This week, 14,281 people from 90 countries hit Hong Kong for RISE 2017, an annual tech start-up conference. Attendees were polled for their views on four big questions surrounding an industry that seems to be changing the world byte by byte. Here’s a sneak preview of the results.
Will China overtake Silicon Valley?
In the past, China has been accused of copying ideas from the west and running with them. In recent years, however, people have started to reconsider whether the “copycat” label is fair to China, and whether it has emerged as a “trailblazer” in the technology industry.
The RISE poll indicates a slight majority have more faith in the growing tech innovations coming from China than they do in the presumed bellwether of groundbreaking tech, Silicon Valley.
“In the past, many internet companies would have to categorise themselves as the Chinese equivalents of Google or Twitter, etc, when they go overseas,” said Jing Ulrich, Vice Chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase (Asia Pacific). “These days, many Chinese companies are actually leading in the world of technology, in terms of mobile payment, internet finance, drone manufacturing, new social media and artificial intelligence.”
Besides closing the gap on the west, Ulrich added that China’s tech innovations are also being “diffused” to other parts of the world. In Southeast Asia, for example, Indonesia’s largest e-commerce site, Tokopedia, is marketing itself as the “Taobao of Indonesia,” while Paytm is called the “Alipay of India.” Taobao and Alipay are the flagship products of China’s Alibaba Group.
How important are college degrees?
It seems technology has not totally eliminated people’s regard for the college degree. Most attendants still believe college degrees are crucial – although not for all positions.
What problems does technology have?
According to the tech community, age-old struggles of class and race are far less of a problem in the sector than sexism and ageism. The industry’s sexism problem has been widely discussed, but do tech companies need gender quotas to balance gender representation?
“I don’t believe in quotas,” said Melissa Guzy, the founding partner of Arbor Ventures in a RISE debate. “What we need is more women studying computer sciences, mathematics and statistics, and then they will be able to get jobs in tech companies, and to contribute in a meaningful way.”
Will Artificial Intelligence steal people’s jobs?
Overwhelmingly, those polled think AI is likely to deplete human jobs – and soon. The voting dots are, literally, off the chart. Anxieties about AI stealing our jobs are, it seems, acute, even among those currently working in the industry itself.
Ron Baetiong, the founder and CEO of ChatbotPH, a Philippines-based chatbot developer, cited call center and phone-answering jobs as one area of work that is vulnerable and likely to be eliminated soon by AI.
“I may be the one who helps to take their jobs,” said Baetiong, “but I believe human beings [can have better lives] than repeating tedious mechanical works.”
Things are increasingly going into automation here in the States. Traditional stores are closing up all the time; McDonalds and other food outlets are seeking ways to lower costs through increased automation.
Fact is over time, robots cost a whole lot less to purchase, maintain, and operate for many types of jobs, than the costs of keeping people in those same relatively low skill jobs.
People are chosing to purchase from Amazon rather than from their local retailers. Amazon employs robotics for stocking and shipping, as well as for a huge number of other tasks. Who can blame workers who have found their wages becoming increasingly less over time, from deciding to shop online rather than purchase at local retailers?
Other elements forcing automation and workforce reductions are increasing minimum wages and intransitant work unions. America cannot make electronics goods in the high volumes demanded, simply because we have neither the trained workforce nor ability to scale productions as needed. China does; yet increasingly, China is losing that edge as well, as their wage earners demand more, and its factories move to other lower-wage countries, much like Japan started doing in the 1960-70s.
We will increaslingly have two major classes of people in America, with few in between. There will be those at the very lowest end of society, perhaps upwards to 70% of the American population within 30 years, who will either be unemployed, unemployable, underemployed, or hoping through further training to move up to the upper class. The upper class will not be solely determined by income anymore, but rather by the ability to earn a wage that would seem like today’s middle class or above. They will be the people fixing the machines, running the businesses, fixing the businesses, government employees (both civilian and military), or the traditional upper-class politiicans (within all political parties) and business people.who will be making sure we get the newest generation of corporate jets and electronic gizmos.
AI will not have a huge, direct part in this, but AI-controled technology will.
“I may be the one who helps to take their jobs,” said Baetiong, “but I believe human beings [can have better lives] than repeating tedious mechanical works.”
And therein lies the heart of the problem. Technology seeks to liberate the human being from repetitive drudgery, while Capitalism demands that we work or starve.
How do we find a balance that rewards innovation while not punishing people for simply being alive?