Will AI replace us in future? ——Exploring the Impact of AI on Future Employment and Work in Governance

Source: https://www.pcschool.com.tw/blog/it/ai-implementation

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most significant technological advancements today, creating machines and programs with human-like characteristics. AI is changing how businesses operate while offering the potential to benefit society. The long-term potential of AI to change critical aspects of life and support the operation of businesses, governments, and organizations is inevitable. It is especially true with the existing and proven AI applications that continue to create value for societies and economies worldwide. Businesses and governments continue to experience increased productivity and efficacy in operations thanks to the inclusion of automated machines used in manufacturing, optimized supply chains, and other initiatives. As reported by the White House report, this inclusion has also impacted and transformed employment through automated evaluation tools, assisting in providing public services while streamlining government procedures. The changes noted in governance and employment since the inclusion of AI in the sector have led to the question of the future of AI and its impact on governance and employment, as observed by the European Union and the United States of America. 

Case Study Situation

During the US-EU Trade and Technology Council in late September, the group discussed the introduction of AI in governance, citing the progressive use of technology, which is taking over various government tasks (The White House, 2022). The council also expounded on using various current algorithms and software, including neural networks, AlphaGo, and DALL-E, among others, as some advancements in the field. Looking back at the past, the council made a well-detailed discussion of how technology has continued to advance and taken over significant roles in practice. The council also noted that even though AI promises “both to improve existing goods and services and to increase the efficiency with which they are produced greatly” (The White House, 2022, p8), a more significant impact is also seen disadvantageous. The council also noted AI’s challenges in employment and growth, even though it has created some opportunities. The council especially highlights the current use of AI adoption in the United States and its impact on the economy and its workers (The White House, 2022). The report submitted showcased an example highlighted by Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and co-founder of Phenom, who greatly attributes the preference of always using marines rather than human labor, as machines increase efficacy and reduce costs (The White House, 2022). The data collected signify the problem as many companies now prefer machines, which are more efficient than human labor. This result predicts how machines are in line to take over human labor. 

AI and Governance

The government’s work scope is continuously changing rapidly. With this change, there is a need for effective and efficient governance that will help achieve favourable outcomes that are productive and helpful to its citizens (The White House, 2022). As reported by the council, at the height of AI involvement in various government positions and duties, major jobs are shifting and switching to technology to carry out tasks. With various technological techniques such as machine and deep learning, speech recognition, computer vision, and robotics, governance becomes easier as AI ensures efficiency and perfection, which is rarely achieved by human labour (Reis et al., 2019). For this reason, many government agencies and arms are opting to include AI in place of managing various tasks more effectively.

AI and the Future of Governance and Employment

Despite its proven application and success, the council noted that governments have been slow in adopting AI compared to the private sector. This has meant that human intelligence carries out most duties, meaning that employees’ workload is much. However, there is a noticeable shift towards including AI in various tasks, leading to the debate of its impact on employment and work, as was traditionally known and understood.

1. Applying AI for Smarter Policy.

AI applications often thrive on data and constant feedback. While private tech companies piece together datasets meant to make algorithms work, governments work with millions of data points across all industries associated with the sector. This means that it requires constant use of applications that make it possible to manage the data. This data helps policymakers create and implement effective policies that work for the public interest (Reis et al., 2019). With the traditional policy model, legislators are tasked with passing laws that the executive branch regulates. On the other hand, particular interest individuals and groups follow up while studying and advocating policy changes. Policymakers rely on guidance and information from these special interests to guide new policy changes; thus, the cycle continues (Sharma et al., 2020).

However, with the progress made in AI, the future looks to include policy operations guided by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) attached to policies, which can be tracked over time to indicate whether the policy performs as expected (Brito et al., 2019). Such a strategy will give policymakers more insight into adjusting policies without relying on special groups’ opinions. This approach also allows a more data-driven approach to test different policies’ outcomes based on the set expectations. Thus, offer a way of analyzing the policies and understanding the outcome produced. Such technology will make work easier because less analyzing will be required, saving money and time in frequent policy studies (Sharma et al., 2020). However, on the other hand, including this technology will also reduce work opportunities for some individuals. The particular groups set aside to analyze, question, or critique a suggested policy will lack work as there will be a better and much faster approach that will save time and ensure effectiveness when studying policies. For this reason, the future of policymaking and implementation will see more efficiency and reliability and affect and reduce employment for groups seeking to analyze the policies.

2. Application of AI in the Transport Industry

The transport industry, especially that belonging to the government sector, often needs efficient technology that ensures rapid development that caters to the public. Technologies are being developed that can help in various functions in the industry, including inspections and maintenance detection, which have been managed by human labour for a long time. Thus, AI has helped the automation of tasks in this industry. Many government administrations are calling for the application of AI technologies to assist in modernizing highway systems and other significant tasks that ease the functions of this industry (Abduljabbar et al., 2019). In the long run, there is a significant change in the reliability and efficiency of the transport industry, making it practical for the public. Automation in the transport industry has also led to increased safety and reduction of emissions, which are essential to the public (Sharma et al., 2020). However, the emergence of technology has also led to many jobs being taken over by AI. This has seen fewer employment opportunities, with machines being preferred due to their speed and reliability. This has led to a lack of jobs in this sector, with minor opportunities found in repair.

