The number of ChatGPT monthly users has reached 100 million, which is faster than any other internet application. The benefits of AI technology for business efficiency and productivity are clear. AI is already capable of many "human" jobs, such as diagnosing diseases, serving as translators, customer service, etc., and is gaining momentum.
What does it mean when technology can do many of the tasks that used to be only possible for humans? Substitution is a common topic when people talk about AI today. Sociologist Liu Qing is also a little pessimistic about AI, thinking that if a large number of human workers are replaced, after human beings become pure consumers, will they fall into extreme nihilism while their transcendent characteristics are gradually dulled?
On December 16, Ye Jun, President of DingTalk, launched a cross-border dialogue with Liu Qing on the new human-machine relationship in the future at the Geek Park IF Conference. Ye Jun, an entrepreneur of production tools, is quite optimistic. In his view, human commercial civilization has relied on tools to promote evolution for thousands of years. In these uncertain times, having tools at your fingertips means adding certainty, and he calls on people to embrace technology for a better future for humans and machines.
Don't underestimate humanity
In an interview with the media, Mira Murati, CTO of Open AI, once said, "When you build something so powerful, and it has so many benefits and potential, there are huge potential negative consequences." ”
Since John McCarthy, a professor of mathematics at Dartmouth University, coined the term "AI" in 1955, the "debate" over AI has never stopped, and it has never been as fierce as it is today. In a conversation with Ye Jun, from a sociological perspective, Liu Qing revealed his concerns about AI, and although his research work has benefited from AI, he does not deny the positive significance of AI in improving work efficiency and accelerating economic growth. But he stressed that human progress is multidimensional, and progress on a single number line cannot explain the absolute problem. Moreover, there is a trade-off competition between some dimensions, and even conflicts between goals. "Even if we look at AI as a tool, it has a clear progressive side, but the potential problems it brings are worth reflecting on and doubting, especially the possibility that it may cause a re-division of human society, and we must consider the social and moral impact of the new technological revolution. Liu Qing said.
In his imagination, once humans and AI cooperate smoothly, humans can accomplish many big things with very little manpower, and at a certain stage of development, only 1% of the population in society will be producers, and 99% of people will become consumers. Such a social structure is unheard of and unprecedented for human beings, and once the Matthew effect expands and solidifies the class, it will inevitably have an impact on society.
In fact, from the perspective of human history, for more than 250 years, technological innovation has been the fundamental driving force for economic growth, and general technological innovation represented by electricity, internal combustion engines and the Internet has always been accompanied by the emergence of complementary innovation and a large number of job opportunities. Humanity has never experienced the macro-level unemployment caused by new technologies. Even the "tech madman" Musk has built robots for mass production of Tesla Model 3 many times, but in the end they all failed, leaving the conclusion of "don't underestimate humans".
As for how AI applications will define the "human-machine" relationship, based on DingTalk's experience, Ye Jun's answer is, "Now those who can use AI well are front-line employees, not bosses, but AI gives ordinary people more opportunities." In a digital-analog chip company in Shanghai, because there are thousands of SKUs, one of the business pain points of front-line employees is that almost no one can clearly describe the needs of customers, and it is difficult for them to provide accurate solutions to customers. After using DingTalk, enterprises use DingTalk's AI PaaS capability to "feed" all the previous knowledge accumulation to AI, and after training, AI can now assist employees in customer solution docking, which becomes very efficient. "Today, on the front lines of the manufacturing industry, front-line employees are the group of people who can most directly feel the positive side of technological progress. For them, AI is not a replacement, but an augmentation, enhancing their individual capabilities. ”
It's always a competition between people and people
Whether it is the proposal of AI substitution theory or the question of "1VS99" social division of labor, behind Liu Qing's bold idea is the thinking of humanities scholars on how the social structure will change after the AI power is added to the tool system. In the current complex situation, how should we face the possible setbacks brought about by the changes in the rules of business competition in the AI era?
