Digital Transformation may NOT be as Simple as you Think

Where is the pain?

The emerging trends of big data technology and AI has been redefining humanity on a global scale. Data analysis has become the fundamental work that operates our society. We have gold and precious materials as trading currencies in the past, but now we trade with digital assets that we couldn’t even touch or feel, and the transformation seems to be smooth as we don’t realize the fact that the world is evolving into something vastly different from the old one we once knew existed for thousands of years. Transformation is usually painful, as humans prefer long-term stability despite having the ability to adapt. So, the question here is simple, why don’t we feel the pain of transformation?        e

 

Digital Transformation

We have all benefited from the fruits of technological advancement where computer processing speed have continuously increased for the past few decades without having any clear evidence that we are slowing down in the process of making all our smartphones stream 8K 120fps videos a reality. We used to watch movies on TV 10 years ago, and who would have thought of the dream that a portable TV/radio/phone/everything else would be in the grasp of our hand made possible? Sure, it took us more than a decade to reach a mobile network speed that full utilizes multiple functions of a smartphone (at least I thought that an iPhone with EDGE 7 years ago is still kind of useless) since the launch of the first iPhone. I have doubts that we have another 10 more years to get used to something new given the exponential increase in processing power of GPUs and ML techniques. AI itself already poses great threats on low value-added labours in recent years, but still our education system hasn’t caught up with it yet, resulting in future generation heading in the wrong learning directions. The pain point of this is that the emergence of AI leads to many uncertainties in what the working labour would be like soon. Jobs requiring the partnership of both AI and human have not been invented yet. Even though there may be some underlying work or actual job positions that is available now, the AI industry is still at its infancy with so much R&D work to do to shape the future, it is understandable but the problem remains. What I foresee is young adults and kids will have a hard time catching up with the working environment after they graduate, especially those without a technical background. I’ll explain more about the environmental change and how education will be affected.

 

Environmental Changes

In the past, Moore’s law has been the tech-industry standard to measure increase in performance of PCs. Some say the law is dead now, while others argue that the law remains consistent with the semiconductor physics applications today. Both views lead to a conclusion that computing has entered a new stage where processing speed can grow beyond the law, resulting in infinite possibilities of applications that requires high bandwidth data processing requirements made possible. Car manufacturers can work with AI for autonomous manufacturing, quality inspection, inventory control and suddenly over 90% of the workers in car factories needs coding to secure their jobs. If kids right now don’t learn how to code, it will be disastrous for them as they lose their jobs in an instant, and we are the ones who messed up their life’s by not teaching them the knowledge they need to survive in the workplace.

Educational Change

STEM is a good beginning for the future of how education should be, but it is not enough. Experts predicted that up to 70% of the jobs we have today will no longer exist in 2035, suggesting a drastic change in working environment for all of us soon. We weren’t taught right about how to work with AI, but every kid should learn coding as one of their new primary languages to embrace the changes that technology will bring to the society. Working environment will never be the same as there may be less human interactions between each other, yet it is a core structure of the modern society, and how people should remain attached to one another and the way to engage in the community will be completely different. We would educate our kids differently in the future in every single aspect, not just the hardcore knowledge, but also the soft skills. Digital transformation have been bringing fundamental changes in our lives, but the impact is far beyond what we can imagine.

[1]How AI and machine learning are redefining cyber security   (https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/04/05/cybersecurity-ai/)

[2] How Moore’s Law Now Favors Nvidia Over Intel    (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkam/2018/04/23/how-moores-law-now-favors-nvidia-over-intel/#78d1ada95e42)

[3]3 Ways AI Will Change the Automotive Industry (https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/03/12/3-ways-ai-will-change-the-automotive-industry.aspx)

[4] How technology will shape the future of education(https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/how-technology-will-shape-the-future-of-education)

0

One comment on “Digital Transformation may NOT be as Simple as you Think”

  1. I certainly agree with your view toward education. A general question I’ve had with colleagues when in the educational industry in Thailand, in which I was a part time employee, is that “If the jobs of the future won’t be available to us and machines are replacing human labor, then why should the entirety of society have to be knowledgeable about IT? why not just a specialized few?”. These question certainly struck me as a little bit ignorant. I believe that to be “literate” in computer technology will be as important as reading and writing languages itself in a few years to come. Even if future generations are not able to truly apply their knowledge in the technological spectrum of whatever their career maybe, to be able to grasp that understanding would set that individual inside the loop, to not be placed outside the circle of technology that will inevitably envelop our life.

    Maybe my opinion is drastic, maybe developing countries and still lagging and may not need to keep up with the pace this closely, but it still proves a point if countries wish to truly be globalized in a sense. To not be globalized in aspects in communication is something nations can’t afford at all, including in technological communications.

    0

Comments are closed.