COVER STORY | CONNECTED WORKING
HMUAMCHAINNE INTERACTI N
Why do we need greater collaboration between man
and machine? Tom Austin-Morgan investigates.
Over the past decade,
technology — in particular,
AI — has advanced at
an unprecedented rate.
Rarely a month goes by that doesn’t
see a new innovation surpassing a
benchmark previously thought to
be insurmountable. For example, a
few years ago Google Deepmind’s
AlphaGo program beat one of the
world’s best Go (a Chinese board
game) players in such an impressive
way that its tactics were described as
“beautiful” by Fan Hui, a European
Champion.
Although, these developments
have engendered some concerns.
Many worry that such rapid
development of machines could spell
the demise of humanity. Although
for others, the chief concern is the
prospect of unemployment. According
to a report from Carl Frey and Michael
Osborne at Oxford University, 47% of
jobs will be partly automated over the
coming years. Whilst interesting, such
research does nothing to calm the
nerves of the workforce.
However, there is countering
evidence to suggest that the future
might not be as negative as many
have assumed. So, rather than
machines rendering humans obsolete,
we should instead be exploring the
countless opportunities that will stem
from a closer collaboration between
man and machine.
TCHOEL LBAEBNOEFRIATTSI OONF
“First and foremost, we must
acknowledge the possibility that AI
could ultimately improve the way
humans work,” states Nikolas Kairinos,
CEO and founder of Fountech.
ai, a company specialising in the
development and delivery of arti cial
intelligence solutions for businesses
and organisations. “Indeed, the
Harvard Business Review found
that 1,500 rms achieved the
most signi cant performance
improvements when workers and
technology worked closely together.”
So, what improvements can
we expect to see from such a
collaboration?
According to Kairinos: “The rst
will likely be ampli cation — that is,
machines augmenting the roles and
tasks that humans already ful l. AI for
farmers, for example, highlights just
how such ampli cation could work.
Here, the latter can be provided with
real-time recommendations as to
where they should plant crops, which
crops they should plant, what sort of
fertiliser to use, etc. The role of the
agriculturists is still as important as
ever, yet the collaboration between
man and machine means the crop
yield could become far greater. The
engineers of tomorrow will need to
ensure that new machines dovetail
with both the needs of workers and the
capabilities of AI, as in this example.”
Secondly, Kairinos continues, AI
will certainly play a greater role when
it comes to repetitive tasks: “Millions
of people worldwide have jobs that
are repetitive, laborious and at times,
dangerous. In the engineering world,
there are countless examples, but the
operators who manage machinery
spring most keenly to mind.
Thankfully, AI could be set to make
the world of work more interesting.
Tools such as X.ai are on the bleeding
edge of this battle. This is an example
of a program that automates
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