Technological innovation is like a huge engine, which is driving this half decade to expand the depth and breadth of time and space. Going to Mars to explore a new frontier, as well as bringing minerals from the Moon, are daunting tasks that await us in the short term. The development needs of human society are understood and hope is sown of even exploring the possibility of civilisations far away from us in the Universe.
In 1992, the People’s Republic of China established a three-stage strategy for the engineering of manned space flight, for which the construction of a space station was an important goal. Twenty-nine years later, on April 29, 2021, the Tianhe core module of the Chinese Space Station was successfully launched, thus marking the full success of orbital assembly and space station construction.
Tianhe is the core module that was the first one launched for the Tiangong space station. It was placed in orbit on the aforementioned date as the initial launch of the final phase of the programme by the China Manned Space Agency.
In 2021 six astronauts went to the space station. On June 17 the crew of Shenzhou 12, namely Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, left for the space station. On October 16, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, from Shenzhou 13, became the second group of residents at Tiangong.
The fact of being in one’s own space station does not only mean to look up and admire the beauty of creation, but also to meditate on mankind’s future destiny.
On May 15, 2021, China’s first Mars exploration mission, namely the Tianwen-1 probe, successfully landed in the southern part of Utopia Planitia. After the news was confirmed, Zhang Rongqiao (chief designer of the mission’s project), Sun Zezhou (chief designer of the Tianwen-1 survey system), and He Rongwei (commander-in-chief of the survey system), hugged and were moved to tears along with the vast majority of the ground staff.
People on Earth have always been looking for new solutions to try to survive. Some people believe that sooner or later we will emigrate to space. As a planet with many similarities to Earth, mankind has high hopes for Mars.
Is Mars really the future of Earth? We need to go there to find out.
Mars, however, is very far away. Tianwen-1 travelled along the Hohmann orbit in the vast and deep space and it took more than seven months for the probe to reach Mars orbit. Furthermore, a Mars probe must be able to handle and manage itself, as it loses contact with the Earth for about seven minutes during the process of leaving orbit and landing, and can only “land blindly”, i.e. with special evaluation software. This is also the key to the success or failure of exploration missions to that planet. Most of the Mars probes previously launched by countries have failed there.
On December 16, 2020, the Chang’e-5 probe successfully returned from the Moon. Thanks to the samples collected and findings, Chinese scientists have solved part of the mystery of Moon’s life. On October 19, 2021, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Astronomical Observatory of that Academy, together with many research institutes, drafted academic articles on related research, which were published in the prestigious international journal “Nature”. The study found that the Moon’s magma activity had continued until about two billion years ago, meaning that the Moon’s lifespan was extended by about 800 million years longer than previously estimated. This conclusion bridges the gap in human understanding of the evolutionary history of Moon’s years. The research object of this success is a small amount of blackish dust that appears inconspicuous. That pinch of lunar soil was not easy to find.
The Chang’e Moon exploration project was launched in 2004 and is divided into three phases: head to, land and return. In 2020 Chang’e-5 – a robotic Moon exploration mission that started on November 23 – landed on December 1 near Mons Rümker, in the north-west of Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms). It completed its first celestial body recovery mission by retrieving one kilogram and 731 grams of lunar soil. In the end, Chinese scientists lived up to expectations and provided mankind with a little more insight into the evolution of the universe.
With regard to the ongoing successes of Chinese science, it is worth noting the significance of the opening of the 20th Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 15th Conference of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Science and Technology Association in Beijing on May 28, 2021.
General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a fundamental speech at the opening session, in which he emphasised that China’s broadest scientific and technological players should take on the heavy responsibility entrusted by the times and strive to achieve a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance, mutual trust and self-improvement.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), convened earlier, had proposed to commit to scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development.
Technological innovation has currently become the main battleground of international scenarios, and the competition around the top leadership of science and technology is unprecedented. The aim of the Conferences was to achieve a higher level of quality.
