Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Eric Kerr, Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The notion that in the near future intelligent machines will actualize more and more complicated work assignments sparks both hype and fear in the public imagination. These thoughts are uninformed of the challenges faced by projects that aim to replace skilled workers through automation, robotisation, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which are related to the human aspects in technological change. Firstly, there are fundamental differences between the human intelligence and AI. For instance, human behavior is largely guided by empathy and expectations of other people whereas AI is guided by rules and mathematical predictions. Secondly, achieving safety of autonomous machines that operate among the people requires costly arrangements, which is why it is not certain that replacing human workers with unmanned systems is economically viable. Thirdly, designing intelligent machines that actualize work tasks in the open environment requires multi-disciplinary collaboration: business cases, use scenarios, safety assessments, liability issues, and technological design solutions all depend one from another. Therefore, these technology projects involve the chicken and the egg causality dilemma: there is not a clear leading element in the development. Nonetheless, the future will bring out changes – possible future developments as well as the challenges are illustrated through the examples of unmanned shipping and robotic surgery.

This talk draws from Dr Wahlstrom’s three-part blog series centred on the question “Will machines take our work?” This series, in turn, draws from a decade of research experience in human-machine interaction. Links to the talks are below.

Part 1: Healthcare and unempathetic artificial intelligence | https://vttblog.com/2017/12/05/will-machines-take-our-work-part-1-healthcare-and-unempathetic-artificial-intelligence/
Part 2: Robot trucker at the mercy of people | https://vttblog.com/2018/02/01/will-machines-take-our-work-part-2-robot-trucker-at-the-mercy-of-people/
Part 3: People as models for machines | https://vttblog.com/2018/02/09/will-machines-take-our-work-part-3-people-as-models-for-machines/

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Mikael Wahlstrom is a senior scientist at VTT Technological Research Centre of Finland. He has a PhD in social sciences from the University of Helsinki.

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