Even the arts aren’t safe. “Computer art” — where a computer uses algorithms to create a piece of art or music — is an emerging technology.
For many people, the robot-populated future is a zero-sum game; it’s either going to be us or them running things. Headlines — and not just on conspiracy theory websites — are rife with dire predictions like “Robots will take over most jobs in 30 years” and “The future has lots of robots, few jobs for humans.” Lest one think they will be spared because they are in a “creative” or “people-oriented” discipline, this list should give even those folks something to worry about.
It turns out that while robots are good at many things, they are not good at everything.
So is that the end of human creativity? Not quite (at least, not yet). When Google introduced it in June, Magenta was accompanied by its first creation — a one minute twenty-three second song composition. While reviewers weren’t overly impressed with it as a song, they were very impressed by the fact that it was a computer that composed it. Like with music, Magenta and other computer art projects are creating works using neural network technology that, while not quite yet ready for the Louvre, are considered quite good, considering their source.
But the human race is not done yet. There’s another side that opines that robot tech is not as great a threat as many seem to believe. According to these pundits, the alleged robot threatmay be exaggerated, either by journalists and bloggers looking for page views or by welfare-state-agenda supportersseeking things like guaranteed incomes or increased government transfer payments — funds that people will obviously need if robots take over all the jobs.
Despite the perception that robots are about to break through and put humans out of business (or in cages!), the hype could be nothing more than a gambit to convince investors that robots are where the action is, similar to the hype around big data a few years ago (which did not quite pan out, either).
It turns out that while robots are good at many things, they are not good at everything, especially tasks like making maps, easily identifying objects and other basic tasks that are needed to accomplish more advanced actions.
According to artificial intelligence expert and MIT professor David Autor, “Journalists and expert commentators overstate the extent of machine substitution for human labor and ignore the strong complementarities that increase productivity, raise earnings, and augment demand for skilled labor. Challenges to substituting machines for workers in tasks requiring flexibility, judgment, and common sense remain immense.”
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