Why you should and shouldn’t be afraid of AI

Emerging technologies like AI are profoundly transforming the economic system and social structure, posing unprecedented challenges. A CUHK expert offers insights on navigating these complexities

By Pan Jingyi, Principal Writer, China Business Knowledge @ CUHK

Following the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has supercharged the possibility to revolutionise the modern industry, rushing Microsoft to invest US$10 billion in OpenAI. This step signalled a race among big tech to incorporate AI into their products. A few months later, Meta introduced its own AI called LLaMa, while Apple recently announced its “Apple Intelligence” system by integrating AI into its gadgets.

The US is not the only one that is trying to get its hands on AI. When OpenAI launched its video-generation model Sora in February this year, many were amazed by its ability to create videos just by typing a cue on a keyboard. Fast forward in June, China’s short-video platform Kuaishou unveiled a text-to-video model named Kling, making it a worthy opponent for Sora. The UK, France, Germany, Israel, India, Japan, and Singapore have also entered the ring in the AI competition.

“AI will not replace humans, but those who don’t make good use of AI [will be replaced].”

Professor Dominic Chan

According to a 2024 AI index report by Stanford University, generative AI funding surged to US$25.2 billion in 2023, nearly nine times higher than the previous year and 30 times the amount recorded in 2019, with generative AI made up more than a quarter of all AI-related private investment. The report also indicates that AI outperforms humans in certain benchmarks like image classification and English understanding, but it still falls short in complex cognitive tasks.

But not everyone is amused. A Global views on AI 2023 survey by market research firm Ipsos found widespread concern about the negative impacts of this advanced technology on employment. Approximately, 57 per cent of 14,782 working adults across 31 countries anticipated that AI would change the way they do their current jobs, while 36 per cent were worried about AI taking their jobs.

How is AI going to impact our society and transform industries? What can people do to get themselves ready for this new era? Dominic Chan, Associate Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship of the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, shared his thoughts on these questions in a masterclass for the school’s EMBA programme titled Embracing technological disruption: Thriving as leaders in the age of AI in April.

Assisted intelligence

In a nutshell, AI refers to the technology that enables computers and machines to emulate human intelligence and tackle problem-solving tasks. The words people hear a lot such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and generative AI, are all interconnected fields within the broader domain of AI. These advanced technologies have been applied to various sectors and industries to streamline processes and improve efficiency. In the realm of business, AI encompasses a wide range of applications, including chatbot assistants, fraud detection, and task automation, among others.

“AI can help you to organise your information or help you automate the process, which makes a big difference in productivity and quality of the work,” Professor Chan says, adding that AI can amplify human abilities.

Professor Chan also highlights that people should view AI as “assisted intelligence”. This perspective underscores the notion that AI serves as a tool to assist people rather than replace them. He notes that AI lacks the ability to think independently and operates based on the training it receives from human input. “AI makes decisions based on mathematics not ethics,” he adds.

Will I lose my job to AI?

Along with the emergence of new technologies throughout history, the topic of job security has once again become a prominent concern, with people expressing apprehensions about being replaced by AI.

To illustrate which types of jobs are most threatened by AI and which types of jobs are likely to be safer, Professor Chan refers to a model proposed by a renowned businessman and computer scientist, Lee Kai-Fu, in his book titled AI superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. According to this model, jobs that primarily require optimisation rather than compassion to be most likely to be replaced, such as truck drivers. Conversely, jobs involving compassion, creativity, or strategic thinking, such as social workers, are less likely to be replaced.

Furthermore, from the analysis of Age Earning Profile, Professor Chan observed very clear shifts in income trends across generations as people age, indicating that the income curve peaks at an earlier age with each subsequent generation. Separately, Professor Chan observed those born between 1986 and 1995 earning less than the previous generations. This phenomenon is partly attributed to the rapid development of technology. Knowledge and skills accumulation held significant value before the 1990s because computers, the internet and AI had not yet become widely available. Now, with the advancement of technology, human knowledge and skills depreciate rapidly.

“The way for most people to create value today is the ability to use technology,” says Professor Chan.

AI poses challenges not only for rank-and-file employees but also for the management. A 2023 report titled Leadership in the age of AI by IBM indicates that 82 per cent of more than 1,600 senior leaders surveyed have deployed or planned to implement generative AI in 2024. Alongside opportunities, the report highlights that business leaders across all sectors grapple with challenges related to skills, ethics, privacy and data security.

“In the past, managers primarily managed people, but today they have to manage the machines as well,” says Professor Chan. “Managers also need to oversee and facilitate the technological interactions between their own organisations and other firms.”

Make good use of technology

While AI has undoubtedly reduced tedious work and enhanced productivity, it is not without flaws. For instance, if you ask AI to generate a picture on the subject of a secluded temple on a mountain, it can present you with glorious images of temples and mountains. However, a human tasked with the same assignment may have different outcomes, which would feature symbols or metaphors that go beyond the literal interpretation of the request. Professor Chan notes that AI doesn’t think by itself but relies on what humans have already done.

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Whether their current job falls into a safe or dangerous zone, everyone needs to be well-prepared for the future coexisting with AI. Professor Chan suggests that individuals who possess complex problem-solving skills, critical thinking, creativity, communication, and compassion (or he calls them 5C abilities) will be better equipped to deal with the challenges ahead.

Finally, Professor Chan encourages people to embrace AI technology and enjoy the ride, as it will make individuals more productive. “AI will not replace humans, but those who don’t make good use of AI [will be replaced].”