Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Computers Jump to the Head of the Class

I think this story has interesting implications. Goods and services are made cheaper by using less labor, but displaced workers will need to find things to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/world/asia/computers-jump-to-the-head-of-the-class.html
Computers Jump to the Head of the Class
By MICHAEL FITZPATRICK
New York Times
December 29, 2013

TOKYO — If a computer could ace the entrance exam for a top university, what would that mean for mere mortals with average intellects? This is a question that has bothered Noriko Arai, a mathematics professor, ever since the notion entered her head three years ago.

“I wanted to get a clear image of how many of our intellectual activities will be replaced by machines. That is why I started the project: Can a Computer Enter Tokyo University? — the Todai Robot Project,” she said in a recent interview.

Tokyo University, known as Todai, is Japan’s best. Its exacting entry test requires years of cramming to pass and can defeat even the most erudite. Most current computers, trained in data crunching, fail to understand its natural language tasks altogether.

Ms. Arai has set researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, where she works, the task of developing a machine that can jump the lofty Todai bar by 2021.

If they succeed, she said, such a machine should be capable, with appropriate programming, of doing many — perhaps most — jobs now done by university graduates.

Yes, we've seen automated factories able to out produce their manned counterparts because machines remain on duty as needed (don't take breaks, eat lunch, schedule time off for vacation and personal days), and do not require floor space dedicated to facilities such as cafeterias and restrooms. Over the past 30 years this has eliminated a tier of middle-class jobs, altering the economy. One can easily foresee an extrapolation of this to white-collar jobs.

Beyond eliminating targeted classes of employment, automation and AI are capable of creating greater disparity by bringing about a future in which an ever decreasing number of individuals control an ever increasing amount of wealth and power: a world of singularity.

Whether people are comfortable contemplating it or not, we are subject to daily computer oversight and analysis: surveillance, facial recognition scanning, potential DNA collection, and other biometrics. The decennial census, American Community Survey (ACS), education and health records, "personality type", career choices and employment records, telecommunications (computer, landline, cell phone) usage, GPS tracking, personal information shared on social media websites, credit histories, FAFSA applications, mapped images of our homes (with assessed tax value and often photos of the interior) paint a complete (although possibly inaccurate) picture of each individual, birth to grave.

Thinking of birth and grave, some studies state the current earth population is 2 to 3 times the sustainable level, and others state the human population will exceed the planet's carrying capacity within a generation: There is widespread concern that humans may be considered expendable and subject to what some have called "thinning the herd". Dystopias such as "Hunger Games" begin to seem possible scenarios if the future continues in this direction.

As people gifted with unusual intelligence, what influence might we exert? What legislation might best protect the privacy, autonomy, and dignity of each human being?