Insights March 1st, 2017

Each week on a Wednesday Nikolas Badminton, Futurist highlights the top stories from the past week relating to the incredible rise of artificial intelligence and its application in society, the workplace, in cities, and in our lives.
In Artificial Intelligence Bulletin – Tackling Suicide we see Facebook stepping up to tackle suicide, AI changing companies, Bill Gates’ opinion, and the future of work.

Facebook turns to artificial intelligence to tackle suicides

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In January, a 14-year-old foster child in Florida broadcast her suicide reportedly on Facebook Live, according to the New York Post.
Facebook is already using artificial intelligence to monitor offensive material in live video streams.
The company said on Wednesday that the updated tools would give an option to users watching a live video to reach out to the person directly and report the video to Facebook.
Facebook will also provide resources, which include reaching out to a friend and contacting a helpline, to the user reporting the live video.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for 15-29 year olds.
Suicide rates jumped 24 percent in the United States between 1999 and 2014 after a period of nearly consistent decline, according to a National Center for Health Statistics study.
Read more at Reuters

How AI Is Changing The Way Companies Are Organized

Artificial Intelligence may still be in its infancy, but it’s already forcing leadership teams around the world to reconsider some of their core structures.

Advances in technology are causing firms to restructure their organizational makeup, transform their HR departments, develop new training models, and reevaluate their hiring practices. This is according to Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends Report, which draws on surveys from over 10,000 HR and business leaders in 140 countries. Much of these changes are a result of the early penetration of basic AI software, as well as preparation for the organizational needs that will emerge as they mature.

AI is definitely not eliminating jobs, it is eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating new jobs

“What we concluded is that what AI is definitely doing is not eliminating jobs, it is eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating new jobs, and the new jobs that are being created are more human jobs,” says Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte. Bersin defines “more human jobs” as those that require traits robots haven’t yet mastered, like empathy, communication, and interdisciplinary problem solving. “Individuals that have very task-oriented jobs will have to be retrained, or they’re going to have to move into new roles,” he adds.
The survey found that 41% of respondents have fully implemented or made significant progress in adopting AI technologies in the workforce, yet only 15% of global executives say they are prepared to manage a workforce “with people, robots, and AI working side by side.”

Bill Gates: This Will Be the Biggest Technological Breakthrough of Our Lifetime

During a recent reddit AMA, Bill Gates said he believes the biggest breakthrough in artificial intelligence will be when computers can read and understand information like humans do.
While we do have far to go before AI can accurately mimic human reasoning, several companies are making huge strides in developing the technology.

The big milestone is when computers can read and understand information like humans do. There is a lot of work going on in this field – Google, Microsoft, Facebook, academia,… Right now computers don’t know how to represent knowledge so they can’t read a text book and pass a test.
Bill Gates

You can see the full AMA here.
Read more at Futurism

The Future Of Work: The Intersection Of Artificial Intelligence And Human Resources

Artificial intelligence is transforming our lives at home and at work. At home, you may be one of the 1.8 million people who use Amazon’s Alexa to control the lights, unlock your car, and receive the latest stock quotes for the companies in your portfolio. In total, Alexa is touted as having more than 3,000 skills and growing daily. In the workplace, artificial intelligence is evolving into an intelligent assistant to help us work smarter. Artificial intelligence is not the future of the workplace, it is the present and happening today.
IBM and a number of startups are targeting intelligent assistants, also known as chatbots, or computer algorithms designed to simulate a human conversation, to recruit employees, answer HR questions, or personalize learning experiences. A survey of nearly 400 chief human resource officers conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that half of the survey sample recognize the power of cognitive computing to transform key dimensions of HR, such as HR Operations, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Development.
Just as marketers have discovered the power of chatbots to personalize a shopping experience, HR leaders are starting to pilot chatbots to transform the employee experience.
Investment in AI has accelerated from $282 million in 2011 to $2.4 billion in 2015, a 746% increase in five years. In 2016, this continued to increase with roughly another $1.5 billion being invested in more than 200 AI-focused companies in 2016.
Read more at Forbes