The fear of the unknown has scared us throughout human history – probably going all the way back to the invention of fire. Even when the industrial age was at its infancy, there was fear that many jobs would be lost. More than 100 years down the line, the reality is that we still have a shortage of certain skilled workers.
All this reminds me of a quote from former US President John F. Kennedy, who said “We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.” The critics might argue that that was back then, but AI and robotics is a different ballgame that we have seen before. So, let us dig deeper and analyze where we are and what might happen from here.
Firstly, let us look at AI evolution. Broadly experts categorize AI into narrow, general and super AI – narrow being AI with ability to do basic tasks, general being AI with the ability to learn like humans to perform newer tasks than originally taught, and super being AI with the ability that far exceeds human intelligence. We are at the intersection of narrow and general AI in advanced scenarios like self-driving cars. However, super AI currently remains a figment of our imagination because humans possess much more intelligence than reasoning, logic and learning.
We as humans can perceive, sense, feel and have emotions. No one truly knows if we can build machines that can have such perceptive ability and emotional intelligence. Based on our knowledge, some of us fear that and some of us want that to happen. While we can argue, the fact remains we have AI that can assist humans, and make things easier and faster, but not replace humans unless the task performed by humans was mundane and involved relatively trivial steps.
Therefore, in my opinion, while jobs will evolve, jobs will change, new jobs will be added and, yes, some will be replaced by machines, there is nothing to worry about if we remain open and willing to embrace AI. For my fellow ISACA colleagues, we are in the business of risk, privacy, security, audit and IT jobs that require perspective and emotional judgement. In our roles we can take advantage of AI tools like ChatGPT to assist us, find us things quickly, help us validate rules, better manage risks and remember things for us. If we do this, we will have the collective intelligence of human and machines at our disposal. And, this will help improve our job satisfaction.
In summary, I will quote the Harvard Business Review, which posted an article titled, “AI Won’t Replace Humans – But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI.” I fully subscribe to that premise.
If you are open-minded, use your brain and are humanly doing your job, AI will be your assistant. Therefore, let us learn AI and use it to help us.
About the author: Punit Bhatia is one of the leading experts who has worked with professionals in over 30 countries. Punit works with CXOs to identify and manage AI & privacy risks, and create and implement privacy strategies in a world that is digital, AI-driven, and has data in the cloud. Punit helps you to create a culture of privacy by establishing a privacy network and training management. Punit helps you and your company in setting yourselves for AI world. Punit is an excellent trainer for your staff, management and board through his entertaining and simple approach filled with fun and humor. Selectively, Punit is open to being a privacy advisor or coach for you.
Punit is the author of four privacy books including the books “Be Ready for GDPR” and “AI & Privacy.” Punit is a global speaker who has spoken at over 40 global events and is a host /creator of the FIT4PRIVACY Podcast which has been ranked amongst the top GDPR podcasts in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Punit is known to use simple business language while avoiding legal jargon. Punit is a certified Fellow in Information Privacy (FIP), CIPM, COP, and CIPP-E. Punit is the founder and CEO of FIT4PRIVACY, a trade name of Ek Advisory BV.
Punit is a board member of the ISACA Belgium Chapter and DPO Circle. Previously, he served as a board member at World Game Changers. Punit is also a member of Forbes Business Council and IAPP.