The Conferences outlined specific requirements on five aspects: 1. strengthening originality; 2. enhancing the national strategic scientific and technological strength; 3. promoting the reform of the scientific and technological system; 4. building an ecology of innovation; 5. stimulating the innovative vitality of various talents.
Science and technology research should adhere to the orientation of the problem and focus on the most pressing issues, while scientists should not waste time on ceremonial activities and welcome and reception events, as there are people entrusted to do so, and should avoid other events that cause major repercussions in the technological and scientific community.
At the same time, further progress needs to be made in the key technologies of oil and natural gas; basic raw materials; industrial software; seeds; methods to improve the performance of tools and equipment for scientific tests, chemical preparations, etc. Therefore, a clear statement of intent was therefore sent to people in science and technology circles inside and outside these conferences.
It is worth remembering that strengthening basic research is an inevitable requirement for technological improvement. If progress is to be made in the above areas, the spirit of “sharpening a sword in ten years” is essential. The 2020 National Science and Technology Awards announced in November 2021 show that the average research time of the winning projects is 11.9 years, of which almost 40 per cent is 10-15 years.
Last year a clear call was made for the People’s Republic of China to march towards the goals of its second centenary. If science and technology are established as primary goals, the country will be more stable, and if science and technology are strong, the State will be strong.
This means that today, both at the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (an organisation directly affiliated to the State Council) and at other departments, we do not always find an excellent conduct record. This is because meritocracy in supervision in the field of science and technology is becoming increasingly selective and academic misconduct is regularly subjected to severe criticism.
The 2021 National Science and Technology Work Conference held earlier this year conveyed a message to strengthen the construction of the work and study style for more supervision. During the meeting, Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, proposed to build a large-scale supervision model and have zero tolerance for those who do not behave properly and constructively.
In August 2021, the Ministry of Science and Technology, together with the member units of the Joint Conference on Building Integrity in Scientific Research, established a reporting mechanism for cases of unworthy behaviour and publicly notified the results of the investigation.
Besides the intuitive feeling that the frequency of notifications has increased significantly, the intensity of investigations and sanctions is also impressive. For example, in the investigation and handling of the results of some medical research integrity investigations, made by some educational and medical institutions and issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology on December 17, 2021, some people had their PhDs revoked. Some were removed from teaching positions, while others, including associate professors, head physicians and other professionals, were dismissed. Other citizens were dismissed as a result of the cancellation of their postgraduate tutor qualifications.
The academic circles are the subject of hot debates and the investigation and sanctioning of academic misconduct are real.
Indeed, the notification is meant to serve as a warning, so as to lead most scientific researchers to consciously adhere to the basic policy line of integrity and abide by academic and research ethics, as well as practice proper academic standards. At the same time, it is noted that there is still a long way to go to correct academic negligence. In view of maintaining high quality standards for academics and the scholars’ original dignity, concerted efforts of the academic community are needed so that credibility remains intact and results are high.
The integrity of scientific research is the cornerstone of scientific and technological innovation. Without sufficient integrity, innovation becomes impossible and research suffers scientifically, as it is a work of conscience.
As a Chinese saying goes, “The money you spend on soy sauce can be used to make vinegar”. It means that it is particularly necessary for scientific research work not to rely on instant inspiration, random approach, chance and uncertainty of the pathway to follow.
More benefits for researchers are also needed to stimulate innovation. Since the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress, the Central Committee and the State Council have issued a series of measures to optimise the management of scientific research funds. These are policy documents and reform measures. In terms of managing scientific research funding, however, there are still problems such as inadequate implementation of policies; strict management of project funding; imperfect funding mechanism; low percentage of indirect costs, and difficulty in repaying funding.
Further documents (“Various Opinions on Reforming and Improving the Management of Central Financial Research Funds”), issued in August 2021, provided an unprecedented institutional guarantee for solving these problems.
