5/5 (2)

One of the subjects covered in this course, is the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence (AI). When I discussed this topic with others, I noticed great excitement among them on this topic. For sure they are right, because the possibilities seem endless with AI. However, during these talks, I remembered a tweet of Elon Musk. On August 12^th, he stated that AI is “vastly more risk than North Korea” (Musk, 2017).

 

Not only the founder of Tesla is worried about AI, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking are ‘terrified’ of AI as well. In interviews, Musk stated that AI could be the reason for a World War III. Therefore, he started OpenAI, a non profit organization which focusses on building safe AI. In this blog I will try to discuss the statement of Musk, and show why the future of AI is not just bright and glorious. The ideas presented come from principal ideas of OpenAI.

 

In another statement on AI, Musk holds that AI is a “fundamental existential risk for human civilization” (Sulleyman, 2017). In this interview, he states that accidents, airplane crashes and bad drugs are harmful for individuals in society. They are not harmful for society as a whole. AI, according to Musk, is a possible threat for the whole of society, for all of human civilization.

 

First of all, it should be clear that Musk is not talking about AI that is used by companies like Uber, Google and Microsoft. Musk focusses on artificial general intelligence, some conscious, extremely-intelligent, recursive self improving entity. However, some of the first mentioned ways of AI are nowadays already smarter than human brain. Musk, and plenty of others, are concerned about the idea that these entities will be able to improve themselves and will become such super intelligent entity with its own free will. In this way, mankind will lose its power. This may seem like a futuristic nightmare or like a science fiction movie. But the threat seems real.

 

Furthermore, Musk warns us for AI in another way. In 2017, Musk was one of the 100 signatories calling for a UN-law which bans lethal autonomous weapons. If such artificial intelligent weapon will be developed, armed conflict will be greater than ever. Besides that, such weapons can be used by terrorist against innocent population. In this way, the consequences can not be overseen. Therefore, AI may lead to way more violence.

 

Therefore, the threat consists of two parts. Firstly, the threat of an extremely-intelligent, self learning entity which could develop its own will, by which mankind will lose power. Secondly, the development of AI which can cause enormous violence, and even bigger harms if the wrong people can use them. These threats are only real if the legal situation around AI does not change. Nowadays, it is relatively easy, if you possess knowledge on AI, to make new developments in this field.

 

Elon Musk does also provide a solution for the possible threat. With statements like the title of this blog, Musk tries to make us and the legislative power aware of these developments. According to him, the solution is proactive regulation. Nowadays, regulation in this field is made after something bad happens. As mentioned earlier, AI becomes the most dangerous if the wrong persons are able to work with it. With the statement, he therefore tries to raise attention of persons like Trump, that there is a bigger potential threat than the U.S. president is dealing with right now. Do you think as well, that Trump focusses too little on the potential danger of AI? Are you still as positive on AI as you were before?

 

 

 

 

References:

 

Finlay, S. (2017, August 18). We Should Be as Scared of Artificial Intelligence as Elon Musk Is. Fortune.

Hern, A. (2017, September 4). Elon Musk says AI could lead to third world war. The Guardian.

OpenAI. (2015, December 11). Introducing OpenAI. Retrieved from OpenAI: https://blog.openai.com/introducing-openai/

Musk, E.  (2017, August 12). Tweet: IA is vastly more risk than North Korea. Twitter.

Sulleyman, A. (2017, July 15). Elon Musk: AI is a fundamental risk. Independent.

Vincent, J. (2017, July 17). Elon Musk says we need to regulate AI before it becomes a danger to humanity. The Verge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/5 (1)

In almost every industry, IT development has a large impact on how doing business have changed. However, in some businesses the effect is even more present than in others. One of these industries is the accounting industry. Some accountants say that their job will become redundant in the next 10 years, due to the introduction of artificial intelligence, cloud software en computers which are way smarter then humans. In this blog, I will discuss the question whether a human accountant will disappear in the next years and will be replaced by computers.

As an accountant, you will have to prepare financial statements or have to check whether financial data presented on financial statements correspond with reality. For centuries, there has been a large deficit in the number of accountants. However, this seems to change. According to Axson (2016), in the next couple of years, 80% of accounting tasks will be delivered with automation. Robots are much faster than humans in checking financial statements, thereby, robots are far more reliable, which is highly important in the, on this topic, highly criticised accounting industry. Should accounting professionals therefore become afraid of losing their jobs?

My answer is no, however the job will look different in ten years. According to Attolini (2014) accounting will not be about tools anymore, but about solutions. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence will encourage this change. New machines will be able to compute large amounts of data almost instantaneously. However, humans will be needed to spot inconsistencies and exceptions to the rules. The humans, accountants, will leverage the machines, software and AI to help them to improve client’s financials. The accounting service will more and more become a consulting service. (Attolini, 2014)

Thus, accountants will spend less time on time consuming tasks, which can now instantly be performed by machines. It will lead to more time to work with clients in more effective ways. So, this will mean accountants will spend more time thinking of what the financial numbers mean for the company. In this field, another shift will be present. Accountants will need to be able to analyse financial data presented by machines. (Big) Data analysis therefore will play a big role in the job description of an accountant of the future. (Reams, 2016)

Besides that, accounting will become more and more focused on ethics. Accounting is not black or white, in many circumstances there is a large grey area. Robots won’t be able to make decisions in this grey areas. Human mind and consideration is needed to fill such ethical grey area. The value of accounting is accountability. Humans will always be needed to held accountable for specific choices. In the short term, computers will not be held responsible for things they have produced or approved. (Hamada, 2014)

In my opinion, technology is never promising on its own. It is for sure that technology have changed and will change the accounting profession. However, in the near future, humans will be needed for accounting solutions, ethical issues and to be held responsible. Therefore, I would say that that AI, cloud computing and smart computers is changing the accounting profession, but is not making it disappear. What do you think of the technological development in this industry? Doesn’t it make accountancy make more appealing, or do you indeed believe accountants will become redundant?

Bibliography
Attolini, G. (2014, September 24). The Evolution of an Accounting Practice: The Impact of Technology. Retrieved from International Federation of Accountants: https://www.ifac.org/global-knowledge-gateway/practice-management/discussion/evolution-accounting-practice-impact
Axson, D. (2016). Finance 2020: Death by digital The best thing that ever happened to your finance organization . Accenture .
Chua, F. (2013). Technology trends: their impact on the global accountancy profession. Accounting Futures Academy. Boston: The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants,.
Hamada, O. (2014, June 19). Will accounting jobs be obsolete in the next 20 years as computers can do it much better? Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/Will-accounting-jobs-be-obsolete-in-the-next-20-years-as-computers-can-do-it-much-better
Pasqurosa, N. (2016, August 3). How Technology Is Changing The Accounting And Bookkeeping Industry. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2016/08/03/how-technology-is-changing-the-accounting-and-bookkeeping-industry/#547765ca51ba
Reams, L. (2016, October 11). Will Artificial Intelligence And Cloud Accounting Replace The Accountants Of Tomorrow? Retrived from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2016/10/11/will-artificial-intelligence-and-cloud-accounting-replace-the-accountants-of-tomorrow/#35332ebcca4a