Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Dr. Alexander Wong, the Canada Research Chair in the field of Artificial Intelligence and a professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering, was featured in an article in Manufacturing Automation Magazine to discuss the potential impact and applications of AI in manufacturing.
One
of
the
hottest
topics
at
this
year’s
World
Economic
Forum
in
Davos
was
the
wave
of
automation
expected
from
advances
in
artificial
intelligence
(AI),
and
the
consequent
displacement
of
workers.
This
anticipated
realignment
was
depicted
as
good
or
bad
news
depending
on
who
was
speaking
and
who
was
listening.
“They [executives] see AI as a golden ticket to savings, perhaps by letting them whittle departments with thousands of workers down to just a few dozen,” wrote New York Times business columnist Kevin Roose, citing off-the-record interviews at the event.
Such dramatic scenarios make great headlines, but according to Michael Martin, the national IoT executive for IBM Canada, the emerging scenario, at least in manufacturing, is not about legions of intelligent robots taking over entire plants.
“At IBM, we view AI truly as an augmentation to the human worker,” says Martin. “We don’t see it as a total replacement of workers. That’s a big myth.”
Furthermore, the areas likely to have the most impact are not widely discussed, according to Dr. Alexander Wong, University of Waterloo engineering professor, Canada Research Chair in the area of artificial intelligence, and a founding member of the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute. [Read more]