Introduction
I’ve been a programmer for the past 15 years. Despite that, my job doesn’t look like it did even five years ago. I’m not just writing code anymore—I’m working with teams of people, both in-person and remotely. We’re using tools like Slack and Google Docs to communicate better, but we’re also starting to use AI assistants like Siri or Alexa. These days, my work involves a lot more coordination with other people than ever before.
That’s why I’m worried that our cultural fear of automation might be backfiring on us by blocking the kind of collaboration that would help us get through this transition successfully without losing jobs or causing other problems down the road:
The AI and automation revolution has been greatly exaggerated.
The AI and automation revolution has been greatly exaggerated.
AI will be a big part of our future, but it will be a part of many other things as well. It’s not going to take over the world or make us all unemployed–it’s just another tool in our toolbox that we can use when appropriate.
Most people are worried about AI, but don’t know enough about it to understand what they’re afraid of.
People are worried about AI, but they don’t understand it.
AI is a broad term that covers many different things. People fear what they don’t understand, and since there’s no one thing called “AI”–it’s just a bunch of technologies like machine learning, deep learning and neural networks–you can see why people might be confused or scared of it all at once.
If you were to ask someone who works in artificial intelligence what their biggest concerns are with regards to AI development as well as how society should prepare itself for this new era of technology (both positive and negative), they would probably tell you something along these lines:
Fear is preventing people from sharing information openly.
Fear is preventing people from sharing information openly.
- Fear of being accused of bias: People are afraid that if they share their data and it shows bias, they’ll be seen as biased themselves. This could lead to an accusation that the organization is not doing enough to address the issue and may make them look bad in front of other organizations or customers. It also makes it hard for people who want to work toward fixing systemic problems in society because they don’t want anyone accusing them of being racist or sexist when all they’re trying to do is help create a better world for everyone (including themselves).
- Fear of being fired: Employees don’t want their bosses getting mad at them for sharing information openly about racism/sexism within an organization because then those same bosses might fire those employees who spoke out against injustice within their company–and there goes one’s job!
Fear of automation has caused people to stop innovating and working together.
Fear is a powerful motivator. It can drive people to do amazing things, and it can also be used as a weapon by those who wish to stop progress. In this case, fear has become an obstacle for interoperability because many organizations are afraid of being replaced by robots or AI technologies that could automate their jobs.
Fear also causes people to look at technology as a threat instead of an opportunity; this leads them to focus on protecting themselves rather than working together with others in order to achieve something greater than themselves.
The culture of fear has prevented many organizations from innovating and collaborating across industries–and it’s costing us dearly!
We can prevent the worst possible outcomes by working together now.
The future of work is coming, and it will be shaped by AI. The question is how we can prepare for this change.
We can prevent the worst possible outcomes by working together now.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, the fear of AI is preventing people from sharing information openly and working together. This is a problem because it means that we won’t be able to prevent the worst possible outcomes in time. We can all help by educating ourselves on what AI really is, sharing knowledge about its potential risks and benefits with others who might not know much about it yet (especially policymakers), and working together now on ways to make sure everyone benefits from this technology going forward
