Comment: AI has come to take your man's job!

Thursday 08 November 2018

Artificial Intelligence has come to claim thousands of jobs in Jersey and over 98% of digital jobs are for men!

Local techie Rory Steel says this might sound like “depressing” news to start November, but, if you look further into the stats, there might be reason for optimism.

And maybe these aren’t the main issues we should be worrying about anyway, as the Express columnist explains…

“Last month, Jersey's first ever ‘Tech Week’ occurred. Digital Jersey promoted tech in all aspects of business, from 48-hour intensive Hackathons, Awards evenings, Internet of Things seminars, to the future of cryptocurrency.

Pictured: Jersey might be gearing up for everything from the Internet of Things to cryptocurrency, but there's still a fear surrounding AI products, Rory argues.

The real worry - the one that was mentioned at every event I attended - was AI. "Jersey's not ready", "they haven't planned for it", "it will affect our finance industry" – these were all common comments surrounding the technology. What are the digital leaders worried about? 

It is very likely, if not certain, that AI will affect the jobs of many people in the next 5 to 10 years. Most likely are jobs involving numbers and processes - it's not as if Jersey has many of these types of jobs, is it? What would happen if only even 10% of the working population became redundant? The actual scale of this is unclear but you can have a look on this site to see what the likelihood is of your job being replaced by a program might be. You might be surprised, but accountants that want a good night's sleep might not want to look.

If you don't believe AI has the potential to replace us, look at the role of AI in the Cambridge Analytica scandal from Facebook, the Russian manipulation of voting in America, Google’s live translation and its amazing but unnerving AI automated phone calls - even the first painting made entirely by AI and sold for $432,500! AI taking jobs is not science fiction, it's a cold reality.

Computer programs are able to spot trends better because they analyse more data, more quickly, and work 24/7 365 days a year for free. AI technology is growing, and it might make mistakes, but it learns from them. AI learns faster and does not suffer from bias - it's ruthless. Companies will seek to save costs, hiring people is expensive, health care, sick days, holidays, pensions. AI requires none of these. 

Google recently asked retailers how they plan to use AI to improve sales. Are Jersey retailers aware of this? They are already competing with online giants like Amazon, so can they afford to be any further behind? Amazon has, in fact, floated the idea of predicting what you want and sending it to you before you ask at a discounted rate, allowing you to send it back if you don't like it. They've done the maths - they think you will keep it. AI knows our habits better than we do, and that's how a good proportion of a nation was manipulated in America… allegedly. Definitely.  

#AuctionUpdate The first AI artwork to be sold in a major auction achieves $432,500 after a bidding battle on the phones and via ChristiesLive https://t.co/XiDVxVGa1n pic.twitter.com/7dxirT55i8

— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) October 25, 2018

But is it all doom and gloom? Should we sell up and leave?

No. The reality is AI and automation has been with us a while already. The effect of jobs and the need to reskill will become greater, so we need to adapt. The quickest countries to do so will profit. 

Most of the big banks have a foothold here, and we have quick access to successful law firms and a workforce that understands the finance industry. The industry is also very service-oriented, so person-to-person contact is required. 

We can retrain a workforce with a digital knowledge, create the people that design the algorithms, know what trends to look for, we can survive. Let’s not kid ourselves, though, it will be all about survival. If your company isn't already using or planning to use AI, it is not planning to survive the AI-dominated future.   

Now to the second of the week’s issues: it’s not just AI that dominates the digital industry, according to Deputy Kirsten Morel, “domination by men” in the industry is also a concern.

“We need women to help design our digital society” | Bailiwick Express https://t.co/oNYxyqVKH8

— Bailiwick Express (@bailiwickxpress) November 6, 2018

The Education Minister was asked to respond to the dramatic statistic that of 113 computing students at Highlands College, 111 were men. Clearly this statistic was used to start a conversation but obviously it’s not representative of the entire industry. 

Teaching in an all girls school and as a father of one, I know how they now perceive the digital industry, and, thankfully, it is not as dire as being suggested. Yes, there is still a gender gap, but it is changing. It’s occurring in the typical Jersey way – far too slowly – but it isimproving. 

A quick look on LinkedIn shows me that making IT compulsory to GCSE at Beaulieu is having an effect. Many of our past female students are succeeding in the digital industry - they’re just not coders, which is why the Highlands statistic is misleading. From digital artists, graphic designers, digital marketers and a head of operations at a FinTech company, our ‘old girls’ are already starting to influence digital industries at a young age. 

By no means am I saying the gender gap is anywhere close to being acceptable, but it takes time to change perception. Groups like Jersey’s ‘Women in Tech’ are taking action, schools are promoting the subject, women are starting taking a career in digital seriously. I’m still glad it’s high on the political agenda.

Even with my obvious bias on this subject, the most pressing worry isn’t AI taking our jobs or the gender gap in digital, it’s education. There are worldwide struggles to fill digital jobs because we enough people aren’t trained. This can only be fixed from the top down – at a government level. 

Pictured: Education could be the solution to Jersey's potential future digital woes.

Jersey has been far too slow to adopt digital change in education, despite many of us banging this drum for 10 long years. When students in Jersey cannot access what is arguably one of the greatest learning and information tools, YouTube, or teachers have to fill out longwinded forms for a lengthy review to use a simple app, we are not being progressive – far from it. Jersey needs to learn to take risks with education - to be slow in the tech industry is suicidal.  

We still haven’t answered questions we should have done five years ago in the last strategy. Are we really going to take digital seriously? If we are, computing should be a core subject with three to four lessons a week, not one. How are we going to ingrain digital skills across the curriculum? We need to make sure every student has their own device anytime, anywhere. How are we going to find the extra skilled IT specialist teachers required? Address teachers pay and conditions. 

If we do not answer these, we are not going to fill the desperately-needed digital roles with either men or women. Then it will be time to panic. But, don’t worry, we’ve been assured this time will be different…”

Rory Steel is an IT teacher at Beaulieu school and a self-confessed lover of all things tech. The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and not of Bailiwick Express.