The age of AI

During 2016 in South Korea the number 1 ranked Go player took on AlphaGo, an AI that uses Google deepmind to mimic the neuron processing of the human brain. The player Lee Sedol and many fans of the game believed that Sedol would best the Artificial intelligence but was proven wrong; Sedol won 1-4. This shocked not only Asia but the whole world. This was a spectacle that millions watched with the expectation that the human mind could still best AI but this spectacle had only confirmed what many people had feared since they first heard of AI. That the “Machine is better than a human.”

China was quick to implement AI into all facets of life and has said that by the year 2030 (which is 6 years from now so pay attention) that they will be the world leaders in AI technology. Recently there was a terrible flood in the Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces of China. And people weren’t able to buy food because the electricity was out and no one could charge their phones to gain access to their money. And some people even if they did have money couldn’t buy from stores because they only take digital payments and QR code scans. Even street vendors on the side of the road can’t sell anything because they too only take digital payments now. China has relied too much on AI and will eventually implode.

While there are pros to AI such as spotting breast cancer several years earlier and its ability for accurate data analysis there are many negatives that I can think of but the one I want to focus on is the harm it is doing to blue collar jobs. While many will argue that it will replace white collar jobs more, that has not been the case at all and the people making the AI are the ones with the white collar jobs and all the money so it would make sense for them to argue that they will be the ones affected and not the people who are currently suffering. There is no union in the trucking industry anymore so companies are laying off truckers in favor of AI drivers. You have to pay a person, you don’t have to pay an AI and this issue is only worse for independent drivers as they have to be contracted to work versus be hired by a company so they really struggle with finding work. The issue of AI is only going to get worse for blue collar workers and those in low level jobs like cashiers or front desk clerks.