An idea that we unfortunately inject ourselves with is “technological determinism” (Paul Adler; L.M. Sacasas) — in a nutshell, what it means is that technology evolves naturally overtime and there’s nothing we can do about it except adapt to it. But, that’s not true. The vast majority of startups fail. Timing, culture, legislation, it all impacts how technology transforms society. It’s a back-and-forth debate, a team sport. Technology is made by humans, we can’t forget that. Thus, in this short piece, I go over some of the history behind the fear of automation, and how, despite how much fear was associated with automation in the past, automation can oftentimes be complementary. ATMs may have initially been feared, removing the job of human tellers, but as we will learn with this video, human teller jobs actually went up. Job replacement is not the same as job displacement. Automation, or AI, or any new technology, can cause changes in the economic landscape. But, these changes need not be bad, and in fact, can be good. If we arm ourselves with the mindset that AI is a tool, then we can leverage it for good rather than hold it as an entity of fear. Importantly, we have more control than we allow ourselves to believe. Rather than letting technological innovations drive society, humans, who have agency, can drive it instead.
Rolando Masis-Obando, GS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmasiso/ 