Please Come to Grips With AI

"What Will be the Second Life for Those Who Lose Their Jobs Due to Artificial Intelligence Technology? Tips from an Economist"

http://ja.catalyst.red/articles/ai-tomohiro-inoue

This is an interview with Tomohiro Inoue.

  More and more people are expressing concern over job loss due to AI, but if that were to occur, those seeking wealth and those who are flush with free time will become polarized. Meanwhile, a "basic income" will become a valid option. I also have feelings resembling this.

  Assuming a majority of people lose their jobs due to technology, it will only be special individuals who retain their jobs. However, that society's view of labor will surely change entirely. Then, those who do not work will acquire a positive position.

-- As one such avenue, we are creating "Super Human Sports."

   Whether it is work or anything else, more than ever, people will be asking themselves what they themselves want to do.

　The problem is developing the mechanism by which everyone can cope with that. As abundance is produced by AI and robots doing many "jobs," if things get difficult, it will become imperative for all of society to have a policy of distribution. Basic income will be a major focus, the flow of which will follow. It seems as if Japan will be better able to contend with this than the US.

　By the way, if automatic translation becomes better than my English thanks to AI, big data, and wearables, I will invest a year's worth of pocket money to buy it, and focus on improving the accuracy of the machine. Children of this generation and beyond won't have to learn English anymore.

　Then, we’ll increase the accuracy of automatic translation a great deal, reverse the stigma, and the people of Japan will speak better, more elegant English than any other nation.

    If that becomes the case, there will be mass unemployment for English school teachers and language educators. It’s okay. Teachers who had been doing such a difficult job will find their next jobs without issue. Jobs geared toward machines for which proper Japanese is spoken will also develop. Please come to grips with AI.

  Even without having accomplished AI, digitalization has changed me.

  As of now, the number of books I read decreases by about 10% each year. This includes e-books. However, the total amount I read has increased dramatically. The amount of time I spend reading has, as well. Due to digitalization.

  While people are beginning to consume bits and pieces of information in great quantities on the internet, there is the desire to force out the literary works of individuals, which span multiple hundreds of pages. It seems like the ability to absorb lots of information and then reflexively deal with that information is on the rise, whereas the previous system of thinking logically has declined.

   The amount I write has increased, as well, but the style of my writing has also undergone a complete transformation. At this time, I start by writing something on Twitter. I tweet some daily notes, then repost them on Facebook. After that, I gather the posts up and turn them into a blog post. With that, I turn my work into something in terms of Internet media or printed media.

  Though the amount of energy I expend for written material has remained unchanged, and while the incidence of secluding myself and simply writing has become almost non-existent, it has become essential to gather sporadic daily notes, perhaps resulting from this multi-faceted expansion beginning with Twitter.

  I've gotten used to parsing my writings into 100 letter bursts. This is not only in terms of my writing style. It has even had an effect on my thinking patterns. The speed and amount of my posts have both increased, but how about the depth?

  However, what I can state clearly is that through the transition to the digital/internet lifestyle, my information consumption, creativity, and posts have dramatically increased in terms of both volume and speed. If, hypothetically, this has come along with a change or decline in the quality of my work, the sum-total utility of my work has seen a major increase. I believe that, in some way or another, I have come to grips with IT.

  The shift in reading and writing styles as one becomes an adult is one's own responsibility, but for those who entered the digital style from childhood, or in other words, in the case of those who read and write short sentences in greater volume than I do, they will have their creativity enriched, as well. That's what I hope, anyway.

   That's where AI comes in. Just as we have done with IT, my hope is that everyone will further augment IT, come to grips with AI, become a great deal wiser, and have a lot more fun.