1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With T.M. Ravi of The Hive (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You mentioned BPO jobs going from US to India and now being replaced by bots. That is eliminating all jobs. Same thing is happening in manufacturing. Manufacturing went from America to China and now it’s getting automated. If we get to self-driving cars, there won’t be Uber drivers. There will be self-driving Uber rides.

At this point, my estimate is in the next 30 to 50 year timeframe, we’re looking at a real possibility of there being very few jobs. What was eye-opening for me is how deep the fears are. I had a little afternoon event on Saturday at my house for Smith College Computer Science group. There were these young women with extremely fantastic resumes.

There’s one young woman who has worked at Apple and Facebook, and is now at Uber as a software programmer. She was saying, “There may be no jobs for engineers with all this self-generating code.”

This is not in the three to five year horizon. I’m talking more in the 30 to 50 year horizon. Even in that industry, there are people who feel that threat as well. The threat of AI-driven automation getting rid of jobs is very real and a very, very big threat that’s looming over society.

T.M. Ravi: I agree with you. It’s going to change the nature of what it means to work and how human beings contribute and earn a living. It’s going to be significantly transformational in society. That’s what’s going to take a lot of time. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs in getting that right.

Sramana Mitra: Future of work, utopia or dystopia?

T.M. Ravi: I lean on the side of utopia. I fully recognize that, like any other technology, there can be lots of threats around privacy. There’re a lot of challenges around ethics. You mentioned that the nature of work is going to change dramatically. I see these as challenges that need to be addressed.

Sramana Mitra: I’m on the side of dystopia. My thesis is that work is a fundamental piece of civilization. People who have nothing to do suffer on many accounts including mental health and identity issues. A very small percentage of that population has enough creativity to actually constantly re-energize and be generative.

Most people will just turn on the television and become zombies. What are we going towards? Are we going towards a zombie-filled planet? Is the species going to become all vegetables? We are marching down this path of relentless automation, which we are, because of capitalism.

Automated cars may be stoppable. The government could say, “No automated cars on the road.” If it’s an automated car, maybe the technology is there for the car to drive on its own, but the driver needs to be running the car. The carmakers are going to provide all the gizmos but cars without drivers are not allowed on the streets. The government can take that position and that is something that capitalism can’t argue with.

Governments cannot prevent robotics in factories.

T.M. Ravi: When it increases efficiency and quality.

Sramana Mitra: Exactly. Those are unstoppable trends. Those are going to dramatically damage employment levels. I’m not even saying 30 to 50 years. If you look at 200 years ahead, what will happen to the species?

T.M. Ravi: I’m more hopeful here. I heard what you said that not everyone is creative in a way that they can become artists and writers. I’m hopeful that the nature of work will really change. I can’t see it and I don’t know what it is, but I’m hopeful.

Sramana Mitra: You would like to see a utopia where everybody will be an artist or a writer. That would be wonderful.

T.M. Ravi: Someone who’s doing menial repetitive work is doing it because they can earn a living and put a good day’s work in.

Sramana Mitra: There’s still this notion of earning money. If nobody’s earning money, then we are going towards universal basic income. Universal basic income for 10 billion people is very expensive. Thank you very much for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With T.M. Ravi of The Hive
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