The role of people in the world of computers

Are we no longer in control? It is true that today we are able to fix only a limited number of things by ourselves. Mending broken pieces of equipment is not possible anymore. Simple loose parts have been replaced by expensive integrated ones.

Products are also less mechanical and rely on many electronic parts. These days, even the engine in your car is computer-controlled.

Technology has become a sort of black box for us, which, put bluntly, we don’t really understand properly. In maths we are assisted by calculators, PCs and now also mobile phones.

Paper maps are becoming obsolete with the development of our phones – not to mention the autonomous cars that are about to come.

Artificial intelligence is coming

The shift seems to be inevitable. There will be two possible outcomes. One is that machines will become more intelligent than people. In fact, supercomputers have already beaten people at Jeopardy!, Go and poker.

But there is also another possibility: artificial intelligence could become more like an extension of our brains, thanks to which we will be more agile and also more effective. This is similar to the way cars make us much more mobile. AI would simply be a tool that strengthens our capabilities.

What value can people add in the future?

It may seem that we will not be able to find our place in a world of intelligent machines. However, we might also ask what role our irrational side will play. Is it useless or does it make us unique? Our irrational decisions often lead to unforeseen progress, according to an article on the website of the prestigious INSEAD business school.

Such decisions make our existence richer and more colourful. So intelligent machines may enable us to perform tasks very effectively; however, humans will not be completely dependent on computers. We will critically review the insights of the algorithms and sometimes decide just to ignore them.

-jk-

Article source INSEAD Knowledge - INSEAD Business School knowledge portal
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