Working with robots

In the Ted Talk How AI can bring on a second industrial revolution, Kevin Kelly proposes a future where our constant designing of smarter and smarter “things” will have a profound impact on every area of our lives. In using the comparison to the industrial revolution, where production methods switched from hand methods to machines, Kelly speculates that the workforce as we know it will undertake dramatic transformation. Machines will take all tasks that can be specified in terms of efficiency and productivity.

This is great news! I get bored from those things so quickly. Let me take a moment and be thankful that my natural talents lie within the subset of “inefficient tasks” – experimentation, creativity, innovations, failing, art. The good news is, I will surely be employable after the next revolution and I am happy to pass the efficient-related tasks to the robots. This raises the question: What will our new creative capabilities be when we pass off all efficient, productive tasks and only focus on the inefficient ones we love?

Of course, I am concerned by Kelly’s conjecture that we will be paid in the future for how well we work WITH these bots. I will need to work on opening my mind to such a relationship. Is anyone else concerned with their ability to adopt to working with machines as partners? I can barely collaborate with humans ?