The reality may not be so bad. Research shows that AI has the greatest impact when it augments, rather than replaces, human capabilities. In 2019, Accenture studied 1,500 companies and found that companies that only used AI to replace human workers had only short-term productivity gains, while those with the most significant performance gains were those that made humans and machines work together. Through this collaboration, humans and AI actively enhance each other's complementary strengths: humans improve leadership, teamwork, creativity, and social skills, and machines work faster, more scalable, and more quantitative. Business activities require these two capabilities to work together.
Ye Jun used a corporate case to describe the real scene after AI technology entered the factory, and looked at the reshaping of the business world by AI from a more rational and pragmatic perspective. After using DingTalk, a photovoltaic manufacturer in Yiwu connected the production plan and production progress of the production workshop with DingTalk digital employees, and did a series of optimization and exclusive training. Now, from data analysts to shop floor directors to factory managers, production decisions such as whether to increase raw materials and whether to make plan adjustments are now faster than ever before. The decision-making efficiency and communication efficiency of the enterprise have been greatly improved.
Nowadays, AI is no longer a tool for specific scenarios and specific fields, it has intervened in all aspects of human existence. In this case, Liu said, to take full advantage of collaboration, humans must know how to improve machine capabilities in the most efficient way. "People have to develop the ability to work with AI, learn to talk to AI, ask good questions, learn to inspire AI, and even harness AI. The acquisition of this ability means that human beings have to open up an infinite learning Xi. ”
Ye Jun agreed, "We have seen that people who use AI well will get more and more opportunities. In essence, this is not a competition between humans and machines, but a competition between people, and it may not be AI that replaces you, but a person who can use AI. ”
Unleash the value of people with AI
For enterprises, AI has reimagined the way humans work while impacting their business, and digital tools have never been more closely aligned with humans. Not only has AI fundamentally changed the way work is done, but its greater impact lies in complementing and augmenting human capabilities, and as the role and value of people in organizations grow, humanistic values in organizations become more prominent.
Under the new business civilization, human beings must learn to use AI to optimize resource allocation, "people's professional ability will become stronger and stronger, and individuals will be released from tedious work, as long as they do their best work well, the rest of the work will be handed over to the market." "In China, as the first national-level work application in China to fully open AI, DingTalk is one of the important advocates and practitioners of intelligent collaborative office. After fully accessing the large model, DingTalk already has intelligent service capabilities.
DingTalk Personal Edition uses AI to enhance individual skills
Ye Jun said that for enterprises, in order to make good use of the advantages of AI, enterprises must also adjust their organizational layout. "Our judgment is that there will be more and more small companies, and even to a certain extent, one person is a company, and one person can influence a company. I believe that an extremely efficient social production relationship will be born gradually. In response to this trend, DingTalk has launched a personal version, emphasizing individual empowerment. Different from the Enterprise Edition, DingTalk Personal Edition is an AI capability system centered on personal capacity building, and everyone can train their own exclusive model according to their own work and life Xi, so as to release the value of people to a greater extent.
Humanism in the enterprise is not only reflected in the release of human value, but also must consider the management change within the organization. "It turns out that the CEO's task is to set strategies, dismantle goals, set projects, and divide tasks. You also have to keep track of the data along the way. In the future, organizations will be flatter. It is also very easy for a manager to understand the information, and he needs to set aside more time to care about his employees and people. From this perspective, AI is love, and future managers will spend more time emotionally. Ye Jun suggested.
At the end of the conversation, although Liu Qing still has concerns about technological development, he also said, "The future prospects are open, and we look forward to welcoming a better post-humanist civilization in the AI era." Ye Jun also said that considering the extensive social impact of AI, as a builder of commercial civilization, DingTalk needs to have a greater sense of responsibility and mission. After all, the success of enterprises and business civilization are created by individuals, and DingTalk is willing to be a tool to help individuals and achieve individuals. "We always believe that when humans actively embrace AI, when AI empowers people and becomes their partners and friends, we look forward to welcoming a better business world and a better human-machine future. ”
Li Zhan | wen