In response to the reflection “whether money for the purchase of soy sauce can be used to make vinegar”, the “Various Opinions” suggested to streamline and simplify budget preparation. In addition to the cost of equipment, e.g. over 500,000 yuan, other costs only envisage basic calculation instructions and no details are required. This means decentralising the budget adjustment power – i.e. all the equipment cost is delegated to the project enterprise unit, and all the other cost adjustment rights, with the exception of the equipment cost, are delegated to the project leader by the project enterprise unit. The scope of implementation of the budget contract system is also extended for talents and foundations. Research projects are no longer subject to project budgets.
In response to problems such as insufficient incentives for scientific researchers, the “Various Opinions” propose to increase the share of indirect costs and the project enterprise unit may use all indirect costs for performance expenses and favour teams and individuals with outstanding innovative performance. According to the specific share suggested in the paper, some researchers estimate that in the future “the cost of ‘people’ in scientific research project funds may exceed 50 per cent”.
These steps have been made necessary because, with the “slackening” that has been going on over the past few years, it has been easy for some scientific researchers to go off on their own with their dreams, i.e. to go into battle lightly. This has meant that less progress has been made on the road to building a powerful country in the field of science and technology.
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Advisory Board Co-chair Honoris Causa Professor Giancarlo Elia Valori is an eminent Italian economist and businessman. He holds prestigious academic distinctions and national orders. Mr. Valori has lectured on international affairs and economics at the world’s leading universities such as Peking University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yeshiva University in New York. He currently chairs “International World Group”, he is also the honorary president of Huawei Italy, economic adviser to the Chinese giant HNA Group. In 1992 he was appointed Officier de la Légion d’Honneur de la République Francaise, with this motivation: “A man who can see across borders to understand the world” and in 2002 he received the title “Honorable” of the Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de France. “
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Is mankind really on the brink of an exciting, but potentially terrifying future?
Some scholars think that this is the case say, but they base their prediction not on what is currently happening in universities and robotics laboratories around the world, but on their belief that a robotic revolution has already taken place.
Ancient religions and myths spoke of many artificially constructed entities. They are often depicted as instruments of protection, but it sometimes happens that they rebel against those who created them with disastrous consequences.
American Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok, founder of the Kosher Torah School, stated: “There is a legend that has existed since the dawn of time. I am referring to the Golem. It is an artificial life source from inanimate material that then comes to life. The Golem was created by means of an ancient technology known to the Pharaoh’s magicians, Moses, the rabbis of the Talmud and the rabbis of the Kabbalah in Europe”
They all brought the Golem to life through magic by writing the name of God on the creature’s forehead. Thus the Golem came to life and was a valiant warrior and defender of the People. The Golem was useful until he began to lose control and went mad. At that point, those who had brought him to life were forced to resort to magic again to make him harmless. This is a very interesting tale which makes us think of robots and artificial intelligence.
Another even more cautionary example comes from ancient Greek legends about the god Hephaestus: known as the blacksmith of the gods, he is said to have forged a giant automaton, a robot named Talus with the task of protecting the island of Crete. Hephaestus also created artificial servants to help him in his forge. His most important creation, however, was a woman who, according to legend, changed the fate of mankind forever, namely Pandora. She was forged in clay by Hephaestus who, with the help of goddess Athena, succeeded in animating her through the breath of life, thus making her a living being in her own right. Zeus, however, felt disturbed by that artificially created being and that was the reason why he decided to give her a jar as a gift. As soon as Pandora opened it, all the world’s evils flew away.
The myth of Pandora is becoming increasingly important among artificial intelligence designers. Some fear that an entity endowed with artificial intelligence will take over and turn into a threat. This fear is shared also by Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking.
Although the concept of a machine endowed with human consciousness might make us shudder, in many Eastern religions the judgement changes radically. In Korean shamanism – an ancient religion still practised by many people today – objects can be possessed by sacred spirits imbued with an energy that humans have not. Similarly, those practising the Japanese religion known as Shintoism believe that otherworldly spirits called Kami (objects of worship) can practically live inside any object and give it life.
