Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Guardian sustainable business business futures What will artificial intelligence mean for the world of work?
 Machines are good at complex tasks, but not at activities that humans find simple.
 The answer is for people and computers to work together Business woman surrounded by robots.
 future are made by machines?
 Photograph: Blutgruppe/Blutgruppe/Corbis Guardian sustainable business business futures What will artificial intelligence mean for the world of work?
 Machines are good at complex tasks, but not at activities that humans find simple.
 The answer is for people and computers to work together Lynda Gratton Lynda Gratton is professor of management practice at London Business School Tue 17 Feb ‘15 16.
00 GMT Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18.
18 GMT What can scientists tell us about business?
 I had an opportunity to consider this important question when, earlier this year, I led a debate with four professors from the University of California, Berkeley, who were experts in artificial intelligence, neuroscience and psychology.
 The question under discussion was one of the most troubling of our time: will machines ever make better decisions than humans?
 This is a crucial question for those interested in the future of business.
 What impact will machines, be they computers or robots, have on the way we work?
 There are those who argue that up to 60% of the work we currently do will, within two decades, be entirely replaced by machines.
 This process is already happening.
 The hollowing out of what we understand as work has already seen many medium-skilled jobs disappear as executives’ smartphones replace their secretaries and assistants are made redundant by automatic filing systems and Wikipedia.
 The ethics of AI: how to stop your robot cooking your cat Read more At the debate, I asked the audience members what they believed: would machines eventually make better decisions than humans?
 Around 50% agreed and 50% disagreed; there is no consensus on such a tricky question.
 The first issue with the problem of future decision-making is well-known to scientists specialising in artificial intelligence.
 It is best described in Moravec’s paradox: why is it that computers are very good at undertaking tasks that require speed and precision, and which humans find difficult (such as solving mathematical equations, playing chess, or even driving cars), and yet bad at tasks we humans find simple, such as clearing coffee cups from a table?
 The psychologist Alison Gopnik studies babies.
 She states that, today, machines are not as smart as a two-year-old child.
 Though they may not be able to play chess or drive, two-year-olds can do lots of things that a computer cannot: create theories, make hypotheses, figure out how things work, imitate and – most importantly – learn and be creative.
 Moravec’s ultimate argument is that computers are great at reasoning, but the often unconscious, sensorimotor knowledge that has evolved in the human brain over billions of years is impossible to imitate.
 The second issue is the question of values and morality.
 We humans make decisions on the basis of our values.
 Can computers have values?
 The artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell argues that it is already possible to programme computers on the basis of utility, in terms of gaining the highest-value outcome.
 However, programming is still carried out on the basis of the values of the programmer.
 As our panel observed, human decisions are about emotions and we make decisions cognitively and viscerally.
 This comes from the evolution of the frontal cortex that took place over the last two million years.
 How can the constant changing of consensus on values be programmed?
 Driverless cars - the future of transport in cities?
 Read more Computers cannot make decisions better than humans right now, but it may be possible given time.
 Certainly with regard to sheer computing power, the technology is developing fast.
 Recent developments in cloud computing are enabling the connection of millions of devices, and that has enormous potential for the amplification of any moral or ethical imperative through a network of machines.
 But, as Professor Ken Goldberg believes, it is likely to be through the combination of computers and people that real progress will be made.
 This echoes my own findings, in the study of open innovation, that it is the combination of diverse minds that brings forth the ideas that prove to be the basis of innovation.
 In this area at least, scientists have much to tell us about how the world of work and the organisations we work for will develop.
 Even if there is no consensus on timeframes, the direction of travel is clear: there is a great deal more for us to explore in the interface between humans and machines.
 • A version of this article first appeared on Lynda Gratton’s blog, FoWLAb The business futures hub is funded by The Crystal.
 All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “brought to you by”.
 Find out more here.
 This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.
 Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox.
 Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading?
 most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved.
 y]