ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Charities
    5. Coronavirus
    6. Corporate and financial reporting
    7. Business and governance
    8. Ethics
    9. Insolvency
    10. ICAS Research
    11. Pensions
    12. Practice
    13. Public sector
    14. Sustainability
    15. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

How AI makes us more human

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By CA magazine

29 April 2020

Kai-Fu Lee’s career:

  • Education BSc, Columbia University, and PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, both in computer science
  • 1990 Joins Apple as Principal Research Scientist
  • 1996 Joins Silicon Graphics as Vice-President, Web Products
  • 1997 Made President of its Multimedia Software division
  • 1998 Helps to establish Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing
  • 2000 Promoted to Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Interactive Services division
  • 2006 Made President of Google, China
  • 2009 Forms Innovation Works, later renamed Sinovation Ventures. It has to date invested in more than 300 tech companies

The lightning-fast evolution of AI is leading doomsayers to predict global disaster and mass unemployment. But former President of Google China and Sinovation Ventures founder Kai-Fu Lee disagrees – he believes it will help humans rediscover their creativity and compassion.

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) is picking up speed and it’s clear not everybody is as hopeful about these developments as I, a lifelong AI inventor and now investor, am. The briefest of searches of the term makes for a good start in understanding why there is such anxiety about this new technology. Whether through research papers entitled The Rise of the Robots or predictions of mass job displacement, too few people in the world outside innovation labs seem optimistic about the future of a technology which, they fear, will transform our world into some kind of Blade Runner dystopia.

Such fears are not entirely misplaced: the AI programs we’ve created have already proven capable of mimicking and surpassing human brains at many tasks. Within the next 15 years or so, as predominantly Chinese and US companies expand the implementation and development of the technology, AI will be able to do virtually all of our routine tasks.

As a researcher and scientist, I’m proud of these accomplishments. After all, I applied to PhD programmes three decades ago describing AI as the “final step” to understanding ourselves. But, older and wiser, I don’t see AI as a human brain 2.0 – rather, I see it as a chance to rediscover the human heart.

As I alluded to earlier, intelligent machines will increasingly be able to do our jobs, especially routine or repetitive ones. This marks a dramatic shift from previous technological revolutions; the Industrial Revolution which started in the north of England shifted jobs from the home to factories, and the internet revolution spawned whole new industries, displacing – sad as it was – only high-street bookstores and travel agents.

No matter what film directors might think, I can tell you that AI programs cannot cry – or love. Our edge over AI is in creativity and compassion

The pace of developments in AI will make the job displacement as a result of automation in the second half of the 20th century seem small. No matter how sanguine one is about AI – and I consider myself cheerleader-in-chief – none of us should ignore the impact of those jobs. Individuals, businesses and governments need to begin preparing for these changes immediately.

I propose though that this upheaval will reveal the one thing that only human beings are able to create and share with one another: humanity. Or, more specifically, compassion, connection and empathy… what we might simply call love.

Several years ago, an entrepreneur approached me with a problem in his start-up. He had built a bedside companion for elderly people, allowing them to order food, play their favourite music, call their doctor and more. But when he deployed his technologically perfect system in an elderly home, he found that users mainly used one function – the customer service button. The company’s call centre was inundated.

As you might guess, these calls were not about product glitches, but the elderly calling to talk to somebody – about their childhood, their lives and, sadly, why their relatives never visited. This might steer us towards a blueprint for coexistence between people and AI that, far from making humans irrelevant, only increases the meaning in our lives.

Take medicine. In the coming decades, AI will become increasingly accurate in diagnosing treatment for patients. But would you want a cold, robotic voice informing you that you have stage IV lymphoma and a 70% likelihood of dying within five years? The sick will want a compassionate carer who patiently listens to their symptoms and fears, perhaps visits them at home and offers encouragement. Such a carer will not only make patients feel better, but offers the potential for a placebo effect.

Excellent AI tools will emerge, but the human-to human interface is critical

Medical practitioners would be well trained, as now, but with AI storing information about diagnoses and treatments, they would be freed up to practise emotional intelligence too. Such a sea change would not only provide the human touch sometimes lacking in today’s stretched hospitals, but also bring down the cost of healthcare for the individual and the state, too.

Similar synergies could occur in many fields, from teaching to law, and even management consulting. Excellent AI tools will emerge, but the human-to human interface is critical, it ensures we feel listened to. In all these fields, then, employment and quality of service will actually increase, not decrease.

And in areas where employment may decrease, it is vital we start planning for this new human-AI symbiosis. Individuals must ready themselves for new careers and lifelong learning, and businesses should invest in genuine retraining of their workers.

Government must today start to look at supporting those institutional training centres. But more importantly, in future, with increased wealth and tax revenues, it must look to new credits and benefits that support people shifting from displaced work into roles that are currently low paid or voluntary: carers, afterschool workers, environmental volunteers. All areas we agree we need but which are not presently viable careers for many people.

Routine jobs may be replaced by AI, but we can create many compassionate jobs

So, yes, the doom-mongers are right: the “rise of the robots” is here. But we are not heading down some sci-fi, Westworld-style path to dystopia. The tasks that AI will beat us at are not what makes us human. What makes us human is love.

When Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo took on and beat the world’s number one player of the Chinese board game Go, it did not laugh, or smile or go to the bar to celebrate. Its creators simply turned it off. The defeated Ke Jie, in contrast, cried. No matter what film directors might think, I can tell you that AI programs cannot cry – or love. Our edge over AI is in creativity and compassion.

Routine jobs may be replaced by AI, but we can create many compassionate jobs. By freeing us from the routine, and allowing us to find meaning in our lives beyond repetitive work and repetitive paycheques, AI may free us to rediscover what made us human in the first place.


This article first appeared in the May 2020 issue of CA magazine.

Read now

2-23-totumpro 2-23-totumpro
ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: