and , Business Insider; Microsoft AI CEO predicts 'most, if not all' white-collar tasks will be automated by AI within 18 months
[Kip Currier: Microsoft AI Chief Mustafa Suleyman's assertion that AI will be performing "most, if not all" white-collar tasks within 12 to 18 months raises lots of questions, like:
- Is this forecast accurate or AI hype?
- As individuals and societies, do we want AI to displace human workers? Who has decided that this is "a good thing"?
- What are the spiritual implications of this revolutionary transformation of our world?
- What are the implications of such changes for the physical and mental well-being of children, young people, and adults?
- What are the short-term and long-term cognitive impacts of AI use?
- How will marginalized persons around the globe be affected by such radical employment changes? How will the Global South be impacted?
- What are the implications for income disparities and wealth concentration?
- In what ways will culture, the arts, science, medicine, and research be influenced?
- What are the impacts on education, life-long learning, and professional development?
- How will the environment, diminishing resources like water, and climate change be influenced by this employment forecast?
- In what ways will AI proliferation impact people in need and the fauna and flora of the world, particularly vulnerable organisms and ecosystems?
- How will monies and resources spent on AI data centers create new environmental justice communities and exacerbate inequities in existing ones?
- What are the implications for democracy, human rights, and civil liberties, like privacy, data agency, free expression, intellectual freedom, and access to accurate, uncensored information?
- Do you trust AI to do the white-collar jobs that humans have done?
- Are Microsoft and Suleyman disinterested parties? Microsoft has major self-interest in hyping AI enterprise products that Microsoft will be charging users to adopt and license.
- If Suleyman's claim is accurate, or even is accurate but in a longer time period than 12 to 18 months, what kinds of oversight, regulations, and ethical guardrails are needed/desired?]
[Excerpt]
"Mustafa Suleyman, the Microsoft AI chief, said in an interview with the Financial Times that he predicts most, if not every, task in white-collar fields will be automated by AI within the next year or year and a half.
"I think that we're going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks," Suleyman said in the interview that was published Wednesday. "So white-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.""
