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The Philosopher's Stone is a mythical material that may turn base metals into gold. In our modern economy, automation has the identical effect. During the Industrial Revolution, steel and steam replaced human manual labor. Today, silicon and electrons are combined to switch human mental work.
This transformation creates efficiency. But it also devalues ​​the abilities that form the backbone of human capital and create a glad, healthy society. If the alchemists had ever discovered the philosopher's stone, its use would have caused mass inflation and devalued all gold reserves. Likewise, our reserve of worthwhile human capital is vulnerable to automation and devaluation within the wake of the bogus intelligence revolution. The skills we now have learned, whether manual or mental, are at risk of becoming redundant within the face of the machine.
Will AI completely displace humans? Or is there some form, some core, some irreducible element of human attention that the machine cannot replace? If so, this may be a solid foundation for constructing our digital future.
I call this kernel the “atomic human.” Unfortunately, once we search for it, we come across a form of uncertainty principle. Machines depend on measurable results, meaning any aspect of human skills that will be quantified is liable to automation. But essentially the most essential features of humanity are the toughest to measure.
We is not going to find the atomic man in the proportion of A grades our youngsters achieve in schools or within the length of the waiting lists we now have in our hospitals. It's behind it. We see the atomic man in the way in which a nurse spends a couple of extra minutes ensuring a patient is comfortable, or the way in which a bus driver pauses to let a pensioner cross the road, or like a teacher praising a student who’s having trouble boosting their confidence.
This means we’re faced with a brand new productivity paradox. With the classic instruments of economic intervention it is just not possible to map the provision and demand of high-quality human attention that’s difficult to measure. So how will we construct a brand new economy that leverages our human capital advantage and enables the digital future we attempt for?
One answer is to take a look at it Human capital index. This measures the standard and quantity of the eye economy over the health and education of our population.
The attention economy was a phenomenon described in 1971 by American computer scientist Herbert Simon. He saw the knowledge revolution coming and wrote that an abundance of data would result in a scarcity of attention. Too much information results in human attention becoming a scarce resource, a bottleneck. It becomes gold in the eye economy.
Fortunately, the UK is a number one international economy on this area. We outperform each the United States and China within the World Bank's Human Capital Index. We must value this and discover a approach to reinvest human capital and produce human value back into the system when considering productivity improvements through technologies like AI.
This means a more in-depth mapping between what the general public wants and what the innovation economy delivers. It means more flexible policies that reply to public dialogue with concrete solutions developed along with the people doing the true work. This means, for instance, freeing up a nurse's time by utilizing technological tools and giving them the chance to spend this time with patients.
To achieve this, our academic institutions must evolve.
In the past, we now have too often remained aloof from the difficulties facing society. We were too far faraway from the true challenges of on a regular basis life – challenges that don't make it onto the duvet of renowned science magazines. People are rightly indignant that innovations like AI haven’t yet addressed the issues they face, including in health, social care and education.
Of course, universities cannot solve this alone, but academics can act as honest brokers, bridging gaps between private and non-private considerations, bringing diverse groups together, and understanding, honoring, and strengthening the contributions of people.
This requires people who find themselves willing to dedicate their time to improving the lives of others, developing latest best practices and sharing them with colleagues and work colleagues.
To preserve our human capital and realize our potential, we want the AI ​​alchemists to supply us with solutions that may serve each science and society.
