Conversations with execs at the World Economic Forum reveal that many are racing toward automation to stay ahead of competition regardless of impact on workers
DAVOS, Switzerland — They'll never admit it in public, but many of your bosses want machines to replace you as soon as possible. Tweets: @reckless , @reckless , @nytimes , @joe_atikian , @noahpinion , @poloolop , @nytimesbusiness , @alexstamos , @hosanlee , @stoweboyd , @nytimesbusiness , @dabeard , @dealbook , @nytimesbusiness , and @simonestolzoff Tweets: Nilay Patel / @reckless : If you think about how many people sit in office parks being paid to point and click repetitive tasks in old software, the case for RPA basically makes itself. But all those people are out of their jobs. Nilay Patel / @reckless : Robotic process automation sounds so boring but it's wild - basically an AI that can use the user interface of a legacy computer system to do tasks after being trained by a human https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimes : In public, executives wring their hands over automation's negative consequences for workers. In private, they talk about how they are racing to automate, @kevinroose writes http://www.nytimes.com/... Joe Atikian / @joe_atikian : Industry has just completed 100 years of automation, robotics, computers and AI, but here we are at somewhere near full employment. http://twitter.com/... Noah Smith / @noahpinion : Somehow businesses always want to replace humanity with machines, and yet somehow it keeps not happening... http://twitter.com/... Umang Saini / @poloolop : ""Why can't we do it with 1 percent of the people we have?'" Mohit Joshi, the president of Infosys. http://twitter.com/... @nytimesbusiness : A 2017 survey by Deloitte found that 53 percent of companies had already started to use machines to perform tasks previously done by humans. The figure is expected to climb to 72 percent by next year. @kevinroose explores why: http://www.nytimes.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : @kevinroose None of those CEOs have ever spent a weekend sobbing because the random forest classifier you are trying to apply to a problem a 3yo can get right with 94% precision keeps crapping the bed.We are definitely in an ML optimism bubble at the exec level. @hosanlee : “The choice isn't between automation and non-automation,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, the director of M.I.T.'s Initiative on the Digital Economy. “It's between whether you use the technology in a way that creates shared prosperity, or more concentration of wealth.” http://twitter.com/... Stowe Boyd / @stoweboyd : An open secret is now headline news: The primary goal of ‘digital transformation’ is to cut as many workers as possible, and as soon as possible. http://twitter.com/... @nytimesbusiness : “People are looking to achieve very big numbers,” the president of Infosys said. “Earlier they had incremental, 5 to 10 percent goals in reducing their work force. Now they're saying, 'Why can't we do it with 1 percent of the people we have?'” http://www.nytimes.com/... David Beard / @dabeard : Wisconsin pledged up to $4 billion to Foxconn, which promised to create up to 13,000 jobs. It created 82 as of last week, and wants to automate 80 percent of jobs held by humans http://www.nytimes.com/... http://twitter.com/... @dealbook : Kai-Fu Lee, a longtime technology executive, predicts that artificial intelligence will eliminate 40 percent of the world's jobs within 15 years. Here's what else he and others told our reporter: http://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimesbusiness : At a time of political unrest and anti-elite movements on the progressive left and the nationalist right, it's probably not surprising that all of this automation is happening quietly, out of public view. @kevinroose explores why: http://www.nytimes.com/... Simone Stolzoff / @simonestolzoff : .@kevinroose's dispatch from Davos is a great example of a story hiding in plain site: On stage, execs speak to the potential deleterious effects of automation, but behind closed doors they are trying to automate away labor as fast as they can. https://www.nytimes.com/... Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next