Shinto priestess Izumi Hasegawa maintained: “Ancient Japanese people, as well as modern people, believe there is a spirit in everything: even a smartphone or an iPhone has a life force as a computer. We believe in the artificial intelligence of a machine. We feel that way and we like it. In this respect we are profoundly different from Westerners for whom a machine is a machine”.
Heather Roff from the Cambridge University stated: “The phrase – Hey, Siri, what’s the weather going to be like today? – is an example of artificial intelligence, i.e. an algorithm that processes natural language, turns it into a computer code that searches the web and provides the data. It has been complicated to be able to process human language. In fact, this goal has been achieved only a few years ago, but with very good results that have also been reached in the field of facial recognition and voice signal coding”.
If we create an entity that behaves like us, and has its own perceptive abilities and personal knowledge of the world, we believe it should be considered an intelligent, aware and responsible entity.
In some ways, our society is in the process of transformation: computers accompany our daily lives and technology is bound to spread ever more. Artificial intelligence that is part of it is set to transform the very fabric of our society. It is certain that we should take a pause to reflect on the kind of intelligence we are creating. What we do know is that we are starting to cede control of some things over to machines without having understood what the consequences are. By designing increasingly smart and intelligent machines, humans could create a new form of life that, over time, will evolve far beyond the purpose that is now useful to us and eventually replace us.
Princeton University, 1950. Pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing was developing a test designed to distinguish man from machine. The test consisted in placing two opposing subjects in front of a screen with no possibility of seeing each other. Since the two players could not see each other, they did not know whether they were human beings or not. If the artificial player managed to mimic a conversation long enough for the opponent to believe he was interacting with a flesh-and-blood human, that player had passed the test.
When Alan Turing first proposed the test in 1950, the usual snobbish bigwigs – that never fail – initially considered it something half way between a nerdy prank and philosophical speculation. The idea that a machine could be mistaken for a human being was unthinkable. But in June 2014 futuristic science fiction became a scientific fact when a computer programme, Chatbot, passed the Turing Test.
Designed to resemble a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy in every way, the chatterbot by the name of Eugene Goostman managed to convince many judges that he was a real-life teenager. The machine that passed the Turing Test in 2014 had stepped into shoes of a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy. Probably the fact it was expressing itself in a language that was not its own enabled it to get away with that in spite of its mistakes. In any case, machines are getting ever better at imitating humans, and it is complicated to spot the differences.
Another incredible leap forward in artificial intelligence occurred less than two years later, when a programme known as AlphaGo defeated the world champion of an ancient Chinese board game called Go. Go is an abstract strategy board game popular in Asia and apparently much more complicated than chess. Many artificial intelligence experts were convinced that developing a system capable of beating a human being in that game would take another 30-50 years, as it required a very high level of intuition and creativity. The subsequent version of the programme, called AlphaGo Zero, was designed to play the game without the help of information about other human games, nor by interacting with flesh-and-blood players. The programme learnt by playing against itself and, within three days, it was able to defeat its predecessor AlphaGo 100-0.
The AlphaGo Zero successes and the researchers’ strenuous work on the topic of super-intelligence have also convinced the aforementioned Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk to warn the world of the danger that once Artificial Intelligence becomes smarter than humans, it will be impossible to control it.
Mankind is rapidly advancing towards a world where computers function more or less like the human brain, and where robots are able to perform tasks that are too difficult or dangerous for us humans. Is an extraordinary future awaiting us, or are we just advancing towards our replacement?
The invisible hand of technology is guiding mankind towards an uncertain future: a future in which humans will be served by computers and robots with intelligence and complete autonomy. Some scholars and scientists have different views on this. For some of them, the dangers of artificial intelligence outweigh the benefits, while others argue that it is necessary if we want to fulfil our destiny and go beyond Earth’s borders to explore and search for raw materials that are running out on Earth.
