In recent times, two impactful situations have emerged that highlight the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on industries and workforces around the globe.
- USA
For the first time since 1977, thousands of dock workers at every major East and Gulf Coast port in the United States are on strike. Their two major demands are:
(a). Increase in wages
(b). Job guarantees for all workers
This strike reflects growing concerns among labour forces about job security and fair compensation in the face of advancing technologies and automation.
- China
Meanwhile, in China, the Nansha multimodal seaport in Guangzhou has become the first fully automated port equipped with 5G, cloud computing, and AI. This has resulted in:
(a). 25% reduction in manpower
(b). Zero manpower on the ground, with all operations controlled from air-conditioned rooms
China’s situation is a reality that represents the near future for ports globally, it’s bound to happen. The situation at U.S. ports indicates a desire to adopt similar automation technologies.
What we can take away from these situations is that AI is affecting both high-end and low-paid labour jobs. The labour situation across the globe has become an annoying thing for industries, especially after COVID-19. Labor’s unending demands are chronic and have created a hostage-like situation for businesses. AI is cutting across all sections of the workforce, significantly impacting labour forces by replacing large numbers without requiring substantial intellectual input.
An interesting term in the AI world is Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI). RSI explains how AI can improve itself without external interference. It’s not surprising anymore; AI systems are intelligent and learn rapidly on their own. They are making fewer mistakes and can predict outcomes by measuring simple parameters, making decisions autonomously without human intervention. In fact, they can take control if they determine humans are not performing properly. These features are already applied in autopilot modes in cars and planes.
For example, AI technologies include:
- Facial recognition
- Analysing audio tones to judge mood
- Monitoring heartbeats to detect lies
- Measuring body temperature to sense mood
- Interpreting body gestures
We must remember that AI systems have:
- Superior audio and visual sensors
- Large amounts of data to interpret
A few years ago, automatic doors that opened as you approached seemed like magic or a godly phenomenon to people in rural villages in India. Now, it’s an ordinary, well-accepted, and basic requirement. The level of automation is becoming increasingly efficient and flawless. It shouldn’t be surprising if our fridge places an order for groceries after identifying low stock levels. This happens with simple logic, similar to how our cars can detect whether we are wearing seatbelts.We cannot accurately predict what will happen in the next 5–10 years, as things are changing at a very fast pace. Open Source Software or OSS is a significant concern for the future of AI. Today, OSS may be useful for programmers to improve their work, but humans have fought many wars, and every day it seems we are on the brink of a major war outbreak. Anyone can hack systems and patch software, which can rerun entire grids and cripple everything.
We witnessed a similar incident last month when a Microsoft Azure software glitch brought airports across the world to a standstill. It took a few hours to correct it. What if it had taken a few days or even months? The entire world’s aviation system would have been paralyzed.
There is hardly any animal species that kills, murders, or mass-executes their own kind. If any animal species did that, we could attribute it to human nature. When movies like Joker (2019) can gross $1.1 billion and spawn a sequel, it shows what our preferences have become. We have come a long way in a short time, from movies like The Sound of Music to Joker 2.
Anything can happen, whether we can predict, anticipate, or even dream of.
