MIS 2502 Extra Credit
Artificial Intelligence in the Workforce
Artificial Intelligence, also known as “AI”, has taken the world by storm; but is it a storm that the world hasn’t prepared for? Forget about what you see in the theaters; we are far from a robot apocalypse. Alexa and Siri have already infiltrated our lives, but are they going to take our jobs? Automation has already done extensive damage to factory jobs, but can it take over service jobs? Just about every job, at some level, uses computers. Currently, a vast majority of computers need human input to work, but will artificial intelligence change that? Throughout my time here at Temple, I have been taught to believe that my career path as an MIS Major will be safe from Artificial Intelligence.
IBM’s Watson already has the ability to learn and recognize patterns in data through Deep and Machine Learning. Anything I can do, Watson can probably do better as far as Data Analysis is concerned. One of the most important parts of Data Analytics is Data Visualization, and with Watson you can just ask him a question and he will have your answer within minutes. The only advantage I have on Watson is that I am more empathetic than it(he?) is. Although I am all for progress and pursuing advances in technology, I don’t know if there’s such thing as going too far. Could AI be a technological Frankenstein that ruins our lives? We have learned in class that the four levels of intelligence are Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom; Watson can already understand the first three.
Quite honestly, I don’t see why Artificial Intelligence couldn’t infiltrate the rest of the workforce. Other than public policy, there’s nothing that can stop the advancement of AI. AI can do data visualization and machine learning almost as good as humans. With the exponential growth of technology, and the assistance of AI, us humans could be the ones needing a software update or two.