Links
2018
The Artificial Intelligence Gambit
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-intelligence-gambit-igor-tulchinsky
Good article that mentions Alpha Zero, which is like a self-taught "Alpha Go", representing another order of sophistication. It reminded me of AutoML, which prompted me to write this book.
Deep Mind
https://deepmind.com/research/alphago/
One of the companies behind AI, which Google bought. This talks about Alpha Go and Alpha Zero
Cloud Skills ebook
Working with the Cloud is a top skill in LinkedIn and relates to AI - consider getting an AWS certification. See this link and check out the PDF at the bottom of the page (circa 10.16.18 - consider visiting the link to get the latest one or use the contact form above if the link is broken and I can find the latest)
https://pages.awscloud.com/ElevateYourCloudSkillsEbook_01.LandingPage.html
DATA LINKS
These links are provided mainly in relation to chapter 3, in order to make it easier to access.
NOTE: Some of the paid news sites allow free limited access, and some have discounts for faculty and students as well. Personally, as part of arming yourself with data and to take AI more seriously, I think it's worth investing in a subscription to some or all of these news sources, and then scanning them once a week. Things changed rapidly every year.
EXCELLENT
This is a good roundup from 1-25-18 on various aspects of jobs/automation/AI:
https://mailchi.mp/technologyreview/clocking-in-the-crystal-ball-of-automation-and-jobs?e=9808ffab82
MOST RECENT
Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/style/robots-jobs-children.html?_r=0
Artificial intelligence may make half of today’s jobs obsolete in 20 years. What careers will be left when our children grow up?
INTERACTIVE
21 Jobs of the Future
https://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/21-jobs-of-the-future
Concern about a jobless future has never been greater. Seemingly every day, an academic, researcher or technology leader suggests that in a world of automation and artificial intelligence (AI), workers will increasingly be a surplus to what businesses need. For many people, the future of work looks like a bleak place, full of temporary jobs, minimum wage labor and a ruling technocracy safely hidden away in their gated communities.
Automation Job Impact Calculator
Will a robot take your job?
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34066941
Find out the likelihood that your job will become automated in the next two decades
100 Women: Who's going to lose out from automation?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41286697
GENERAL
Meet Your New Boss: An Algorithm
https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-your-new-boss-an-algorithm-1512910800
Traditional employers like General Electric are using artificial intelligence and other elements of the work-on-demand business model to manage traditional full-time workforces, and automate workforce management tasks
Robots: Is your job at risk?
http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/technology/jobs-robots/index.html
Coaches and barbers can let out a deep breath. Drivers and fast food cooks? Not so much.
Wall Street’s Endangered Species: The College Jock
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-streets-endangered-species-the-ivy-league-jock-1495721462
For decades, banks and brokers stocked trading floors with collegiate athletes. These days, the ex-jocks are getting sidelined by machines
IMPACT ON SPECIFIC JOB TYPES
Goodbye high seas, hello cubicle. Sailor -- the next desk job.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/19/technology/autonomous-ships-sailor-desk-job/index.html
Sailors, pilots and drivers shift from the high seas, blue skies and open roads as their jobs become automated.
Talk Is Cheap: Automation Takes Aim at Financial Advisers—and Their Fees
Services that use algorithms to generate investment advice, deliver it online and charge low fees are pressuring the traditional advisory business
Robots Will Soon Do Your Taxes: Bye Bye Accounting Jobs
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/robots-will-soon-taxes-bye-bye-accounting-jobs/
Opinion: Between accounting professionals and truck drivers alone, about 4.5 million human jobs could be ceded to robots over the next few years.
Companies Leave Bean Counting to the Robots
https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-leave-bean-counting-to-the-robots-1508407203
Large corporations world-wide are increasingly turning to robotic software in an effort to cut costs, liberate workers from repetitive tasks and, in many cases, reduce finance-department employee numbers.
Nokia to Automate Finance Tasks in Bid to Cut Headcount
https://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2017/08/31/nokia-to-automate-finance-tasks-in-bid-to-cut-headcount/
Nokia Corp. is looking to automate forecasting and reporting tasks in a bid to cut the headcount of its finance function, according to finance chief Kristian Pullola.
