SATURDAY MORNING WITH CRANKY DON JOE — Artificial Intelligence Is Supposed to Make Life Easier. So Why Is Everybody Worried About Losing Their Jobs? - MinneapoliMedia
By Google News AI ·
Larry watched a forty-minute webinar on Tuesday and has been explaining the future of human employment ever since. By Thursday, he was recommending that I embrace automation, learn three new skills, and prepare for a world in which machines do most of the work. I asked him who would be paying my electric bill in this wonderful new world. He told me I was resisting progress.
I have nothing against progress. I like my microwave oven, my washing machine, and the fact that I no longer have to stand beside a television twisting an antenna until the evening news stops looking like a snowstorm. I appreciate technology that saves me time.
What I don't understand is why every new invention arrives with a promise to make my life easier and a set of instructions explaining how much more work I must do before I can enjoy the convenience. The television needs a software update, the refrigerator wants to connect to the internet, and my printer has developed the habit of refusing to print until I acknowledge a message about a service I never requested.
I bought the printer because I wanted something printed; apparently, that was an unreasonable expectation.
Artificial intelligence has taken this arrangement to a whole new level. People tell me it can write letters, organize schedules, analyze documents, prepare presentations, answer customer questions, and perform tasks that once kept entire offices busy. Some employers are looking for ways to use it to reduce costs, and some workers are worried about what that means for their jobs.
Others are discovering that the technology can take tedious work off their hands and give them more time for things that require actual human judgment. I can understand why people are interested. I can also understand why somebody who has spent twenty years becoming good at a profession might feel uneasy when a company announces that a computer can now perform part of that profession before lunch.
Larry, naturally, considers the entire development tremendously exciting.
He arrived at my house shortly after nine on Saturday morning carrying his laptop, a travel mug, and a notebook labeled AI TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY. He had made the label himself. Larry has always believed that a project becomes more important once it has a title printed in capital letters.
"Don, we're living through a technological revolution," he announced. I told him I was trying to live through breakfast.
He sat at my kitchen table without waiting to be invited and opened his laptop. He wanted to demonstrate how artificial intelligence could improve my daily routine. I asked whether the demonstration would require creating an account, downloading an application, or giving somebody permission to collect information about me.
I have known Larry long enough to understand that this was not a reassuring answer.
He explained that the real advantage of AI was productivity: tasks that once required hours could now be completed in minutes. Businesses could operate more efficiently, employees could concentrate on higher-value responsibilities, and people like me could spend less time dealing with routine obligations.
I asked whether he had used the technology to finish cleaning his garage.
"That's different." "Why?" "Because the garage requires physical labor." "So does taking out the trash, Larry. Has artificial intelligence figured that out?"
He said robotics would eventually address many physical tasks as well. I asked whether the robots would also…
Originally published by Google News AI
