Distinguished speaker discusses economic impact of automation

9/26/2017 Christina Como, ECE ILLINOIS

Dr. Moshe Vardi, Rice University, spoke about the effects of automation and the AI revolution on the workforce as part of the Distinguished Colloquium Series.

Written by Christina Como, ECE ILLINOIS

Moshe Vardi, Rice Univeristy
Moshe Vardi, Rice Univeristy
On September 14, Professor Moshe Vardi, Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor of Computational Engineering and director of the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology at Rice University, came to the ECE ILLINOIS to discuss the economic discourse surrounding artificial intelligence in his lecture "Humans, Machines, and Work: The Future is Now." The lecture was the second of the fall 2017 semester of the Distinguished Colloquium Series, ECE 500, following the ECE Distinguished Alumni Panel.

With the rapid advance of AI and deep learning, automation continues to impact workforce skills and requirements. While routine jobs will be the first to be replaced by machines, even highly-paid, skilled workers may not escape replacement. In his lecture, Vardi reaffirmed the imminence of the technological revolution and debated the two schools of economic thought on the potential consequences of automation: will advanced technology decimate human necessity in the workforce and result in mass unemployment, or, just as the industrial revolution replaced the hoe with the computer keyboard, will it generate an entirely new scope of careers?

Videos of other speakers at the Distinguished Colloquium are collected in a YouTube playlist.


Share this story

This story was published September 26, 2017.