RPA, or robotic process automation, is becoming an increasingly disruptive force within the global economy. A complete transformation of labour — a Fourth Industrial Revolution — is already upon us, driven by advances in the areas of artificial intelligence. AI has already begun to impact both the philosophy and practice of business, and as it accelerates to include a wider range of applications, will become increasingly intertwined in all areas of life.
For millennial workers today, the workplace is changing beneath our feet. Technology jobs may offer flexible perks and benefits, and technology itself clears a path for efficiencies untold — but is there anything lost in the ongoing quest to further quantify, automate, and outsource natural human intelligence? A thorough examination of its
ethical implications is imperative as both its power and reach becomes more total.
The Evolution of Automation
The evolution of technology triggers an avalanche of societal and economic consequences. And the greater marriage of human intelligence to machine intelligence has, throughout history, meant many unforeseen changes. Incorporating more advanced AIs into our world means many new questions, as these bots are (at least in some sense) working as functional participants in society. How should they be programmed to make
choices that reflect an ethical awareness and responsibility?
AIs, fundamentally, are computer programs capable of autonomous decision-making. Within the last 300 years, automation technology has disrupted the lives of all human workers. When work first moved from the farm to the factory in the 19th century, labour met a new reality — the meaning of a “job” was redefined as people left behind an agricultural life for public work in mills and factories powered by machinery. Automated manufacturing gained further momentum during World War II in the manufacture of military supplies. In the 1950s and 60s, following the war, the United States experienced a second period of industrial upheaval. Many companies introduced newly sophisticated computers to the workforce, automating processes and functions to gain competitive advantage.