Artificial intelligence could replace up to 80 per cent of human jobs in the coming years, according to US-Brazilian researcher and artificial intelligence guru Ben Goertzel. He is a mathematician, cognitive scientist, creator of robots, and the founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a research group focused on creating "Artificial General Intelligence," or AGI, which is artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities.
"You could probably obsolete maybe 80 per cent of jobs that people do, without having an AGI, by my guess. Not with ChatGPT exactly as a product. But with systems of that nature, which are going to follow in the next few years,” Goertzel told AFP in an interview.
At the recent Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Goertzel spoke out against efforts to curb artificial intelligence research and said that AGI is only a few years away. He argued that the potential loss of jobs due to AI is not a threat, but rather a benefit. He said that people can find better things to do with their lives than work for a living and that most jobs involving paperwork can be automated.
"I don't think it's a threat. I think it's a benefit. People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living... Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable,” he added.
However, Goertzel also acknowledged that there will be social issues during the interim period when AI is obsoleting one human job after another. He said he doesn't know how to solve all of these issues, but it's important to consider them.
Despite the potential job losses, Goertzel's vision for AGI is optimistic. He believes that AGI can help solve some of the world's biggest problems, such as poverty, climate change, and disease. AGI could also help us better understand ourselves and our place in the universe, he said.
"The problem I see is in the interim period, when AIs are obsoleting one human job after another... I don't know how (to) solve all the social issues," he concluded.
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