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Junaid Maniar

Professor Campbell

WRT1104

12/04/2018

Will Artificial Intelligence Lead to Automatic Job Loss?

If you’ve seen or even heard about movies such as Terminator or The Matrix than this

concept may already be familiar to you. Technophobia is best described as this fear that one gets

from AI, Robots, and Technology that they do not understand. More importantly than that

however is that according to Paul McClure the author of “ ‘You’re Fired,’ Says the Robot”,

technophobes are more likely than non-technophobes to suffer from mental health issues

stemming from anxiety of job security and financial issues due to technological advancements.

Do you have any fear of this happening to you? Should you be scared of it?

Before the previous question is answered, in this essay there will be several terms that

will continually be brought up so it will be beneficial to dedicate this paragraph to those who may

not know some of these terms, primarily, Artificial Intelligence. According to SAS, a company

who works very hard with machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, AI(Artificial Intelligence)

is trying to get the computer to perform human tasks such as sorting through and analyzing large

sets of data much faster than a human could. This idea is based around trying to get a computer to

solve problems and gives it the ability to do certain things that a human brain could do, such as to

speak. Things like Siri and its google assistant are all AI based. Machine learning is directly

related to the concept of AI. Machine learning is this idea that the machine will use data and
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patterns to draw conclusions, then the machine will use the feedback to improve itself and try

again under different topics. This is the process by which a computer can “learn” and improve

itself. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are very very important and upcoming topics

especially in businesses. This is because Machine Learning and AI will allow for much faster

processing times which will allow for much better customer service. A great example is an

insurance company When settling a claim an insurance company has to meet two main goals.

They need to get back to their customer as soon as they can so the customer can fix whatever

issues they have, but they also need to make sure that there is no insurance fraud going on. So if

an insurance company can use AI and Machine learning to look at the information at hand and

verify that there is no fraudulent activity going on in a matter of hours, they will be able to get

back to their customer much faster. This will result in a greater customer company relationship.

However once one of the insurance companies do this, the rest will follow suit, because if they

can’t handle claims as fast and effectively as another insurance provider could, they will lose

business as everyone would go to the company that can make sure you are taken care of in a

timely manner. The competition that is created if just one company uses AI and Machine learning

will force other companies in the same field to follow, even if they don’t want to. The next

question that you may be asking is, how will this shift be implement?

Many people wonder exactly how the change will occur and how soon do we have to be

worried about this change affecting us. Well, according to Matt Fleckenstein and Jeff Kerns,

coauthors of “The Automatic Workplace” these up and coming changes to the workplace will take

place in three distinct phases. Currently we are in phase one which is just that robots exist to help
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reduce human error, your standard workplace with a computer. Phase two is emerging and is

expected to start very soon. It consists of robots using the data from phase one to make educated

decisions. The robots will see who in phase one got what emails and was asked to make what

types of decisions and instantly send anything in that regard to the appropriate person. The AI will

continue to do this and collect the data from the decisions that they make in order to move onto

phase three. This final phase is expected to arrive in 18-24 months. In this phase the robots will

not be sending people their emails or messages, but they will use the previous decisions that the

employees made to make their own decisions. In other words, phases one will be the machines

collecting data and seeing how decisions are made, phase two will be the robots making practice

decisions to see if their decision making algorithms work. Finally phase three will be using the

improved decision making algorithms from phase two and the data from phase one to make the

choices automatically. However, in order for these robots to be able to advance into phases two

and three they need to collect sufficient data and be able to recognize patterns properly so if phase

one is even slightly disturbed it could throw the previously mentioned schedule off by a large

margin. Even though I did just mention that the robots are going to do things that us humans did,

however that does not mean that once each phase is carried out that the person who used to do the

job will be fired. The people who had done this job before will be there for quality assurance and

will be what is essentially a person who will watch over them. The employees will be able to not

only do what they did before by watching the robots and making sure everything goes smoothly,

but they will also be given a chance to do other things and explore other things they can do

around their company. They will be given training to help them do other things and improve them
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as a employee. Their companies will offer so many ways for them to learn about new

technologies and will end up giving them more skills to add to their résumé. Overall this shift will

make companies much more efficient and make the employee's much more capable.

