Just weeks after a
Japanese insurer announced that it is replacing dozens of its staff with an artificial intelligence (AI) machine, the co-founder of Google has admitted that even he is surprised by the AI revolution.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Sergey Brin – who is also a co-founder of Alphabet Inc, one of the world’s biggest spenders on AI – said that the ‘revolution’ “has been very profound and definitely surprised me even, though I was right in there.”
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Brin said that when he was in charge of the research group within Alphabet – which is the parent company of Google – he didn’t pay much attention to the team that was working on artificial intelligence, according to a
Toronto Star report.
However, now, he said, the technology touches nearly every part of the business, including translation, photography and advertising.
As AI has developed, its potential role in society has been a controversial one, with many speculating about the volume of job losses that could come about as a result of the technology.
A projection released by the WEF at its annual meeting last week said there would be a net loss of 5.1 million jobs over the next five years across 15 leading countries due to the rise of robots and AI.
And when it comes to insurance and financial products, consumers show a positive attitude towards human-less systems.
A recent
Accenture survey found that the vast majority of consumers globally would welcome computer-generated advice and services for insurance and other financial products, with 55% of Canadians saying they were willing to share more information with insurers specifically to earn benefits.
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Brin described the technology’s evolution as “inherently chaotic” and said that changes require debate about the proper ways for society to adjust.
“These are deep and powerful philosophical questions but I don’t know that we’re equipped to answer them,” he commented.
Speaking of the potential benefits to workers, Brin said automation might change the ways people are able to use their time: “Some of the more mundane tasks are alleviated through technology and people will find more and more creative and meaningful ways to spend their time,” he said.
But he stressed that the technology still has far to go, and its impact on jobs and wider society is still unknown.
“It’s an incredible time and it’s very hard to forecast what can these things do,” he said. “We don’t really know the limits.”
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