According to a former leader of Google China, artificial intelligence could eliminate half of the jobs, and this in the future much closer than imagined.
For Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google in China and now leader of Sinovation Ventures, artificial intelligence will eliminate a very large number of jobs. Half of all jobs according to him. This labor revolution could occur in the next decade and affect all sectors. According to him, and contrary to what one usually thinks, it is the "white-collar workers" who would be the first affected by this mutation.
"Journalists, traders, telemarketing, teleshopping, customer relations, all can be replaced by software"
We must not imagine robots under an anthropomorphic appearance, automatic cars have no "driver" but only embedded software. Lee also talks about the new Amazon Echo home assistant. These robots "can work 24 hours and 7 days a week, they are more efficient. They must indeed be programmed, but a programmer can program 10,000 robots "
"Journalists, traders, telemarketing, teleshopping, customer relations, all can be replaced by software" says the businessman, while most of the tasks of "blue collar" rely on a coordination between the eye and the hand, what the machines are not yet able to do.
Will our societies be able to adapt to this new "creative destruction" in the Schumpeter? For Lee, who does not believe in the positive economic effects of universal income, this new situation will force us to give a different place to work.
The new jobs to be invented and encouraged will have to involve a social purpose, as social workers, teachers, care-related sectors ... "The importance of a job should not only be linked to its economic value but should also be measured by what he adds to society ".
And he adds, "We should also re-evaluate the notion that longer hours of work are the best way to succeed."