AI Is Here To Empower Humans Not Replace Them, Google Cloud CEO Kurian Assures
By taking off the load of mundane and repetitive tasks, AI frees humans to do high-level thinking, explore creative, and do better decisions for areas where human judgment is necessary, he said.
Artificial intelligence is here to empower humans not replace them, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said. His remarks came when concerns of a possible widespread job loss, especially in the IT industry, has increased.
AI is here to help people do their job better by removing workload of minor tasks, rather than supplanting employees, Kurian said in an interview to Big Technology.
Google's Customer Engagement Suite, an AI-powered set of customer service tools launched last year, has taken on minor tasks like attending customer queries that do not warrant contacting servicing agent, he said. When the technology made debut, there were initial fears of job loss, but almost none of the clients of Google Cloud had let anyone leave.
By taking off the load of mundane and repeititive tasks, AI frees humans to do high-level thinking, explore creative, and do better decisions for areas where human judgment is necessary, he said.
He acknowledged that as the AI continues to evovle, fears of job loss will increase. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that there is definitely a middle ground.
Back in June, Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed a similar view on AI boom. Pichai noted that productivity has increased by 10% among engineers. The company measured the productivity increase by calculating additional hours of engineering capacity with AI-powered assistance.
Google Inc is planning to hire more people instead of reducing its workforce as the opportunity space is expanding because of AI advancement, Pichai said.
Despite fears of widespread job loss in many industries, AI adoption is expected to have only modest and temporary impact on employment levels, Goldman Sachs said in an article in August.
According to the investment bank's estimates, unemployment will increase by half a percentage point during the AI transition period as displaced workers will seek new opportunities.
Occupations with higher risk of being displaced because of AI adoption are computer programmers, accountants and auditors, legal and administrative assistants, and customer service representatives, Goldman Sachs said.
