Embrace AI for better efficiency, opportunities – experts

With artificial intelligence (AI) continuing to make inroads in all sectors of the world economy, new jobs being created due to AI’s advancement will today come under the spotlight when Singularity University South Africa co-chief executive officer (CEO) Mic Mann leads a discussion on accessing the global economy at the two-day SU South Africa Summit 2019 being held at the Kyalami International Convention Centre.

The gathering has drawn experts from South Africa, United States, Copenhagen, Denmark, the Netherlands and other countries, who have been presenting the latest trends, scenarios and opportunities arising from the advent of AI.

In the world of work, jobs of the future which are based on technology will make it easier for people to work from home for local and foreign companies, using a cellphone application.

Addressing a hall packed with delegates, experts yesterday called on people to embrace the advancement in technology, which included robotics, which they said were bound to increase levels of efficiency and create opportunities.

The South African computer scientist who started Google locally, Stafford Masie, said: “If you hear AI taking over jobs, it won’t be it is because of AI, but because of lack of human imagination.

“Human beings waste time.

“We live in a world where we have to build ecosystems by using technologies to augment humanity.”

Alix Rübsaam,  researcher in philosophy of technology, cultural analysis and posthumanism at the University of Amsterdam, said: “We cannot take AI at face value without understanding the cultural context.

“AI is shaped by a specific time and place, with its contextual based on the most important technology of the time.

“Today we talk about downloading our cognition digitally, downloading the human brain.

“Everything alive has a certain electrical charge and this influences what artificial life looks like.

“It’s how we predict the world around us.”

Africa, according to former Microsoft executive and energy co-chair of Singularity University, Ramez Naam, was “the least connected continent on earth”.

He explained: “But that also means that Africa has the greatest opportunity for new connections. The continent’s mobile internet connectivity rates have doubled within four years.

“By 2025, two thirds of Africans will be connected to the Internet using smartphones and data will quadruple.

“The value of all this is additional productivity.

“This connection will give people the opportunity to do things they couldn’t do before.

“Africa’s answer lies in adaptive AI algorithms and personalisation.

“With more data we can build more accurate AI – something which will be core for strong businesses going forward.

“Better datasets mean more improved products.

“But there’s also societal benefits: from healthcare to agriculture and education.

“Data and AI will be key for connecting and coordinating exponential technology that can fundamentally future-proof Africa and make ourselves, as human beings, better over time.”

Said Singularity U’s Nordic CEO Laila Pawlak, an expert on exponential mindset: “We cannot keep underestimating the power of technology.

“Computers have been upgraded but our brains haven’t.

“We’re old technology and struggle to comprehend the difference between linear and exponential.

“Technology is both interesting and fascinating but it is humans who make technology come alive.

“Humans are the smartest of all species. which means we need to spend time on the world’s most important to-do list – the UN’s sustainable development goals.

“But we should also ask where governance fits in and why we are looking towards business leaders to lead us in solving today’s biggest problems.

“Technology is moving at an accelerating pace.

“We’ve first moved from an all-hardware to an all-software era. We’re now moving into an era of humanware.

“Technology today is about making our lives as human beings better.”

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