Artificial intelligence signals 4th industrial revolution, may erase jobs, says Yudala

Yudala Ltd., an indigenous e-commerce outlet, said Friday in Lagos that an emerging technology known as Artificial Intelligence (A1) with other range of new technologies were fusing physical, digital and biological worlds.

It says the technology also presents “amazing new ways” for business leaders and individuals to simplify complex tasks.

According to NAN, Gideon Ayogu, the Head of Corporate Communications, noted that the new technologies were also impacting on all disciplines, economics and industries, describing AI (machine intelligence) as intelligence exhibited by machines rather than humans or other animals.

He said it has the capacity to perceive its environment and take action by maximizing its chances of success in some goals.

“The world has gone digital, approaching the fourth industrial revolution also described as industry 4.0.

Ayogu further asserted that “this is an age marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of fields including artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, nanotechnology, quantum computing and biotechnology.”

The technologies also include the internet of things, 3D printing and driver-less vehicles, among others, he said.

“One of these emerging technologies, AI as it is commonly referred to, has the potential to cause significant disruptions to many established industries.

“It will present amazing new ways for business leaders and individuals to simplify complex tasks,’’ he said in a statement.

Ayogu listed six ways AI could shake up things in the corporate world as double edge impact on jobs and employment, data analysis and presentation, budgeting, and personalised marketing.

He added that A1 could affect recruitment/human resources and banking and finance, as the machines possess the ability to perform a wide range of physical and cognitive task.

“This poses a great deal of concern for the future as these machines may put many jobs at risk and ultimately reduce human employment. Its impact can be either negative or positive.

“In the negative, AI may directly replace humans in tasks previously performed and for the positive; the deployment of machine learning may end up increasing the demand for labour in other industries.

“It could lead to creation of new jobs or openings as a result of automation.

“A single super-computer using AI running on continuous machine learning will definitely out-perform the work of ten or more humans working with spreadsheets to analyse and interpret the same amount of data.

“Most machine learning apps have the capability of, not only analyzing huge amounts of data in record times, but also reducing errors to the barest minimum,’’ the Yudala executive said.