Humans Need Not Apply

Meet the Future

Beware of the transformational changes that artificial intelligence (AI) heralds for society. In certain areas, computers and machines already outperform people. A new breed of systems can learn and adapt based on experience. These fast-emerging systems are made up of “forged laborers,” complex, flexible assemblages of “sensors and actuators.” They sense their environment, interface with “synthetic intellects” and perform dexterous physical tasks. These diverse, distributed, sophisticated algorithmic systems defy total comprehension, even by their human makers. Using unimaginable amounts of data, they identify patterns, “predict” and act. For example, these systems include automatic trading programs, which contributed to the stock market “Flash Crash” of 2010.

Staggering change in this field will leave human workers behind, widening the inequality gap by making the wealthy, who control so many assets, even richer as they increasingly “substitute capital for labor.” Workers need to be able to obtain and control their own assets – future-ready, equitable, transparent financial instruments.

Moving from “Toy Problems” to “Cognitive Computing”