No ratings yet.

 

October, it’s that time of the year again. As the weather is getting colder, your cough is getting louder, and you are catching a fever: the flu is starting to set in. This is when the entire hassle starts: you need to call your doctor during opening hours, book an appointment, and leave the house to go to your doctor visit. All of this needs to be done while you are feeling horrible and don’t want to leave your bed. To make matters even worse, after the doctor’s visit, you need to leave the house again to visit your pharmacy to pick up the medication. If only there was an option that wouldn’t require you to leave your bed..

This might become reality sooner than you expect. Companies are currently exploring opportunities to develop symptoms assessment algorithms based on AI, and have succeeded in developing highly accurate algorithms. Online software programs, such as DoctorLink or Yourweb.MD, are already able to diagnose and advise you on which next medical steps you need to take. Furthermore, start-up Babylon has shown that their algorithm is able to obtain a higher score on the medical exam than a regular doctor (CNBC.com, 2018). Even the UK government has shown interest and is partnering with companies like this to reduce healthcare costs and to reduce the number of doctor appointments in order to solve the problem of the shortage of doctors (O’hear, 2017; DoctorLink, 2018).

It definitely increases efficiency, as you can access the symptom assessment software at any time during the day (24/7) and do not need to leave your house in order to receive a diagnosis and prescription. But do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages of not having a real doctor-patient relationship (face to face contact, empathy, etc.)? And will it truly replace the general practitioner? It’s still uncertain how these algorithms will change healthcare, but it’s definitely something to watch!

References:

O’Hear, S. (2017). Healthtech startup Doctorlink picks up backing from Eight Roads for its digital triage and advice tool, Techcrunch.com <https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/24/doctorlink/?guccounter=1>

CNBC, (2018). Babylon claims its AI can diagnose patients better than doctors, CNBC.com <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/28/babylon-claims-its-ai-can-diagnose-patients-better-than-doctors.html>

DoctorLink, (2018). <https://www.doctorlink.com>

No ratings yet.

 

As BIM students, everyone assures us we have a bright future waiting for us. Information management jobs and new advancements in technology should go hand in hand. However, fast improvements in artificial intelligence technologies could cause mass unemployment faster than we thought. Would this impose a threat on our future jobs as well?

The issue was already raised in 2014, just after Google announced their acquisition of DeepMind. DeepMind is a company that is active in the areas of machine learning and deep learning, and people speculated that Google wanted to use DeepMind’s technologies to give ‘brains’ to the robots Google had recently purchased.

In the past, new advances in technology simultaneously created new jobs. Experts, however, are afraid this won’t be the case this time. They warn that robots are gaining enhanced senses and dexterity, which allows them to perform a broader range of manual tasks. Furthermore, robots with AI algorithms in place will be able to substitute human labour in non-routine cognitive tasks, which has not been able before. Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne of Oxford University even suggest that 47% of the jobs could be automated within two decades.

Would our jobs be jeopardized as well? Luckily, it would most likely not influence the jobs we would be aiming for. Studies have researched which jobs are the most vulnerable, which are jobs in logistics, administration, and insurance underwriting. Furthermore, a distinction should be made between AI technologies that replace jobs and AI technologies that help people doing their jobs better. Not all AI technologies are thus replacing human labour, but rather transforming jobs. However, these jobs require new and different skills, meaning that people will become unemployed unless there is a so-called skills revolution.

Nevertheless, it is unsure and hard to predict what the impact will be on unemployment. In my opinion, it is good that experts and academics are raising this issue. What do you think? Will AI have such large consequences on unemployment?

Sources:

Advances in Artificial Intelligence could lead to mass unemployment, warn experts

BoE exec warns of AI job threat

With AI, jobs are changing but no mass unemployment expected – UN experts

Joseph Stiglitz on Artificial Intelligence: ‘We’re going towards a more divided society’