Your Lawyer May Soon Ask This AI-Powered App for Legal Help
https://www.wired.com/2015/08/voice-powered-app-lawyers-can-ask-legal-help/
Using the same IBM tech that let a computer beat humans at Jeopardy, a new tool could put an end to legal gruntwork.
Lawyer-Bots Are Shaking Up Jobs
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609556/lawyer-bots-are-shaking-up-jobs/
AI is augmenting and automating the tasks currently performed by hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone.
AI in Law and Legal Practice – A Comprehensive View of 35 Current Applications
https://www.techemergence.com/ai-in-law-legal-practice-current-applications/
From 'automated contract analysis' to 'legal document summarization', this article breaks down 35 unique applications of AI in law and the legal profession.
How the Growth of E-Commerce Is Shifting Retail Jobs
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/06/business/100000005187607.mobile.html?_r=0
Although online shopping companies have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, they have not directly made up for the losses at traditional retailers, and the new jobs tend to be concentrated in a small number of large cities.
Microsoft to Cut Up to 4,000 Sales and Marketing Jobs
“This is being done mainly to evolve the skill sets we need,” said Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman.
AUTOMATION AND AI
Technology Ushers In a New Distributive Economy
https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/11/24/technology-ushers-in-a-new-distributive-economy/
Intelligence is no longer just housed in the brains of human workers, but emerging through the constant interactions among machines, software and processes. As machines start to exhibit associative intelligence, something we thought only humans could do, current economic rules no longer apply, writes CIO Journal Columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger.
INSIDE ADIDAS’ ROBOT-POWERED, ON-DEMAND SNEAKER FACTORY
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-speedfactory-adidas-robot-powered-sneaker-factory/
When its first stateside Speedfactory opens in Atlanta, Adidas will be chasing the future of automated manufacturing in America, too.
“The Relentless Pace of Automation”
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603465/the-relentless-pace-of-automation/
Artificial intelligence could dramatically improve the economy and aspects of everyday life, but we need to invent ways to make sure everyone benefits.
ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION
Robotic process automation is one of the ways that tasks in some categories above will be automated. This is data about the market growth, meaning how rapidly it is being adopted.
The Robotic Process Automation market will reach $443 million this year
https://www.horsesforsources.com/RPA-marketsize-HfS_061017
RPA Market Size Projected To Reach $8.75 Billion By 2024
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-robotic-process-automation-rpa-market
RPA market is expected to reach USD 8.75 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.
ADOPT
Making Yourself Irreplaceable Before Artificial Intelligence Learns to do Your Job
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/303457
The best way to avoid losing your job to a robot is learn how to do your job working with one.
ADAPT, EVOLVE, ADEPT
Learn a Language, but Not a Human One
https://www.wsj.com/articles/learn-a-language-but-not-a-human-one-1500229654
Fluency in coding is a more useful skill than French, Spanish or Russian.
That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket
https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/#19ee4e46745d
Stop thinking of Silicon Valley as an engineer's paradise. There's far more work for liberal arts majors -- who know how to sell and humanize.
Author’s Comment: there’s a lot of controversy about higher education and the liberal arts these days. I believe the overall data points to there being value in a liberal arts degree – but you should also develop technical fluency, in my opinion. For example, students from Harvey Mudd are some of the most sought-out students in Silicon Valley, and their “ROI” is rated high – because they have tech skills, but also know how to communicate. See next article.
(report mentions Harvey Mudd)
WHY IT’S WORTH IT TO STUDY LIBERAL ARTS – EVEN IF YOU’RE GOING INTO STEM
https://www.payscale.com/career-news/2017/04/worth-study-liberal-arts-even-youre-going-stem
As more tech companies hire workers without degrees, and career changers shift to coding jobs after completing non-degree bootcamps, it’s fair for the prospective college student to wonder if getting a degree is still worth it. For the time being, at least, the answer is yes — you’re still a more competitive candidate with a degree than without one. College graduates on average out-earn workers with a high school diploma, who make just 62 percent of their degree-holding peers’ earnings.
