Looking for employment opportunities in the AI era
A team of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences released a message saying that artificial intelligence can greatly accelerate the process of new drug research and development — — This may mean that in the near future, not only manual workers are facing transformation, but also scientific research work may be changed by artificial intelligence.
Half-monthly interviews with reporters in Guangdong, Liaoning, Zhejiang and other places found that the progress of artificial intelligence replacing labor force is accelerating, and the depth and breadth of reshaping employment patterns are unprecedented. Employment in some fields may usher in a "turbulent period" and "adjustment period".
In the laboratory of Intelligent Bionics Research Center of Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ma Xunju, a research assistant, tested the walking of exoskeleton robot wearing lower limbs. Photo by Mao Siqian
Artificial intelligence landing contains a lot of employment opportunities.
Let’s review how a large number of employment opportunities were created in the era of mobile Internet.
The 2018 Meituan Rider Takeaway Employment Report released by Meituan shows that more than 2.7 million riders earned income on the platform in 2018, an increase of nearly 500,000 compared with 2017. Among them, 30% of riders earn more than 5,000 yuan a month, and 50% of riders are the main source of family income.
"In the past, delivery was only a full-time job for a few people. Now, the rise of the mobile Internet has made delivery a big employment. " Liu Peichao, founder of Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology, who is engaged in the research and development of intelligent robots, said.
The reporter found that many people in the industry like Liu Peichao take the development of mobile Internet as an example to analyze the impact of artificial intelligence on employment. The rich business model of mobile Internet contains a large number of employment opportunities, and all these are based on the increasingly mature mobile Internet technology and 4G communication technology, and the deep integration with the economy and society.
They believe that employment opportunities in the era of artificial intelligence are likely to have a similar development path with the era of mobile Internet. Therefore, how to further promote the landing of artificial intelligence technology and explore mature business models has become a key factor in creating more employment opportunities.
Just as the Android platform established by Google has greatly promoted the maturity of the mobile Internet business model and ecosystem, some head enterprises are also exploring the "Android" in the era of artificial intelligence.
Since 2018, BYD has not only cooperated with Baidu to develop smart cars, but also explored the open platform "D++" for smart cars. Developers can develop various applications suitable for smart cars on this platform, aiming at creating "Android" for smart cars.
According to the news released by BYD, the "D++" platform provides developers with open interfaces, vehicle data and control rights based on the intelligent architecture and safety policies of automobiles. Next, BYD will also open 66 control rights and 341 sensor parameters about cars to developers.
"Without an open platform, there would be no gathering of mobile App developers, and there would be no such huge mobile phone ecosystem. The same is true in the era of artificial intelligence. The construction of ecosystems contains huge business opportunities and employment opportunities. " Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said.
In fact, whether it is the landing of artificial intelligence technology or the construction of ecosystem, data is the core factor. However, at present, there are scattered data sources in both government departments and commercial enterprises, and a unified platform for storage, analysis and application has not yet been formed, which wastes data resources to some extent and limits the research and application of artificial intelligence in subdivision fields.
Iflytek believes that there may be three paths for artificial intelligence to accelerate its landing: one is to conduct brain science research by combining mathematical statistical modeling and deep learning methods; The second is to make the machine from supervised training to semi-supervised training and then to unsupervised training; The third is to explore the application mode architecture and scientific research methods of man-machine coupling.
The 2019 World Industrial Internet Industry Conference was held in Qingdao. Participants experienced the achievements of the industrial Internet industry in the exhibition area of the conference. Photo by Li Ziheng
The core skills of frontline workers need to be updated.
The reporter’s investigation found that in some smart factories, the core requirements for front-line employees have changed from operating machines to maintaining equipment. A number of business leaders told reporters that they now have lower requirements for workers’ operating skills, "just press a button", but their understanding of smart devices has increased a lot — — Maintenance, maintenance, simple maintenance, have a good concept of quality control, and be familiar with operating system and information system.
