Are we ready to inject AI to our economy?
Chinese robotics researchers have created humanoid robots which can move their arms, make different facial expressions, and respond to human conversation.
A hustle-bustle lifestyle with various types of role-play makes humans busy and stressed. As solutions, human intelligence brings some answers. Man-made apparatus and tools are now available in every sector to simplify the activities from womb to tomb in the life journey; technologically improvised devices surround us everywhere.
Kevin Ashton’s Internet of Things empowered (IoT) digital computers, robots, and satellites were pioneers in the field and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the lead powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Decision-making, the ability to reason, analyse or generalise previous experiences, and intellectual processes are now within AI’s robot capabilities, controlled by a digital computer or computer-controlled robot. But it is noteworthy that its capabilities remain different from human intelligence and is limited to specific domains and tasks.
The specialty of AI includes capabilities of human-like abilities; learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception and language understanding. This is widespread in engineering, education, medicine, economy, agriculture, healthcare, science, technology, sports and even in the fields of social sciences.
According to some research published in the IMF blog in advanced economies almost 40 per cent of global employment is affected by AI. Further, it reveals that in the advanced economy, it will impact 60 per cent of the jobs. It enhances the economy halfway and on the other way, AI will replace some human-attended works which affect the labour demand, lower wages and result in certain jobs disappearing.
Similarly, in an economy like our country (emerging market and low-income) AI exposure is expected to reach 25 per cent and the impact on the jobs will be 29 per cent. According to further explanation of the research, there will be certain rapid changes which can cause a temporary upheaval in an emerging economy at a time of immediate implementation. It is required to have a strong foundation of infrastructure and skilled human resources compatible with AI, to achieve the desired results.
Sri Lanka can utilise AI, in an effective and efficient manner as a nation with 92 per cent of education literacy, 39 per cent of computer literacy and 60 per cent of digital literacy (as per Department of Census and Statistics Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies data in 2022); specially, for the sectors like economy, for creative and cognitive jobs, agriculture as a substitution for the scarcity of labour, recognising condition changes like soil and climate, the engineering sector for innovations, the field of science experiments in health care, and education databases with a lot of knowledge.
Prior to fully adopting AI, it is essential to carry out local researches or studies in this regard. Not only the success stories but the failed ones too will serve as valuable lessons and provide an insight to address emerging issues or challenges. Enhancement of literacy in Information Technology and much needed infrastructure development in information technology in the well-recognised fields have to be supervised by relevant experts to obtain expected objectives and outcomes.
Careful navigation is required, as it will be met with a mix of positive and negative challenges. The economy will be inter-connected and multifaceted; hence let’s be prepared to thrive with AI since we are a part of this global village.
(The writer is qualified with MHRM, B.A. (Defence), BSc (Hons.) Counselling Psychology, DCPsy and can be reached at rukshan4slsr@gmail.com)
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