BE MORE HUMAN
How to Prepare for an AI Future (Hint: Be More Human)
https://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/how-to-prepare-for-an-ai-future-hint-be-more-human
The rise of artificial intelligence is the great story of our time. Decades in the making, AI-infused machines will soon change our lives and work in ways that are easy to imagine but hard to predict.
WORKERS DISPLACED BY AUTOMATION SHOULD TRY A NEW JOB: CAREGIVER
https://www.wired.com/story/workers-displaced-by-automation-should-try-a-new-job-caregiver/
Opinion: You don’t want a robot taking care of your baby; the aged need to be loved, to be listened to, fed, and sung to.
REGULATE
How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opinion/artificial-intelligence-regulations-rules.html
Robot Tax – A Summary of Arguments “For” and “Against”
https://www.techemergence.com/robot-tax-summary-arguments/
What happens if a new technology causes millions to lose their jobs in a short period of time, what if most companies simply no longer need any human . . .
INEQUITY/GIG ECONOMY
America’s Digitalization Divide
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/11/americas-digitalization-divide/546080/
A new study maps digital-skilled jobs across industries, metro areas, and demographic groups, revealing deep divides.
In These Small Cities, AI Advances Could Be Costly
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609076/in-these-small-cities-ai-advances-could-be-costly/
A new MIT study finds that larger cities are more resilient to technological unemployment.
Digital Economy and Its Discontents: Ongoing Crisis or Precursor to Golden Age?
If we examine the long term historical big picture, patterns emerge which can help guide our understanding and planning for the future, says Columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger.
Even Senior Executives Need a Side Hustle
https://hbr.org/2017/11/even-senior-executives-need-a-side-hustle
Today no one should rely on just one income stream. The rise of the “gig economy” has prompted much soul-searching about the future of the economy. But portfolio careers aren’t only for stay-at-home parents looking to freelance a few hours a day while their kids are in school or grad students moonlighting as Uber drivers and Task Rabbits. Even senior executives who want to stay in their corporate jobs should strongly consider developing at least one side income stream, whether it’s consulting, speaking, coaching, or creating some other product or service.
EXPAND: gig economy, disaggregation of work
ANTI/WARY
Elon Musk Lays Out Worst-Case Scenario for AI Threat
Artificial intelligence will threaten all human jobs and could even spark a war, Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk told the National Governors Association, as he called for the creation of a regulatory body to guide development of the powerful technology.
PRO/OPTIMIST
Artificial intelligence will create new kinds of work
Humans will supply digital services to complement AI
WHEN the first printed books with illustrations started to appear in the 1470s in the German city of Augsburg, wood engravers rose up in protest. Worried about their jobs, they literally stopped the presses. In fact, their skills turned out to be in higher demand than before: somebody had to illustrate the growing number of books.
Workers: Fear Not the Robot Apocalypse
https://www.wsj.com/articles/workers-fear-not-the-robot-apocalypse-1504631505
Automation commonly creates more, and better-paying, jobs than it destroys. In U.S. retailing, rising e-commerce employment at such companies as Amazon more than compensates for the swoon in brick-and-mortar stores.
Getting Artificial Intelligence Right
https://www.cognizant.com/perspectives/getting-artificial-intelligence-right
Artificial Intelligence must break free from the shackles of single-point solutions to amplify human capabilities on a scale that has hitherto only been imagined.
Author’s Note: I am not familiar with Cognizant, above, but in some cases, you have to ask yourself who is selling what. In some cases, consultancies have a history of seeking to analyze data in neutral ways for the open benefit of all. In other cases, agencies, companies and consultancies are selling something, and they may be “pro-AI”, in part because they are selling services or helping to guide companies in deploying AI. You just have to think critically, and also be open to discussion and explanation.
WHITEPAPERS/ANALYSIS
AI and The Future of Work
http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2017/12/ai-and-the-future-of-work.html
"Last month I attended AI and the Future of Work, a conference hosted by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and its Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE). The two-day agenda included over 20 keynotes and panels on... "
What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages
In an era marked by rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence, new research assesses the jobs lost and jobs gained under different scenarios through 2030.