What do the company’s and the employees of those who work in the field think of the AI

shift though? David Roe is a journalist in Paris who focuses on computing and he wrote an

excellent article called “6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Impact the Future Workplace.” In this

article he looks at data that was taken from Metlife, which says that 56% of their employees have

a positive outlook on the upcoming technological advancements. The important part here is that

only 20% of the workers were actually pessimistic while the remaining individuals stayed

relatively neutral on the topic. This shows that in a company like Metlife there is a majority of

employees that are in favor or neutral on the advance of technologies. Roe goes on to

acknowledge the vast uses of AI for most companies. He writes that there are 6 main ones that he

thinks will make the biggest impacts. Particularly he seems interested in the machines being able

to do things humans normally wouldn’t or couldn’t do in a reasonable amount of time. His 3rd

point in the article is exactly that. Roe states that AI will be able to handle a lot of tasks that

humans can’t such as working with big data(Extremely large sets of data that need to be looked

through for patterns) and number crunching(being a numerical perspective to a situation). Both of

these make sense to have the AI do for us. There is no way humans could efficiently go through

Big data and final and analyze all the patterns in a timely manner so might as well have the super

fast machine do it instead. Same goes for numbering crunching, as it can often be difficult to

bring a different perspective into a problem so having a machine that already works and thinks in
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numbers bring in that perspective just makes things easier. To add onto this, he transitions quickly

into his 4th main point which is that AI can be an IT disruptor. What this means is that it will be

able to in essence fix itself. If there is an issue or problem that is rather easy to handle companies

are trying to make sure that the machine can fix it on its own as a self healing factor. This would

make the quality of life for many people much better. Just imagine you download a virus on your

computer and instead of having to take it to an IT person, the computer handles it on its own and

saves you a ton of time and money. The job for those who work in the IT department will still be

there of course as there are going to be some issues that the computer won’t be able to solve for

itself. All in all most companies are looking forward to this shift and embracing it will nothing but

open arms.

However fear not if you are part of the 20% that was rather pessimistic about this shift and

aren’t looking forward to what the job market may become, because according to Brian Wallace,

this isn’t a shift you will feel in the upcoming years at all. In his article titled “We Won’t Feel

AI’s Full Impact On The Workplace For Years To Come.” he writes that in just 2 years the

amount of people who were worried about AI taking over jobs had dropped from about 50% to

13% which shows a developing tolerance to the machines and an understanding that they will

likely be good for us. However he does expand on this idea that you won’t fully lose your job to

these machines taking over. Instead they will overtime be specialized in order to not take over

your job, but to aid you in your job and make your life much easier. He states that we don’t have

to learn to be replaced by AI, but instead we need to learn to live with the AI. They will likely be

helping us in our jobs and making life much easier. Though this statement does not seem to

remove all causes

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of fear from the people, as ideas like the delivery drones and driverless cars are seeming to take

people in the delivery or transportation industry out of a job. However jobs like these will take a

large amount of times to replace. The ethics behind driverless cars is a very controversial topic

right now and will need a ton of work before they are fully ready for operation. In an article by

Peter Hancock titled “Self-Driving Cars and Humans face inevitable Collision.” He mentions that

on April 25, 2018 there was a test of a self driving car in Arizona and a pedestrian was killed.

There is so much work that goes into self driving cars as to if it has to make a decision what

should it do. Should it hit 2 children or 2 adults, 2 young Adults or 2 elderly people. There is no

clear right answer, and many companies and colleges are taking input from anyone who is willing

to take their survey to see how the general population would see it. However no matter the

decision the car makes someone is likely to get hurt and no matter who it is there will be backlash

from the community saying that the cars are just not safe. So there is no clear sign of the self

driving car being available to the public anytime soon, because the amount of decision making

and ethics that goes on behind the scenes is absolutely monstrous and these choices if not

handled properly could result in the death of many people all around the world for no other reason

that, someone couldn’t properly program or decide who should live and die. For this reason, you

should not really be worried about transportation jobs being taken away from you in the near

future.

This workplace shift does not focus around making people lose their jobs, instead it

focuses around changing jobs and providing slight shifts to them. A report by McKinsey Global
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Institute states that less than five percent of jobs worldwide can be completely automated and

around 60% of them have about ⅓ that could be improved by automation. So while five percent

of people will have to go ahead and lose their jobs, the article mentions that there will also be jobs

created. So the net job market will indeed grow from this change. The article takes into account

the fact that by 2030 there will be around 300 million more people aged 65 and higher than there

were in 2014 which will leave a large shift in where people spend their money, leading to a larger

demand in nurses, doctor, and health care professionals. There will definitely be a large variety of

jobs that people could partake in. The main jobs that will be converted to automation involve jobs

that are primarily physical like warehouse stacking and other things among that nature. Even if

you work in one of those jobs, chances are you may even get to work and monitor the machines

that will do the work. However if you do end up losing your job do not fret. There will be a large

amount of jobs still available and even though you may have to learn some new skills and be

ready to adapt and learn whatever the company needs you to, you will still have a job which may

even pay you more as the nature of all the jobs will have changed and the people who work for

them are more valuable now than ever before. Max Versace writes in an Forbes Article titled “If

