The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
Stephen Hawking – Physicist
Alexa, my Samsung TV, and most of our connected home products can talk to me and each other. But, machine smartness is causing problems. Big Brother smart machines seem to be always watching, recording, listening and monitoring. CCTV is filming and surveilling.
Facial recognitions systems are scanning and identifying people. These seem like a minor inconvenience, but will get more intrusive as these machines get smarter. Ian McEwan, the English writer, recently warned:
“We are on the verge of turning off Alexa. She [the voice-controlled smart speaker] keeps butting in on our conversations and I am rather suspicious of this listening device in the room. We might just pull the plug on her.” (1)
Story: Future of Work rules of engagement and even questions around work with machines have not been defined. And then, there’s the relationship thing between People and machine. Are the rules: People and machine, People or machine, People + machine, People – machine, or something not yet envisioned?
Story:. Microsoft and other vendors have developed Work @ home surveillance tools. For bosses fearing for their own job loss, Microsoft has developed Productivity Score, where management can view and record your online actions such as recording your key strokes and capturing screen shots every 10 minutes. Microsoft has applied for patent called ‘Meeting Insight Computing System’ where:
“This marvelous system would tabulate people’s (alleged) moods, facial expressions and body language, as well as room temperature, to make judgments about the ‘quality’ of meetings. And it would all be, oh scored.”(2)
Work Lesson Earned: New York Times posed three questions about AI’s impact on FOW:
• What can it do?
• Where is it headed?
• How fast will it spread?(3)
Where will this go? No one knows! There’s not even a relationship taxonomy to describe our work relationships with machines. Taken to a next step, McEway in Machines Like Me, describes a relationship triangle thought impossible just a few years ago:
“A couple—Charlie and Miranda—find themselves in a fraught ménage-à-trois with their android, Adam.“(4)
Lots of ideas here. What are your thoughts and impressions?
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184 ‘As AI Advances, What Are Humans For?’, Economist, April 26, 2019
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‘Microsoft’ Latest Management Ideas May Make You Cringe a Little’, ZDNet, December 6, 2020.
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‘A.I. Will Transform the Economy: But how much And How Soon?’, The New York Times, December 3, 2017.
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‘As AI Advances, What Are Humans For?’, Economist, April 26, 2019.