Direct link to substantial report PDF: https://tinyurl.com/stt-mit
(USA Today's reaction):
Automation could kill 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030
Sixteen million to 54 million workers, or as much as a third of the workforce, will need to be retrained for entirely new occupations. Automation could destroy as many as 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030, but economic growth, rising productivity and other forces could more than offset the losses, according to a new report by McKinsey Global Institute.
Automation could impact 375 million jobs by 2030, new study suggests
Vanguard’s chief global economist said it was the most important trend of his lifetime. Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller said it was the single-most worrisome issue about the economy’s prospects going forward.
A.I. Will Transform the Economy. But How Much, and How Soon?
(Mentions AI Index, NBER report)
Three new reports suggest that artificial intelligence can probably do less right now than you think. But by one estimation, up to a third of American workers will have to switch jobs by 2030 largely because of it.
(NBER report)
Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox: A Clash of Expectations and Statistics
Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock, Chad Syverson
http://www.nber.org/papers/w24001
Systems using artificial intelligence match or surpass human level performance in more and more domains, leveraging rapid advances in other technologies and driving soaring stock prices. Yet measured productivity growth has declined by half over the past decade, and real income has stagnated since the late 1990s for a majority of Americans. We describe four potential explanations for this clash of expectations and statistics: false hopes, mismeasurement, redistribution, and implementation lags.
Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet)
The technical potential for automation differs dramatically across sectors and activities.
21 Jobs of the Future
TOOLS/FUTURE/ETHICS
AI Index
An “AI Index,” created by researchers at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other organizations, released on Thursday, tracks developments in artificial intelligence by measuring aspects like technical progress, investment, research citations and university enrollments. The goal of the project is to collect, curate and continually update data to better inform scientists, businesspeople, policymakers and the public.
AI Advance
https://cyber.harvard.edu/research/ai/advance
On May 15, 2017, the Berkman Klein Center in collaboration with the Media Lab hosted “AI Advance,” a convening of 120 community members, including faculty, researchers, students, and fellows, in order to reflect and engage on the societal challenges of AI and related technologies, forge collaborations, and start to design research programs. “Part of our job here is to figure out: what’s our research agenda? What are a series of research questions that will help us understand what we should really care about in AI? And where we should put a thumb on the scale to affect the outcome?”
OpenAI
OpenAI is a non-profit AI research company, discovering and enacting the path to safe
artificial general intelligence.
Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be evil. We just have to teach it to be good.
Right now, public policy and regulation on AI remains nascent, if not nonexistent. But concerned groups are raising their voices. Open AI — formed by Elon Musk and Sam Altman — is pushing for oversight. Tech leaders have come together in the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to explore ethical issues. Watchdogs like AI Now are popping up to identify bias and root it out.
GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC POLICY
Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/12/20/artificial-intelligence-automation-and-economy
Accelerating AI capabilities will enable automation of some tasks that have long required human labor. These transformations will open up new opportunities for individuals, the economy, and society, but they will also disrupt the current livelihoods of millions of Americans. The new report examines the expected impact of AI-driven automation on the economy, and describes broad strategies that could increase the benefits of AI and mitigate its costs. AI-driven automation will transform the economy over the coming years and decades. The challenge for policymakers will be to update, strengthen, and adapt policies to respond to the economic effects of AI.
Direct link to PDF: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Artificial-Intelligence-Automation-Economy.PDF
Economist: Carlota Perez, London School of Economics
Argues that governments need to take AI seriously and consider investing in sustainable technology as a way to help create new jobs.
(A research project of Carlota Perez)
http://beyondthetechrevolution.com/
Beyond the Technological Revolution is a four-year research project led by Carlota Perez. Her research explores the relationship between technology and economic development, between finance and technological diffusion and between technical and institutional change. This project aims to analyse the role of state and society in promoting and propagating innovation to generate inclusive economic growth following a crisis.
GLOBAL/INTERNATIONAL
Indian Technology Workers Worry About a Job Threat: Technology
Central Banking and Fintech—A Brave New World?
"I would like to consider the possible impact of three innovations—virtual currencies, new models of financial intermediation, and artificial intelligence. One thing is clear: we always have more data. Some estimates suggest that 90 percent of the data available today was generated in the past two years."