Transforming Jobs in the Age of AI
The future of labor in a digital economy has become a heated topic alongside the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). Will the proliferation of AI and robotics herald human redundancy as a working species?
自人工智能(AI)出现以来, 数字经济时代劳动力的未来已成为一个热门话题。AI 和机器人技术的广泛使用，是否预示着作为工作物种的人类将会变得多余？
This prospect has inspired pessimism in many Western countries that is not shared by most Chinese. Indeed, according to a survey compiled by the Dentsu Aegis Network[1], just 18 percent of British and German citizens feel that new digital technologies will create job opportunitiesover the next five to ten years. In China, acountry with a labor force of around 800 million, 65 percent of people believe that AI will create even more work.
众多西方国家对此现象忧心忡忡，而大部分中国人却不然。的确，根据电通安吉斯集团的一项调查，只有 18% 的英国和德国公民认为新数字科技会在今后的 5 到 10 年创造出新的工作岗位。在拥有约 8 亿劳动力人口的中国，则有 65% 的人相信 AI 会创造出更多工作机会。
[1] 电通安吉斯集团属于电通集团（Dentsu Group，日本最大的广告与传播集团），提供高水准的媒体、数字和创意传播服务。
Government backing
政府扶持
A major factor is that few governments are embracing the digital age with as much gusto as China. In July 2017, China’s State Council set a national goal of becoming the world’s primary AI innovation center, aiming to foster an AI industry that produces in excess of one trillion yuan (US$147.7 billion) by 2030.
Such enthusiasm has seeped right down to the municipal level, with local governments especially keen to support startups in the sector.
“The business environment in China and especially Shanghai is very attractive,” says Ste?phane Truong, founder of Actionable Data, an AI consultancy service company. “I have seen a lot of initiative from several city districts such as collaboration with incubators[2] to propose ancillary services, organizingcompetition for financial subsidies and providing a flexible fiscal policy.”
不过，为科技初创公司提供最有利环境的城市可能还数北京。北京的中关村集中了大量科创公司总部，因而以“中国硅谷”著称。邻近中国两所顶级学府——北京大学和清华大学，中关村是新秀求职的理想之地。
Disappearing jobs
One startup is Oriental iFly, which aims to use AI to create an automatic grading system for essays that provides instant feedback to teachers on students’ work and saves time spent marking.
I asked one of the company’s product designers, Kailin Xie, whether this innovation might put teachers out of work.
“Teachers aren’t hired to grade,” she asserts. “As long as there are students, teachers will be necessary. Grading is just an extraneous part of the job. Our product enables a teacher to save dozens of hours a week on marking essays.”
Is a school likely to pay those teachers the same for less work? Or will it instead use those extra hours to give them more classes, which would reduce personnel requirements?
Such questions could be some of the defining issues of the digital age. Should companies use AI to increaseproductivity and profits, or do they alsohave a duty to improve the day-to-day routine of their employees?
在数字时代，以上这类问题可能非常关键。公司应否使用 AI 来提高生产效率和利润？是否也有义务优化员工的日常工作？
商业前景乐观
大部分科技行业从业人士相信，随着时间推移，这些问题自然会迎刃而解。Lollipop.ai 公司创始人斯图尔特·利奇显然也持这种态度。这是一家总部位于西雅图和上海的软件公司，利用 AI 技术提升在线产品的顾客契合度。“许多公司存在一种积弊，即为不必要的岗位招聘。虽然招来的员工素质并不差，但他们往往从事着 重复性、无须动脑、低价值的工作。”
[3] customer engagement 顾客契合，是一种心理状态，它是由在核心服务关系中与核心机构 / 客体(如品牌)互动、共创顾客体验产生的，在共创价值的服务关系中以一种动态的、重复性的过程存在。
“我们想要将员工从这些岗位中解放，减少这类工作的成本，使他们能做更有意义的事。归根结底，我们期望在各个行业创造就业岗位，而不是使人失业。”利奇解释说。
长期以来，中国经济发展的支柱是制造业，该行业的工作岗位又会怎样变化呢？上海海河信息科技有限公司副总裁徐敏波承认，很多岗位会消失。该公司从事智能语音机器人生产。
“AI 会改变未来的雇用趋势和模式，”他解释道，“当下劳动力太昂贵，因此低层次劳动力很大程度上会被 AI 相关技术所取代。不过人类并非完全多余——人机融合将会成为企业的未来趋势。”