You’re Worried About AI Taking Your Job, Consider This” that many jobs like assembly worker,

coal miner, and Taxi Driver will be taken away by AI, but that he is almost certain that this new

AI fueled economy will create many more jobs for them to take. He also says that these machines

will help reduce the average workday making the work-life balance much easier so that even if

you get a new job it’s almost certain that you will be happier than your old one. Going back to the

article by McKinsey Institute, the article goes onto say that this new shift in how jobs will be
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given out is nothing new and that in the past there have been many new inventions that removed

jobs but created more. Such as the invention of things like construction machines so less people

were needed, but it created jobs to operate and make the machines. This has been something that

has been going on since jobs existed. Inventions will change the workforce and the jobs will

change. Some jobs will be removed and replace, while others have changes to it so it fits the

current need of the company. The article does in fact acknowledge however that those who get

displaced from this advancement needs to get reemployed fast so that they don’t give up and face

rising unemployment.

Altogether this shift in the economy and the workplace is bound to happen and there isn’t

very much we can do except to embrace it. Those who get to have their job changed

should rejoice at the fact that they will be able to learn new skills which will make them a more

valuable and rounded out employee and those who lose their job should not fear as there will be

many more jobs created and while it may be in a different field you may find something you

enjoy much more than you thought you would. There are so many possibilities out there that we

cannot predict everything but for the most part the future looks great and there seems to be many

more jobs that will open up due to the advances in technology that we are making. There is no

need to be afraid of technology, we need to embrace the change and accept that this is the best

possible way for us to get things done more efficiently and overall will push society as a whole to

the next level. This growing interest is what got us here and will take us to the next advancement

in technology. Hopefully now that you know there is very little to fear, you yourself may even

learn a little bit more about AI and Machine Learning, you may even help push society as a whole
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to the next level of automation and cause relief around the world. These robots will be able to do

so much more than what people can do and the things they will be able to do in order to help

people all around the world is such a fascinating topic. People have taken such incredible

measures to make sure that no one will be damaged by this change. The change is largely

positive, with some issues along the such as if something goes wrong with a robot, who is to take

blame? This is an issue that will occur maybe once or twice before there is a set precedent for it

however. Other than that I really hope that this essay may have changed someone’s perspective

on the upcoming shift to AI.

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WORK CITED

Fleckenstein, Matt, and Jeff Kerns. “The Automated Workplace.” Machine Design 13 June 2018.

www.machinedesign.com/industrial-automation/automated-workplace/ . Accessed 21

October 2018.

Goodnight, Jim. “Artificial Intelligence- What it is and Why it matters.” What is it and Why it

Matters|SAS, SAS October 2018, Accessed 21 October 2018

Hancock, Peter. “Self-Driving Cars and Humans Face Inevitable Collisions.” Scientific

American, 25 Apr. 2018,www.scientificamerican.com/article/self-driving-cars-and-

humans-face-inevitable-collisions/. Accessed On 1 December 2018

Manyika, James, et al. “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: What the Future of Work Will Mean for Jobs,

Skills, and Wages.” McKinsey & Company, 1 Nov. 2017, www.mckinsey.com/featured-

insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-

jobs-skills-and-wages#part3.

McClure, K, Paul. “‘You’re fired’ Says the Robot.” The Rise of Automation in the Workplace,

Technophobes, and Fear of Unemployment, Vol. 17, no. 1, 20 March 2017.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0894439317698637/ Accessed on 11 October

2018.

Roe, David. “6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Impact the Future Workplace.” CMSWire.com,
CMSWire.com, 17 Apr. 2018,
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www.cmswire.com/information-management/6-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-
impact-the-future-workplace/. Accessed On 26 November 2018.

Versace, Max. “If You're Worried About AI Taking Your Job, Consider This.” Forbes, Forbes
Magazine, 26 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/01/26/if-youre-
worried-about-ai-taking-your-job-consider-this/#40df9503768a. Accessed 3 December
2018

Wallace, Brian. “We Won't Feel AI's Full Impact on the Workplace for Years to Come.”

CMSWire.com, CMSWire.com, 28 June 2018, www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/we-

wont-feel-ais-full-impact-on-the-workplace-for-years-to-come/. Accessed On 30

November 2018