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Junaid Maniar

Professor Campbell

WRT1104

11/04/2018

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.

Have any of you ever worried about what technological advancements could take away from you?

Should you?owever, should technophobes be worried about this issue?

In this essay there will be several terms that I will continually bring 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. This 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 it will use data and patterns to draw conclusions, then they use

the feedback to improve itself and try again under different topics. This is the process by which a
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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. If an insurance company doesn’t use Machine learning and AI it can take a couple of

weeks to process even a straightforward claim, however if a company can utilize AI and Machine

learning to its fullest extent that same claim could be settled in a matter of minutes. This sheer

distinction in how long it will take to settle the claim is a large deciding factor on which insurance

company should choose and since no company would want to be left behind, it's inevitable that

almost all companies will be looking forward to making the switch. Now that we have AI and

Machine Learning defined lets see how people believe it will be implemented.

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” the 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

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 1 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
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employees made to make their own decisions. 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. 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 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.

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

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 change of the 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
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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 n’ot 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 toand 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 Tthe people who

work for them will beare more valuable now than ever before. The article by McKinsey Institute

goes onto say that this new shift in how jobs will be 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 the 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
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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 it isthat 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. The future looks bright for us if we continue to advance with technology

and if we keep up efforts to make sure those who lose their jobs are quickly reemployed then we

should only have minor problems if any. There are so many possibilities and chances for

everyone out there are emerging and hopefully they will drive more and more people to be

curious in a multitude of fields. 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 you need 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 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 to help people all around the world is such a fascinating topic. This change will only

create more jobs for people. The more I think about it the more hopeful I get.

People have taken such incredible measures to make sure that no one will be damaged by

this change. The change is completely positive and I really hope that you can all see just how

much more people can do with this change.

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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,

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.