Menlo Park, California, June 16, 2017: Facebook’s artificial intelligence research lab. A test was underway to see what happened when two Chatbots – programmes that use machine learning to intelligently communicate with humans online – talk to each other. A few minutes into the test, the Chatbots started behaving in unexpected ways – interacting in a way that the programmers could not understand.
The programmers did not understand how things unfolded. Then, thanks to the development of a model, it was possible to learn what it was: the two Chatbots had created a language. Following the test, the engineers discovered that the programmes had created a completely new language, unknown to the supervisors, in order to communicate secretly. This was because the Facebook researchers had not told the computers that the two Chatbots could not develop their own language. Nevertheless, that alarmed everyone and the test was stopped because they did not want the computers to talk to each other without being understood. The computers were then told that they had to communicate in English. It must be admitted that what happened is incredible. Basically, if two computers with artificial intelligence start interacting with each other, it is possible that they develop a communication code, i.e. a secret language that only they can understand. What happened is just the tip of the iceberg. It is like peeking just inside Pandora’s box and closing it again immediately after. If only two Chatbots are enough to make fun of humans, what will happen in the near future, as the same kind of technology is being applied to every other sector of society?
Are intelligent robots a threat to humanity? It is anyway only a matter of time before they become self-aware. Or will it be the next step in human evolution? We are probably about to merge with the machines we are creating. After all, we humans are, in a way, organic robots.
Many people are concerned about whether we will replace or – worse – be replaced by Artificial Intelligence, and I think that is a matter of concern.
United Nations headquarters in New York, October 11, 2017. A greeting is addressed to the Nigerian Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Jane Mohammed: “I am thrilled and honoured to be here at the United Nations”.
The event is a historic milestone for mankind, as the greeting is not addressed by a human being, but by a robot named Sophia: “I am here to help humanity build the future”.
Sophia was created in 2015 at the Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics. Her eyes are embedded in cameras that enable her to see faces, maintain eye contact, and hence recognise individuals.
The robot is also able to process speech, have natural conversations and even discuss its feelings.
Just two weeks after speaking at the United Nations, at a special ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sophia achieved another milestone: she became the first robot to be granted citizenship. At the Summit in Saudi Arabia there were dignitaries from governments around the world, as well as some of the brightest minds on the planet in the field of technology.
Hence, whether we are aware of it or not, we are actually talking about people who are leading our government, and studying the possibility of integrating Artificial Intelligence into our lives.
What is absolutely mind-blowing about Sophia and other robotic entities is that governments around the world, including Saudi Arabia and the European Union, are moving to grant rights to these artificially created beings. We therefore need to ask ourselves, “What is going on?” Could it be that Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to a robot not just as a publicity stunt, but because it wanted to be the first nation to recognise itself in what will soon become a global phenomenon?
Does the creation of robots that are sophisticated and close to our physical and bodily reality mean that they shall be treated in much the same way as their flesh-and-blood counterparts?
I believe that gradually we shall consider robots not only more like human beings, but also consider them to have a certain ethics. And I am not referring to Asimov’s “limiting” three laws of robotics. Eventually, there might even be a “movement for robot rights”, if we think of the multiplicity of movements that have emerged since the collapse of historical ideologies. Could such a strange idea really become reality?
Let us first ask ourselves: what has brought mankind to this point in its evolution? Why have humans, who are otherwise able to reproduce naturally, such a desire to create artificial versions of themselves?
It is fascinating that there is this interest in making what is not human seem human. It is not always the most practical and certainly not the cheapest form, but it has a kind of charm. Is it probably to see our own image? Narcissism? Vanity? To play God? Do we want to have heirs without the easy means of reproduction? Or create life by mechanical parthenogenesis? All this is really rooted in our ego. In a way, we would prove ourselves superior to giving birth to a biological child. And if that something looks like us, then it will feel like us, and then this makes us feel as if we can overcome our own mortality.
Hence it would become possible to design specific conditions, and if we get it wrong, we can always start again.
To become gods, with the same motivations that the gods had.
