First published: prospectmagazine.co.uk, 15/02/2016
This technological revolution is different
The image of Private Frazer saying “We are all doomed” in the TV series Dad’s Army is well known. He might have been in Washington DC over the weekend. According to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, machines with intelligence, sight and hearing capacities, and pattern recognition abilities will threaten jobs in all sectors of the economy, including in the world’s oldest profession, and potentially lead to mass unemployment. How should we think about the wave of sombre warnings about robotics, digital technologies and AI demanding our attention?
The AAAS isn’t unique, of course, in sounding the alarm about modern technologies. The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, has labeled them a life sentence of poverty for most and a divine right to wealth for a few. Professor Stephen Hawking says they could spell the end of the human race….Read more:
