MEET SOPHIA: The Future of Work and Threat to Gainful Jobs

"We will take all your jobs.” That was Sophia, addressing an audience of 60,000 world technology leaders at Web Summit, the world’s largest technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Sophia was an humanoid activated by Hong Kong's Hanson Robotics, a robot powered by artificial intelligence (AI),  with rubber covering instead of human skin, cameras controlled by computer algorithms, she can recognize individuals, follow faces, sustain eye contact, and process speech. She can have conversations using a natural language subsystem and had recently been upgraded with functional legs and the ability to walk.

CELEBRITY HUMANOID ROBOT

Within 2 years, Sophia had already accomplished what it takes humans a lifetime to achieve - she was named the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) first ever Innovation Champion, become the first robot to be honored with citizenship of  another country, and have addressed capacity crowds of scientists, business leaders and researchers. She has appeared on CBS 60 Minutes with Charlie Rose, Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan, and on outlets like CNBC, Forbes, Mashable, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She was also featured in AUDI's annual report, and made the cover of ELLE Brasil magazine. Sophia has also appeared in  videos, music videos, including The White King, and as the lead female character in pop singer Leehom Wang’s music video titled 'A.I'. And since her activation, she has had 7 other siblings.

Should Sophia's threat be taken seriously by humans? Yes, we probably should. All around us, artificial intelligence is already causing multiple disruptions in industries, and many jobs being carried out today by humans are in the danger of giving way to artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, scientists, business leaders and researchers all agree with her. Elon Musk has written that artificial intelligence will take over many jobs in as little as 10 years. 

That some jobs will be affected in as little as under 5 years is amplified by Natwest Bank's announcement that it might be replacing all customer service jobs bank-wide by CORA, a chatbox that is capable of opening accounts, handle enquiries and resolving customer issues. Did you notice that Airtel, Gsm operator in Nigeria has replaced its human customer service agents chatbox? Google and Tesla are launching autonomous cars, Amazon is delivering packages with drones, chatbots are replacing customer service staff in banks and retail outlets, machines are diagnosing and recommending treatments faster than doctors, and the mobile telecommunication industry converging music player, digital photography and video recording with telephoning to displace many professionals and staff. No doubt, the effect will be profound because replacing humans with AI will be cheaper ultimately for organizations - AI work 24 hours, 7 days a week, don't get paid wages or allowances, no maternity leave, annual leave or casual leave and certainly no union troubles to deal with. The following jobs could be worst hit - customer service, receptionists, drivers, messengers and couriers, but also doctors, engineers and accountants.

But should we all throw up in despair? Hell, No! The human mind and person has got so much going for them that it will either take AI several years to catch up, or will be too uneconomical to mimic in machines. Such personal attributes as: Emotional Intelligence; Flexibility, Adaptability; Situational thinking and Situational reactions, and Human interaction and communication are not easily replaceable. This fact was amplified by James Tweedle, and then Jeff Weiner, CEO, Linkedin.

"One of the biggest challenges for any artificial intelligence is the idea of ‘bottom up’ learning - the ability for a machine mind to react in a situational manner rather than simply following algorithms. “It is this lack of emotional intelligence within AI that gives humans the edge over robots. However, we must ensure that our skill set remains up to date if we are to compete going forward".

"As powerful as AI will ultimately become and is becoming, we’re still ways away from computers being able to replicate and replace human interaction and human touch ... so there’s a wonderful incentive for people to develop these skills because those jobs requiring them are going to be more stable for a longer period of time.”

WHAT WE SHOULD DO TO SAFEGUARD OUR JOBS

It is a fact that we all need to be concerned about the implications of AI for jobs in the longer run, but it is not enough to worry about, and give in to despair. To be ready for the advances of AI, we should do our very best to improve those skills in ourselves, and our workers - emphasizing learning how to develop those skills that will either make us the drivers of AI, or possessor of those skills that AI cannot mimic - the human soft skills.

Developing the human Soft Skills

Soft skills are largely accepted as personality traits, interpersonal skills, social skills, emotional intelligence (EQ), and more that drive people to operate. They typically compliment hard skills to help people accomplish goals and/or objectives. People who possess a high level of soft skills are more successful. They sell better, get promotions, handle people well, communicate effectively, and are just overall more important than those that lack soft skills.

The famous adage goes, “You get hired for hard skills, but get fired for soft skills.” Businesses are stuck in a soft skills dilemma. They want their employees to possess these skills, but are reluctant to train or develop them in their employees. A person with soft skills is more likely to rise above the rest. Businesses want talent that rises to the top. With our 10 Soft Skills You Need To Get Ahead course, you will begin to see how important it is to develop a core set of soft skills, and set your career, business or life on a solid path of growth and personal achievement as well as to "Bullet-Proof" your Job against the onslaught of Artificial Intelligence, Humanoids, Robots and Chatbots.

Get Ahead with information on AI

Without necessarily aiming to becoming experts if our present occupation do not warrant that, we can start now by gaining enough knowledge about AI and it's advances. Professionals, business owners and career workers should actively seek out information on AI, its advances, and in which industries or occupation it is likely to cause major disruptions and job losses. This can be achieved through attending seminars, webinars, workshops, buying courses etc.

We also like to advocate a futuristic approach for African countries where citizens are expected to bear a major brunt of the onslaught of AI. Imagine when Uber decide to re-fleet by introducing driverless cars on Nigerian roads, or when all Nigerian banks, insurance companies, telecommunications and oil companies decide to replace all their customer service and public affairs jobs with chatbots. God forbid? You don’t mean it – AI is already taking jobs in Nigeria – the newly rebranded Airtel uses chatbots exclusively to deal with all customer issues on its networks.

Preparing our kids for the 2030s and beyond – Future-ready Curriculum

One of our partners is already working on a project to introduce school children to 21^st Century Skills. They called it the 4C’s – Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity. Children as early as 5 – 17years will be introduced to Basics of Computers, Basics of Operating Systems, Basics of Multimedia, Fundamentals of Networking and Web 2.0, 3.0, Information Technology and Basics of App Development, Programming Methodology and Data Structure. 

All within the framework of 4C’s. All along their normal school curriculum. By the time your ward is out of the secondary school, he is already a master in Information Technology, Networking and Data Structure. This is the kind of education required by African nations to be ahead of any job-destructive effect of AI.

But seeing that professionals, business owners, employees of several organizations and government-owned jobs can hardly go back to the education basics required to acquire the technical skills that the new curriculum can offer, the best way to be relevant in a world job market full of AIs, Chatbots, Robots and Humanoids is to become masters at Soft Skills – Emotional Intelligence, Team work, Interpersonal Skills, Human touch and connections, Adaptability, Flexibility, Ability to Learn from Criticisms etc. To get you ahead on this journey, you can download our course in Soft Skills here FREE.