3. Application of AI in Mission-Critical Tasks

In government agencies, AI can perform critical tasks and duties that are often challenging and time-consuming for human intelligence. Some of these duties include improving situational awareness and complex decision-making, which are essential in managing vast data and finding appropriate solutions to the problem. On the other hand, AI can aid in increasing the safety of equipment like aircraft, ships, and vehicles, especially in dangerous situations such as weather challenges. This innovation can also help predict when critical parts will fail, automating diagnosis and planning maintenance, which is essential in ensuring no foreseeable accidents are met (Lefevre et al., 2022). Based on all these functions, it is easy to understand that AI also assists in improving nautical, terrain, and aeronautical charting crucial in enabling safe and precise navigation and better surveillance. In such cases, AI is better equipped to handle the problems than human intelligence, which may be compromised in life-and-death situations (Fong et al., 2022). Such functions are vital for complementing human abilities, thus making work easier to complete. In such circumstances, AI becomes an essential need for workers. However, with the increased effectiveness of machine intelligence comes AI’s overreliance, which means that human labour is disposable. In such occurrences, AI ceases to become a needed commodity to facilitate human labour; instead, it becomes a nuisance as it progressively replaces human intelligence, meaning fewer and fewer employment opportunities (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020), as human intelligence can never compete with the efficiency and effectivity of AI. For this reason, even though progressive in governance, the future of AI will have both positive and negative impacts on employment and human intelligence.

4. Advanced Research and Development

The combination of AI, analytics, and High-performance computing (HPC) powers advancements made in medicine, engineering, physics, and many other fields (World Health Organization, 2021). Government-funded research is especially poised to benefit from AI techniques. For instance, AI algorithms enable reliable, faster, and cheaper prediction of diseases and treatments, increasing knowledge that will help researchers greatly advance and understand diseases and improve drugs (He et al., 2019). The use of AI in this field will likely lead to advancing the field of research while answering frequently asked questions and solving problems primarily encountered in the industry. Thus, it is essential to continue implementing its use.

On the other hand, incorporating AI in research will help educate and ease challenging and complex work often done by human labour (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020). However, with the introduction of machine learning, most issues in research will be solved, making it problematic to maintain human labour. For this reason, the continued use of AI will declare the near end of human intelligence in the field of research.

5. AI and the Creation of Other Employment Opportunities

With the complex and increasing duties handled by governments, as noted by the council, the inclusion of AI has been seen as a problem-solving feature in various ways (The White House, 2022). Even though the increased use of automation has been linked with the loss of jobs shortly, many job opportunities will be created that will require new workers (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020). Human intelligence is still valuable, primarily through social interaction, general intelligence, and unpredicted physical skills. In their service to the public, governments must provide programs meant to better communities by reaching out. This act is effectively operated through human intelligence and not the full use of machines. Augmentation will always be a better choice compared to full automation. It means that the best outcome in governance will be when intelligent machines are coined with humans, in close partnership, associating both machine and human intelligence. This inclusion will ensure that technology is not replacing human labour completely. AI should be seen as a tool that complements the capabilities and duties of human labour. Even though AI systems are better equipped and more reliable at specific tasks and in various ways than human labour, Augmentation is more reliable as it will cover all tasks effectively while complementing each other’s skills. By automating simple, well-defined tasks, AI will streamline operations while employees spend more time on decisions that require human input.

Even with the continued tasks improvements made through AI, there is a need to educate the workforce to understand the application of AI, which will significantly impact and control the future. Employees need to understand the technology invested by the government, thus making it easier to work closely with machines and technology, easing the transition and implementation of AI. With the future already upon, governments need to offer a practical and streamlined transition that incorporates both human labour and machines to ensure the continued success of this new system. With the recent trends in the government work scape, different departments and agencies should always explore ways to effectively automate jobs that ease human labour while reserving duties effectively handled by employees (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2020). In the end, the future of AI will not be seen as an incoming curse but as a corporation that seeks to make work easy for the government, its workers, and the public at large.

Conclusion

The future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) looks promising based on the tremendously successful steps already undertaken in making life easy. Based on the council’s explanation of the application of AI in various sectors of businesses and organizations, governance could benefit in various ways by including this technology. However, including AI in governance has varying impacts on the future of employment and human intelligence. This is because AI acts as a double-edged sword that seeks to improve tremendously but still causes negative results in one way or another. Even though AI is extensively seen as an inclusion that will affect human labour as machines are seen to take over in labour eventually, various new opportunities are created by using AI. In the long run, it is essential that for a successful future of AI and the retaining of workers, governments should be able to educate and find ways to adopt a system that appreciate both forms of intelligence. This is because human and machine intelligence has different inputs necessary for the success of all duty implementation. For this reason, even though the future of AI will be different in various ways, it will be effective for the progress of the region and the public in general. 

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