KOCHI: The fear of job loss owing to the adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robots may be ‘overstated’, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Friday. Humans are very good at adapting themselves to change, he said.
“Two hundred years since the industrial revolution, jobs are still around. People and society adapt to do the things machines cannot do,” Rajan told delegates on the concluding day of #Future, the two-day Global Digital Summit, organised by the state government.
Citing the case of the driver-less car, which, when introduced, killed a person on the road, Rajan said it would take many years before such cars were introduced in the crowded and traffic-frenzied Indian roads. “With technology, across every job there is going to be a restructuring, taking away the routine aspects and leaving the creative and customised aspects of that job,” Rajan, currently professor, Finance, at University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, said. He said going forward he sees humans augmenting machines, and machines augmenting humans. “That’s a more powerful combination,” he said. Even non-routine unskilled jobs such as the job of a gardener, cook in a fast-food joint and even a construction worker is cheaper than a robot now.”
Rajan also urged the government/regulators not to intervene in technology on fear of data or security issues too quickly as it may rule out technological development. “It would make sense to watch it for a while, and decide (whether to intervene or not),” he said. He also said there is no room for complacency, and we need to prepare ourselves.
He said India has to embrace technology and become a leader in the digital transformation taking place around the globe without getting bogged down by unfounded fears of job loss. “What jobs will humans be able to do in 10-15 years that are immune from threat? Jobs that require high intelligence and creativity; jobs that require human empathy and jobs where humans working for us bolster our status in some way,” he said.