K<\/span>ai-Fu Lee, one of China\u2019s best-known technologists and investors, thinks artificial intelligence is about to supplant many millions of the country\u2019s office workers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis replacement is happening now, and it\u2019s happening in a true, complete decimation,\u201d Lee told a conference at MIT last week. \u201cIn my opinion, the white-collar workforce gets challenged first\u2014blue-collar work later.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee pointed to several of the investments made by his company,\u00a0Sinovation Ventures<\/a>, as clear signs of how routine office work is already being transformed by AI. For example, Lee has backed Smart Finance Group, a company that uses machine learning to determine a person\u2019s eligibility for a payday loan. Sinovation has also invested in companies that automate customer service, training, and other routine office services.<\/p>\n There\u2019s plenty of reason to take notice of Lee\u2019s warning. Before becoming an investor, he created Microsoft\u2019s research lab in China, and he became the founding president of Google China in 2009. In the 1980s, Lee also did groundbreaking technical work at Carnegie Mellon University on voice recognition using machine learning.<\/p>\n As a venture capitalist, he perhaps has a strong incentive to emphasize the likely impact of artificial intelligence. But his perspective on China is also important, given the enormous investment its government is making in AI and the potential for young industries to be disrupted (see \u201cChina\u2019s AI Awakening<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n Lee identified four distinct but nonsequential waves of AI. The first wave is being fueled by the availability of large quantities of labeled data. This has given big Internet companies, both in China and in the U.S., an advantage in building their businesses and cementing AI expertise.<\/p>\n The second wave\u2014which is more relevant to the kind of workplace disruption Lee sees coming\u2014is based on the availability of company data, especially in industries such as law and accounting. Law firms might need fewer paralegals, for instance, if machines can quickly and efficiently search through thousands of documents in researching a case.<\/p>\n A third wave relies on companies generating data through new products or apps, or by paying for it to be created. And the fourth wave, still some way off, would bring fully automated services such as self-driving cars and robotic helpers.<\/p>\n \u201cAI applied to different domains\u2014and turned into products\u2014will generate phenomenal value,\u201d said Lee. \u201cAs a venture capitalist or a large company hoping to harness these technologies, this is the open age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n At the conference where Lee spoke, called AI and Future of Work, there was a sense that the tech world needs to prepare for the worst. When the event started, for instance, MIT president Rafael Reif said that recent developments in technology had the potential to affect society profoundly.<\/p>\n However, the conference also highlighted the extent to which many expert technologists and economists disagree on the likely impact of AI and automation. This is part of a much broader debate that has been going on in economic policy circles for a number of years now (see \u201cHow Technology Is Destroying Jobs<\/a>\u201d and \u201cWho Will Own the Robots?<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n Several speakers at the event felt that AI will spawn new businesses and industries, creating more jobs than it destroys. Lee clearly doesn\u2019t share that cheerfulness, though.<\/p>\n \u201cMany optimists say in tech revolutions, jobs will go, jobs will come,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile there are places where jobs will be created, I\u2019d say that\u2019s the exception.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/s\/609337\/is-technology-about-to-decimate-white-collar-work\/ Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google research in China and a top tech investor, sees a huge opportunity to automate routine office work. by\u00a0Will Knight November 6, 2017 Kai-Fu Lee, one of China\u2019s best-known technologists and investors, thinks artificial intelligence is about to supplant many millions of the country\u2019s office workers. \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carloswsmith.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended for You<\/h5>\n
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