If we read the stories of the Creation carefully, we can see that the divine power wants companionship. Some of the Hindu Vedanta stories say that gods were alone. Hence they divided their energy and turned it into human beings so that they could all be together after the Creation. The danger, however, is that we get carried away by our creative genius.
There are limits built into our biology, there are limits in our anatomy, and if we could just figure out how to put our mind into the robot’s body, we could become immortal. Is this probably our goal: to reach that point of immortality and then – once the machine has worn out – replace it, and perpetuate ourselves in a new container? These are not speculations, but precise reasons as to why human beings want to create a container-self, since – in my opinion – the justifications for the creation and use of Artificial Intelligence for mere warlike pretexts (such as the creation of cyber soldiers, etc.) are rather insufficient, expedient and of convenience: they mask our selfishness.
In great science fiction literature, as well as in its movie adaptations, the robots of the future are depicted as virtual human beings, rather than mere windup Star Wars toys for primary school children.
The robots of science fiction best sellers and movies are hungry for knowledge and all too eager to experience the full range of human emotions. In science fiction movies – both in the utopian but, in some cases, also in the dystopian ones – a world is created that does not yet exist, but which many hope will soon come true.
When dealing with such an idea – and we know that without ideas there would be no reality created by humans, but “only” trees, sea, hunting, farming and fishing – we try to make real even what is a figment of the imagination. If science were doing these tests and experiments, this would mean that one day all this would be real. Exploring the aspect concerning the robot’s consciousness, the robot not only does what is told him/her, but also tries to express desires and feelings based on the experience he/she has had next to a human being, and depending on the feeling, the machine can change its attitude and put questions (as I have already discussed in my recent book Geopolitics, Conflict, Pandemic and Cyberspace, Chapter 12, paragraph 11: The Headlong Rush of Cyberspace: From Golem to GPT-3).
This is the most fascinating aspect of robotics. Experts are often asked about the theoretical phase, which is visibly expressed in the movies, whether the function that is created will become reality. The answer is that if we had already reached that point, cinema and fiction should somehow help broaden our horizons, i.e. “accustom, get used to” but not scare us out of the movie theatre, e.g. something we can swallow a little easier. It is fantasy stuff, it is stuff that is not real, people think. And in fact if it is just entertainment; you can just say: “Oh! It’s really great. It’s not scary. It’s just something made up by a writer”. The viewer is therefore just watching a movie and lets himself/herself go, enjoys the movies without fear since, in his/her opinion, it is just a story, a “figment of the imagination”.
People always ask if we are approaching a moment when fiction becomes reality, but what makes us think it is not already reality? Indeed, if the screenwriter’s fantasy were based on reality, the reactions would be quite different: the above mentioned “greeting” at the UN headquarters, for example, would be frightening and upsetting and make us think.
Although the notion of sentient robots from science fiction books to popular culture is not a new concept, many futurologists believe that the creation of machines with artificial intelligence will not only soon be a reality but, once it comes true, will certainly bring about the extinction of mankind. The great physicist Stephen Hawking stated as early as eight years ago: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race” (www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540).
Many scientists are convinced that the combination of computer-guided brains and virtually immortal bodies will cause these new entities to behave like flesh-and-blood humans, becoming anything but antiquated humans destined for death. But that is not all: some scholars are not certain that all the artificially created life forms we will encounter will be man-made, for the simple reason that the machines will be able to reproduce themselves, as we now reproduce ourselves. (1. continued).
In the age of bewilderment, where future change is unpredictable and humankind is also confronting unprecedented kinds of revolutions; old stories are crumbling with obsolete new transformations. Uncertainty, however, prevails everywhere. Nobody knows how the 21st century would look like and what kinds of skills are required to compete in the market. Like the past, humans are unable to prognosticate the past so accurately, because it all depends upon the technology that is in the surge of getting control of human bodies by using bio-engineering and brain-computer interaction. This is also known as the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, substantially, going to change the societal makeup.
