No Job Safe? AI May Even Take Over CEO Roles In Future, Says Top Expert

In an age where artificial intelligence seems to have become a part and parcel of every corporate environment, AI pioneer and UC Berkeley professor Stuart Russell fuelled the fears surrounding job losses to AI.

Russell, who also co-authored the book 'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach', said that AI systems are doing pretty much everything we currently call work, while speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast.

While the conversation about job losses to AI have revolved around blue collar jobs like factory workers, drivers and customer support agents, Stuart believes that even those in higher executive positions, like CEOs may also not be able to escape the AI offensive.

Russell went on to cite a hypothetical imaginary scenario where the board of a company directs its CEO to either give up his decision making power to AI or get fired "because all our competitors are using an AI-powered CEO and they’re doing much better".

Further, he called the trajectory of current AI development "appalling", adding that it is driven by private greed and geopolitical pressure more than it is by public interest.

He added that AI and bots can become anything a human aspires to be. "Anything you might aspire to — you want to become a surgeon — it takes the robot seven seconds to learn how to be a surgeon that’s better than any human being", Russell said.

The UC Berkeley professor also said that AI companies are just playing "Russian roulette" with the lives of people without their consent.

"They’re coming into our houses, putting a gun to the head of our children, pulling the trigger," he remarked. Russell also claimed that none of the companies rushing to build artificial general intelligence have any consideration of the value of human life, saying their main pursuit in is to become ultra rich.