How to motivate workers who are used to simple operation to transform into "equipment experts"? Yu Jianjiang, general manager of Hangzhou Engine Co., Ltd. of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, believes that in the past, most workers in the workshop were pieceworkers, and this management method guided employees to work more and get more money, and workers focused on output. After the realization of intelligence, the assessment management methods for workers should be adjusted accordingly. For example, workers are paid according to skill levels, and employees are given a 10-level promotion channel, so as to shift their attention to upgrading their skills and actively learn to maintain, repair and repair equipment.
At present, the company has set up a system of equipment application technicians and application engineers, who will be given corresponding salaries after reaching a certain skill level through examination. The annual salary of employees in the highest-level equipment application positions is more than 100,000 yuan.
Yu Jianjiang also said that the technology and level required by the current workers’ professional titles and professional skills levels have been out of touch with enterprises with intelligent transformation. It is suggested that government departments should also adjust their thinking and pay attention to the opinions of employers in the evaluation of professional titles and skill levels. "Whether the workers are useful or not, the level is high, and the enterprise has the most say."
Of course, it is more important for workers to have the determination and confidence to embrace the changes of the times, constantly improve their skills and adapt to the new employment environment.
He Penglin, from the rural area of Loudi, Hunan Province, came to Shenzhen in 1991 and worked as a worker in an auto repair shop. "The apprentices with me are all primary school students and junior high school students from rural areas. I graduated from high school with the highest level of education." He said.
With the rapid transfer of labor-intensive industries in the Pearl River Delta to the mainland, technology-intensive high value-added industries have quickly taken root in the local area. Worried about his own skill level has become the driving force for He Penglin to constantly update his knowledge.
For more than 20 years, he has studied automobile repair technology, developed a vehicle-mounted remote diagnosis system, which can diagnose automobile faults remotely, accumulate daily data of automobile users, and realize the transformation of repairmen into highly skilled talents. He also has 4 invention patents and 17 utility model patents. Under the trend of intelligence, He Penglin extended the technical route of products to the field of intelligent induction, and developed an auxiliary braking system for monitoring the blind area of large trucks.
"In the past, people often said that one trick is fresh and you can eat all over the world. In fact, this concept is outdated and your core skills must be updated." He said.
In the future, workers should be cross-border "miscellaneous"
In June 2019, Zhongwang Fabric Co., Ltd., a home textile enterprise in Hangzhou, began to build an intelligent factory that was fully informationized and intelligent from ordering, purchasing, manufacturing, inspection, packaging to warehousing. In this regard, the person in charge of this enterprise put forward a rigid requirement: employees recruited in the future can not understand home textiles, but must have relevant knowledge of intelligent manufacturing. Such a requirement may become the norm in the future.
The requirement for the quality of labor force in the era of artificial intelligence highlights the significance and importance of education. Having interdisciplinary thinking mode and learning ability is the key to future education.
Liu Gang, general manager of the emerging innovation business group of Shangtang Technology, believes that artificial intelligence is a comprehensive science involving programming, mathematics, machinery, physics, engineering and other disciplines. Future workers should not only be "experts", but also be "miscellaneous", which requires the ability of cross-border thinking and cross-border innovation.
At present, Shangtang Technology, East China Normal University and the Commercial Press have compiled and distributed the textbook "Artificial Intelligence Basis (High School Edition)", which is being promoted and tried in middle schools in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
"Popular science education and science fiction education in the era of artificial intelligence are very important. In view of the current situation of children’s lack of imagination, a strong popular science atmosphere is needed to open the fence of imagination." Wu Yan, a professor at south university of science and technology of china Science and Human Imagination Research Center, said.
Shenzhen Yuejiang Technology is sending their intelligent robots to the training class of vocational education, so that students can truly feel the working environment under artificial intelligence conditions. Liu Peichao suggested that the orientation of vocational education should be clearer, and it should be further integrated with the technological frontier. Instead of simply operating machines as "tools" and "craftsmen", the goal should be to cultivate new workers with the quality of human-computer interaction. (Half-monthly talk with reporter Chen Yuxuan, Wang Ying and Zhu Han)