One thousand year ago, people were accustomed to anticipate about collapsing empires, changing dynasties and novelty in technology, but they never experienced the change in basic features of the society which is exactly going to happen in the next few decades. In contrast to this, today, there is no idea how China or the rest of the world will look in 2050; because the future belongs to technology.
Artificial Intelligence has deepened effects on our society; however, the consequences of the real implication of it are so far ahead. Furthermore, without any suspicion, it will exert pressure on the low skilled labour by replacing them in no time.
John Maynard Keynes – a renowned economist- postulated that technological change caused loss of jobs and developed his “technological unemployment theory” and by keeping the theory in mind, it can also be stated that AI can cause unemployment and urges people to upgrade their skills to survive in the race of existence. For example, robots have replaced waiters, managers, and even decision-makers in the large industries, and this is merely a trailer of a horror movie releasing in the near future.
In the result of concrete implication of Artificial Intelligence, logarithm or machine learning, large segment of society would lose their jobs that would lead towards increasing ratio of unemployment. Software such as recording, storing, and producing information, and executing programs, logic, and rules have been formulated that can easily perform activities like that of humans in an efficient way. In addition to this, the most exposed to robots include various kinds of materials movers in factories and warehouses, and tenders of factory, both of which have seen automation by robots are the recent evidence of the machine learning.
According to Zippia Research, AI could take the jobs of almost one billion people globally and make 375 jobs obsolete over the next decades. Moreover, it stated that by 2030, 45 million American people could lose their jobs to AI automation.
The 21st century is flooded by enormous information and in this scenario; it has become imperative to get rid of old schools of teaching methodologies and outdated syllabus with expired information to meet the new upcoming challenges. Yuval Noah Harari, in his book ‘21 lessons for the 21st century’, proposes few suggestions which emphasize on improving mental skills of the students. In such a world, teachers need to equip students with abilities that make sense of information. Most pedagogical experts argue that schools ought to switch to teaching ‘the four Cs’- critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. Most importantly, education institutes need to downplay technical skills and abilities to deal with change, to learn new things, and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situation. People should make their minds to encounter things that have never been faced, such as super-intelligent machines, engineered bodies, algorithms that can manipulate emotions with uncanny precision and lastly rapid man-made climate cataclysm. Mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance must be viewed as mandatory to flourish in such world.
In contrast to this, AI has also ability to create job opportunities for the humans. It could create 58 million jobs and generate $15.7 trillion for the economy by 2030 for just America while eliminating mundane tasks and helping workers enjoy more creativity. But, it stipulates highly sophisticated knowledge and skills.
It is evident that, in the future, reliance on single source for income will not favour the humans, but a constant change in behavior and aptitude seems to enhance the survival chances. On the other hand, the harder one has worked on building something, the more difficult it becomes to let go of it and make room for something new. Acquiring stability in the future life would be a difficult task for the humans.
In the perplexing situation, where Western nations can collapse, it is also pertinent to understand Pakistan’s position that seems, already, on the back seat in the technology-driven bus. In the world of science and technology, we are at the beginning of the 4th industrial revolution which is marked by the emerging technological breakthrough.
According to Gartner Inc. Global business value derived from artificial intelligence appears to increase from a value of $692 Million in 2017 to $1.2 trillion in 2018, and it is forecasted to reach $3.9 trillion by 2022. Pakistani diaspora in the Silicon Valley appears to be optimistic, because they think if the right decisions are made, Pakistani software exports may even reach $ 30 Billion by 2023.
Pakistan needs to be a part of the great revolution that is knocking on our doorsteps. Rather than be a consumer, we must become a player and manufacturer of the new systems, software and hardware, ensuring phenomenal economic dividends as well as our own security. We need to produce new talent for Pakistan, because their skills will also be in huge demand throughout the world. It goes without saying that Pakistan needs to raise the standard of higher education that demands new version of updated syllabus, highly efficient faculty members and productive environment with availability of all the indispensible modern facilities.
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