Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Are Gates, Musk Being 'Too Aggressive' With AI Concerns? (xconomy.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the welcome,-robot-overlords dept.

gthuang88 reports on a talk titled "Will Robots Eat Your Job?" Bill Gates and Elon Musk are sounding the alarm "too aggressively" over artificial intelligence's potential negative consequences for society, says MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson. The co-author of The Second Machine Age argues it will take at least 30 to 50 years for robots and software to eliminate the need for human laborers. In the meantime, he says, we should be investing in education so that people are prepared for the jobs of the future, and are focused on where they still have an advantage over machines -- creativity, empathy, leadership, and teamwork.
The professor acknowledges "there are some legitimate concerns" about robots taking jobs away from humans, but "I don't think it's a problem we have to face today... It can be counterproductive to overestimate what machines can do right now." Eventually humankind will reach a world where robots do practically everything, the professor believes, but with a universal basic income this could simply leave us humans with more leisure time.

8 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"people are prepared for the jobs of the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what jobs? Trump might "bring the jobs back", but robots will fill them.

    Then what's the point of immigration? Why open borders to allow an influx of economic immigrants and refugees from war-torn countries if, as it generally seems to be the consensus of the intelligentsia, robots will replace any possible jobs available to them in just 50 or so years from now?

  2. The FUTURE! by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First, steam engines were going to kill off everyone's job. Then it was power tools. Then cars. Then computers. Cassette tapes were going to kill the music market. VHS was going to kill movies and TV.

    People always think the next advance is going to make humans obsolete and there will be no jobs left. There won't be old jobs, there will be new kinds of jobs. If you can figure out what those jobs will be you'll be a very rich person.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:The FUTURE! by toastjam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There will be new jobs, but there won't be nearly enough of them to replace the ones that are going away. The thing is we're not just replacing people's bodies with better tools and technology, allowing them to be productive in different ways -- we're replacing their minds. The niche where humans will continue excel vs an expert system that could take only a few days to train is going to keep getting smaller and smaller.

    2. Re:The FUTURE! by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Were steam engines created with the sole purpose of replacing human labor? Nope.
      What about power tools, cars and computers? Nope, nope, nope.
      Automation? YEP. And there's a bonus. Companies can get any kind of remaining labor from overseas now easier than they ever could before.
      I have seen so many people say new jobs will be created, but no one gives any examples. If you think the average McDonalds restaurant is going to let go of 20 people and then require 20 automation engineers per site you're dreaming. The whole point of automation is to prevent companies from requiring labor. Any business anyone wants to create that requires labor will not be competitive enough to make it.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  3. The professor is an idiot by Nutria · · Score: 3, Insightful

    with a universal basic income

    Has he done the math as to how much that would cost?

    this could simply leave us humans with more leisure time.

    He has forgotten what bored young people do.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  4. yes and no. by JustNiz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I dont think the problem is so much AI itself, but what humans like Gates, Musk and Zuckerberg will be programming them to have as their objectives..

  5. Why, you... by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Their parents will stick to the old ways, just like C coders.

    [stands up, leans on cane, tries to straighten back, and wheezes out]:

    Yeah, and just like those parents, you'll find out us C coders were right all along, you young whippersnapper.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  6. Re:50 or so years? Hah! by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The immigrants and refugees we are bringing in to the US are mostly illiterate, and I'm not talking about English (yes, about 2/3rds)

    As a refugee that came here 28 years ago, I say bullshit to this claim. Citations and numbers or get the fuck out with that bullshit.