In June 2018, Prof. Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers of President Barack Obama, was invited to a talk at EmTech. “It’s where tech, business, and culture converge, and where you gain access to the most innovative people and companies in the world. It examines the most significant news on emerging technologies.” He discussed the situation of the labour force in the upcoming future as workers will be replaced with automated machines.
Furman discussed issues around the increasingly automated workforce—for example, whether machines are helping people earn more or whether they are acting as a substitute for our skills, such that people work less. When comes to the rise of AI, there are many possible outcomes in the realms of education, capital, wealth, etc.
It would be a waste of resources to try to predict the future that might happen and come up with a policy to deal with all the myriad possibilities. People should be working on policies for this moment to prepare for the future instead of only policies for AI. To be able to compete with machines, we could enhance skills which will be difficult to replace with AI—such as empathy, judgement, interpersonal relationships, and management.
In addition, in terms of developing a strategy for AI, ethical issues, cybersecurity and assuring machines are going to be for the good of human should be concerned. Overall, we need to prepare people to get into jobs and to be ready for the age of technological advancements.
Recently, Professor Jason Furman also took part in a conversation with Vietnamese CEOs in Vietnam CEO Summit 2018, discussing and recommending AI strategy for Vietnam’s economy. He became a member of MDI’s AIWS Standards and Practice Committee to contribute to the development of AI for good purposes.
