In this video, Alibaba’s CEO Jack MA, presented us with a gloomy vision for the next 30 years. Although he does not specify which technology revolutions have caused the two other world wars, he points towards a future where the third world war might happen but unlike the other two it will eventually be a war fueled by data and information, and people are already worried about it. Jack calls for people to be creative and strategic lest their jobs will be taken away from them by machines.
In these third wave of technology, according to Jack, the key challenges humans will face will be related to poverty, disease and the environment. Technology can improve people’s life and at the same time to create other problems. One way of looking at it is that technology is not harmful in itself but can be used by other humans to harmful and devious purposes turning ccomputers against them for control and manipulation. In his view, it can be used to stir up problems as well as to save us.
He moves on to say how disruptive new small business can be released to bring a wave of fresh thinking and innovation. These new business models can be the very component we need to see shooting grassroots movements coming to the surface to empower people. As personalization and customization becomes the new norm, smaller business can position themselves to deliver a better customer engagement through more personal long-tail customer centric strategies.
The key, according to Jack Ma, is to make sure local businesses can cross their geographical borders and sell globally. The way to sort out the work problem is by leveraging the power of small businesses locally he says.
He then moved to say that stopping Globalisation is impossible and within the next 20-30 years people will work only four hours a day a jobs will not require their presence. So, if that is true, what will they do with the rest of the day?
He believes that the biggest difference between us and the machines is that they display an immense intelligence, they are smart but only humans have wisdom. If that is true then, what is the difference between wisdom and intelligence? Wisdom is from the heart according to Ma and machines will never have one… Is that simple?
It is true that things are moving fast on the AI front but also the IA (Intelligence Augmentation) has been receiving a lot of investment from the top companies as well as front start-ups. So, there is a possibility that humans might also have computer level intelligence.
What are your thoughts about that???
Andy de Lima 