Transforming Jobs in the Age of AI
人工智能时期的事情变革
文 / 乔·卢克·巴恩斯 译 / 周晓玲
By Joe Luc Barnes
文章摘选自《英语天下》第7期
The future of labor in a digital economy has become a heated topic alongside the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). Will the proliferation of AI and robotics herald human redundancy as a working species?
自人工智能(AI)涌现以来, 数字经济时期劳动力的未来已成为一个热门话题。AI 和机器人技能的广泛利用，是否预示着作为事情物种的人类将会变得多余？
This prospect has inspired pessimism in many Western countries that is not shared by most Chinese. Indeed, according to a survey compiled by the Dentsu Aegis Network1, just 18 percent of British and German citizens feel that new digital technologies will create job opportunitiesover the next five to ten years. In China, acountry with a labor force of around 800 million, 65 percent of people believe that AI will create even more work.
浩瀚西方国家对此征象心坎不安，而大部分中国人却不然。的确，根据电通安吉斯集团的一项调查，只有 18% 的英国和德国公民认为新数字科技会在今后的 5 到 10 年创造出新的事情岗位。在拥有约 8 亿劳动力人口的中国，则有 65% 的人相信 AI 会创造出更多事情机会。
1 电通安吉斯集团属于电通集团（Dentsu Group，日本最大的广告与传播集团），供应高水准的媒体、数字和创意传播做事。
Government backing
政府扶持
A major factor is that few governments are embracing the digital age with as much gusto as China. In July 2017, China’s State Council set a national goal of becoming the world’s primary AI innovation center, aiming to foster an AI industry that produces in excess of one trillion yuan (US$147.7 billion) by 2030.
一个主要缘故原由是，少有他国政府如中国一样平常激情亲切拥抱数字时期。2017 年 7 月，中国国务院确立了国家发展目标，要争取成为天下紧张人工智能创新中央，到 2030 年形成总值超一万亿元公民币（1477 亿美元）的 AI 家当。
Such enthusiasm has seeped right down to the municipal level, with local governments especially keen to support startups in the sector.
这种激情亲切已渗透至市政层面，地方政府尤其重视扶持 AI 初创企业。
“The business environment in China and especially Shanghai is very attractive,” says Stéphane Truong, founder of Actionable Data, an AI consultancy service company. “I have seen a lot of initiative from several city districts such as collaboration with incubators2 to propose ancillary services, organizingcompetition for financial subsidies and providing a flexible fiscal policy.”
“中国，尤其是上海的营商环境极具吸引力，”AI 咨询做事公司安潮信息科技创始人斯特凡·张说，“上海市几个区政府积极推出了多项举措，比如与创业孵化中央互助供应干系做事，组织企业争取财政补贴，以及供应灵巧的财政政策。”
2 incubator 企业孵化中央，也称企业孵化器或高新技能创业做事中央，是一种新型的社会经济组织，通过供应研发、生产、经营的园地，通信、网络与办公等方面的共享举动步伐，系统的培训和咨询，政策、融资、法律和市场推广等方面的支持，降落企业的创业风险和创业本钱，提高企业的成活率和成功率。
But Beijing has perhaps created the most fertile environment for tech startups. The capital’s Zhongguancun area is known as China’s “Silicon Valley” due to concentration of tech startups based there. Its proximity to China’s two premier academic institutions, Peking and Tsinghua universities, makes it a happy hunting ground for new talent.
不过，为科技初创公司供应最有利环境的城市可能还数北京。北京的中关村落集中了大量科创公司总部，因而以“中国硅谷”著称。临近中国两所顶级学府——北京大学和清华大学，中关村落是新秀求职的空想之地。
Disappearing jobs
岗位消逝
One startup is Oriental iFly, which aims to use AI to create an automatic grading system for essays that provides instant feedback to teachers on students’ work and saves time spent marking.
东方讯飞教诲科技有限公司正是这样一个初创企业。它致力于利用 AI 技能建构作文自动评分体系，并即时向西席供应反馈，节省西席批改作业的韶光。
I asked one of the company’s product designers, Kailin Xie, whether this innovation might put teachers out of work.
我讯问该公司的一位产品设计师谢凯琳（音），这种创新是否会使西席失落业。
“Teachers aren’t hired to grade,” she asserts. “As long as there are students, teachers will be necessary. Grading is just an extraneous part of the job. Our product enables a teacher to save dozens of hours a week on marking essays.”
“老师的职责不是批改作业，” 她说，“ 只要还有学生，西席就必不可少。批改作业并非一定要由西席来做。我们的产品能使老师每周节约几十小时批改学生作文的韶光。”
Is a school likely to pay those teachers the same for less work? Or will it instead use those extra hours to give them more classes, which would reduce personnel requirements?
那么，西席事情韶光减少后，学校会支付他们同样的人为吗？会不会哀求他们用省下的韶光去上更多的课，以减少雇用人数？
Such questions could be some of the defining issues of the digital age. Should companies use AI to increaseproductivity and profits, or do they alsohave a duty to improve the day-to-day routine of their employees?
在数字时期，以上这类问题可能非常关键。公司应否利用 AI 来提高生产效率和利润？是否也有责任优化员工的日常事情？
Business optimism
商业前景乐不雅观
Much of the tech community has adopted the belief that these problems will simply sort themselves out. This is certainly the attitude of Stuart Leitch, founder of Lollipop.ai, a Seattle and Shanghai-based software company that uses AI to improve customer engagement3 with online products. “Firms have a very bad habit of hiring for unnecessary positions. The employees aren’t bad, but their duties usually involve repetitive, brainless and low-value work.”
大部分科技行业从业人士相信，随着韶光推移，这些问题自然会迎刃而解。Lollipop.ai 公司创始人斯图尔特·利奇显然也持这种态度。这是一家总部位于西雅图和上海的软件公司，利用 AI 技能提升在线产品的顾客契合度。“许多公司存在一种积弊，即为不必要的岗位招聘。虽然招来的员工本色并不差，但他们每每从事着 重复性、无须动脑、低代价的事情。”
3 customer engagement 顾客契合，是一种生理状态，它是由在核心做事关系中与核心机构 / 客体(如品牌)互动、共创顾客体验产生的，在共创代价的做事关系中以一种动态的、重复性的过程存在。
“We want to release people from those positions and reduce the cost of that kind of work so those people can do more meaningful things. At the end of the day, we expect to create jobs across industries rather than put people out of work,” explains Leitch.
“我们想要将员工从这些岗位中解放，减少这类事情的本钱，使他们能做更故意义的事。归根结底，我们期望在各个行业创造就业岗位，而不是使人失落业。”利奇阐明说。
But what of the manufacturing jobs that have served as the backbone of China’s economic growth? Many are likely to go, admits Denny Xu, vice president of the Shanghai Haihe IT Company, which produces intelligent speech robots.
长期以来，中国经济发展的支柱是制造业，该行业的事情岗位又会若何变革呢？上海海河信息科技有限公司副总裁徐敏波承认，很多岗位会消逝。该公司从事智能语音机器人生产。
“AI will change future employment trends and patterns,” he explains. “Now, the labor force is too costly, so lower-level labor will largely be replaced by AI-related technology. But humans won’t be completely unnecessary— human-machine coupling will become a future trend for enterprises and busi- nesses.”
“AI 会改变未来的雇用趋势和模式，”他阐明道，“当下劳动力太昂贵，因此低层次劳动力很大程度上会被 AI 干系技能所取代。不过人类并非完备多余——人机领悟将会成为企业的未来趋势。”
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