WHITE COLLAR | ISSUE 010
defined and highly standardised tasks were then tightly looped and integrated by phasing out anything that caused delays or anything that was thought to be inefficient. This allowed for a decent quality finished product being completed in good time. When discussing the automation of jobs, John Hagel, a Silicon Valley management consultant with over 35 years’ experience with tech and big business, said: “If that’s what work is (these tightly defined, highly standardised & tightly integrated tasks) then machines can do that much better than people can. They don’t get distracted and they don’t get tired, they don’t get sick. They do it efficiently and predictably.” John Hagel went on to add, “I know that there all kinds of studies being done that show ’47 per cent of work... or 28 per cent of work would be lost to machines. But if that’s what work are (tightly defined, highly standardised and closely integrated tasks) then 100 per cent of it will be automated. To add to the bad news there, there is a lot of talk about the gig economy, short term contractors doing work as gigs for others. A good example of this is Uber with the drivers carrying out routine tasks. But then again if that’s all that the gig economy is then all those jobs as well will be lost as well.” John made those statements in 2017 and as of 2018 we’re beginning to see the promised disruption. Around March 2018, in the state of Arizona, Google’s Waymo started a beta test program where they offered fully autonomous rides to the beta app users, and this is without any accompanying safety driver in the car. Fully automated driving is just the beginning. Other industries are also experimenting with automation as well, for example, Sony’s R&D department made their AI listen to over 13,000 songs and the software went on to write its own song and they are currently working on having the AI drop an album. Conventional employment is about to be disrupted.
6
Is there an upside? Well yes, there’s an upside for manufacturers because it’s going to be cheaper to produce goods since majority of their labour costs will be eliminated. This will in turn drive down the cost of goods and services; case in point the uber-driver makes up about half the cost of expenses. In his highest profile talk since he left office, President Obama described technology as the greatest threat to his country’s workers and spoke of work not just as a means to earn a living but as providing a sense of dignity for humanity. Factors like AI will increase the global wealth gap exponentially and policy makers are considering taxation schemes which will yield different models of a ‘universal basic income.’ This will be a way to provide for everyone’s basic needs. There are a few experimental pilots of the Universal Basic Income being tested out across the world. Wall Street Journal’s Jason Bellini covered the Ontario’s Universal basic income pilot and it’s clear that we’re still a bit far from getting it right. However, there has been a 10x improvement in entrepreneurial risk-taking in places where Universal basic income pilots are being tested out. It turns out that when people’s basic needs are taken care of they can actively risk trying out new ideas. We know for sure that a radical disruption is going to take place, because it has already started and we applaud every effort to try and adapt to it by creating entirely new models to manage with the coming change. However, an interesting thing to point out is Universal basic income in done at the national level and not a global level. What if these tech companies with a global reach, were taxed globally & the said funds then redistributed globally? Also, is this something that the United Nations should oversee? We’re open to having these conversations across our social media. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
A MAGAZINE FOR THE CAREER-PERSON AND ENTREPRENEUR
