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Oppenheimer: Automation will force professionals to reinvent themselves
Posted On 28 Feb 2019
Ecuadornews:
In the most recent book of the communicator, known for his interview space on CNN in Spanish, he discusses how robots are taking people’s jobs.
Andrés Oppenheimer enters smiling to the second floor room of the SEK University, north of Quito, where journalists from the public media are waiting for him to interview him. His countenance is affable although he paws a little, as if he had climbed the stairs at full speed. He’s tall, he looks thin and his dark suit looks freshly bought.
Immediately, the 67-year-old journalist observes that the last of his books Sálvese Quien Pueda is on the table. The work says that existing jobs run the risk of becoming automated or obsolete, due to technological advances and the growth of online services, which will not necessarily cause mass unemployment, but will drastically change the definition of what we currently know as job.
“There is a study by the University of Oxford in England that concluded that 47% of our jobs will disappear in the next 10 or 20 years, due to robots and smart computers,” he said while leaning against the back of the chair.
The communicator, who also runs a talk show on CNN in Spanish and is a columnist for the Miami Herald newspaper, said that the analysis made him “creeps, I realized I was living that in my work. Until recently, I was recording my program, with five cameras and five cameramen, now all the cameras are robotic. “
Is this dynamic happening everywhere?
Jobs are disappearing. In China they already have a robotic news anchor; in newspapers there are more and more articles in computer algorithms. Also in the United States legislative elections last November, almost all the news about the election results was written by robots.
Are the robots going to capture all the jobs?
The jobs will not be finished, but they will change a little. The objective of my book is to alert us of the coming work tsunami and to summon everyone to prepare, because otherwise many will be left out.
What professions will change for this automation?
To make this book I interviewed the world’s leading technology gurus: I went to Silicon Valley, Japan, New York, South Korea, Israel, European countries, and asked them what will happen to the professionals. Journalists, economists, lawyers, bankers, doctors, teachers, workers in the factories. I learned that we will all have to reinvent ourselves, ourselves and the countries, because our jobs will be automated more and more. This wave of automation will not stop anyone.
You have also referred to innovation and that in this line critical thinking and the ability to collaborate with others will be much more vital than academic knowledge.
It is a typical case of what is going to happen, for example with teachers. There are teacher robots that impart much better knowledge. Today it is ridiculous for teachers to dedicate themselves to imparting knowledge.
Any child does a Google search and learns who discovered America or the printing press in a much more visual, fun and effective way than a teacher can teach. There is a robot called Einstein, whom I interviewed, and he teaches mathematics much better, because he uses 20 different ways of educating, until you learn and do not get tired.
Are teachers going to disappear?
They will not disappear, they will have to change, instead of being knowledge imparters, the teachers will be motivators who will help the children to find their vocation. They will impart ethical and moral values to children, they will teach them to work as a team, that is, there are things that a machine cannot replace.
Everyone in their profession will have to identify which aspects will be automated and concentrate on those that have more future.
What is the path for developing countries?
Concentrate on quality education, innovation, create culture of this. If innovation is not promoted, entrepreneurship, individual progress, our countries are going to be left behind. (I)
