Forrest: AI cannot replace certain things

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaicans are being cautioned to dismiss any notion that artificial intelligence [AI] will take over their jobs, and should instead learn to treat the technology as a tool to help them become more productive in the workforce.

Trevor Forrest, senior adviser in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), told delegates at the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, in Montego Bay, St James that it would be logistically harmful to completely replace human workers with AI.

“We have to overcome the view and the fear that ‘AI is going to replace me’,” said Forrest,  who serves as an adviser to Dr Andrew Wheatley, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for science, technology and special projects.

“We are an employment-driven economy, and when you talk about the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, we talk about how, when you overlay AI with that, the first concern is, ‘it's going to replace me’,” said Forrest, in raising one of the concerns of those who fear AI.

“We need to, through awareness and understanding, let people know that there are certain things AI cannot replace, and that AI is a tool, just like e-mail was back in the 1990s, that helps you do more and to work better,” he continued.

According to Forrest, some companies that chose to replace workers with AI and are now rehiring those persons because they have come to realise the importance of complementing AI with the human element.

“We have not gotten there yet, wholesale, but what we need to do is take those lessons and say, ‘Here is why you need to understand this technology and what it can do’,” said Forrest. “Our big problems are efficiency and productivity, but if you don't know how to use the tools, you can't be efficient and productive.”

During its quarterly press briefing last month, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) warned that AI will displace clerical and professional workers, although research is still ongoing on the potential scale of workforce displacement.

At that time, PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry stated that there are mixed views concerning the analysis of AI’s potential impact, as research has suggested that skilled persons can engage with AI to increase productivity and output.

However, according to Forrest, education on the value of AI must begin at the governmental level.

“The AI Literacy Programme, which is starting in government, is something that the AI Task Force was mandated to create so that we can now educate and equip our people at the government level, and then it will start flowing down to make the process of engagement between the Government and its citizens more efficient,” he said. “You would not believe how many processes we have, where simple application of an AI agent could easily solve the problem, but if the people in that process don't understand, it doesn't happen.”

In the meantime, Christopher Reckord, chairman of the National AI Taskforce and deputy chairman of the Caribbean AI Taskforce, told the conference that AI education needs to be carried out in a manner specific to different industries, and that an examination of Jamaica’s laws is now under way to see how best the country can benefit from AI application.

“Sometimes AI comes across as a bad guy, but it is a new 21st to 22nd Century type of tool,” said Reckord. “We now need to understand how to leverage it and how to benefit it for all, so there is awareness training that needs to happen, not just general awareness, but specific to different industries and different areas to understand how people benefit.

“Another key thing that the task force has been tasked to do now is looking at the laws in the country that need to be adjusted so that the country can benefit,” he added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com