stress	Burnout

The only problem a computer can encounter is a BUG or an endless loop. Which can be solved pretty easily.

A simple calculation of a human worker at a cost of $10 per hour will get around $21.000 per year in costs.
A computer, on the other hand, is available the whole year round for only $2600 in electricity costs.

You see, people just can't compete with the price of electricity.

Let's see how computers have slowly and steadily replaced humans centuries.

There have been a few inventions that have been blocked by emperors and kings since they would have replaced many people.

By the 1700s the process of creating fabric materials and clothes was manual and done in each household. By 1801 a fellow named Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a device that used wooden punch cards to automate the design of fabrics.

Unable to compete with a factory's low price many people went out of business.

Performing manual computations manually was difficult and error-prone. The 1880 United States census had taken eight years to process.
Herman Hollerith, a smart investor, inspired by punch cards and by Jaque's earlier loom created a tabulating machine that was said to have finished months ahead and far under budget. This invention exploded in popularity. It was the beginning of what was later known as IBM.

In the 1920's mass unemployment occurred in the world due to Tractors which had already been around for some time. This also led to an opportunity in jobs being created outside of the factories, jobs that didn't produce any palpable products. (show slide of government)
Now, the services sector was made possible due to automation.

By the 1950's new advances made it possible to replace people at an even faster rate. Introducing The Electrical Computer!

5 MB hard drive IBM produced in 1956 required a forklift to be lifted!

10 years later. The Apollo 11 computer that put man on the moon in the 1960's had a processor speed of 2 MHZ and only 8 KB of RAM.

Needless to say, the smart-phones we have in our pocket today are thousands to millions of times faster and smaller than any previous technology.

We are at a moment in our lives when we must ask ourselves a fundamental question:

Are we using the true potential of technology or are we slowly but steadily letting technology replace us?

Anything that can be automated will be eventually automated resulting in more jobs being lost.

Mostly all jobs which require inputting of data and outputting of data can be replaced by a computer.

What's important to understand is huge changes don't just happen overnight. All changes go slowly and steadily.

We see jobs being lost at certain points in history like recessions, recessions, revolutions, and financial crises. However, they are not the culprits.
The financial and job crisis lead to the inevitable point when companies had to let go of the excess people which just became replaceable.

Now take a few moments to reflect upon your job and what you do at work. Could you be easily replaced by a computer program?

What can we do about this?

There are specific predefined skills which can make people harder to replace. Unique insights of creativity.
Entrepreneurship and developing new businesses. Creating powerful and emotional stories through communication. And of course software development. Because programmers already create software which automate. All the time.
Machines can only instruct, they cannot lead. So leadership and management roles will still exist for the elite few who also possess technical skills.

It's also the time to reassess how we're using technology and if we'd not better spend our time on building valuable skills instead of wasting it.
I will leave you with a question to ask yourselves.
Which new skill are you developing that will make YOU irreplaceable?

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