The Case for Artificial Intelligence Creating Jobs: Why AI is not the end of the human labor market3/21/2017 Alyssa J Freitas
From radio shows, to blogs, to podcasts, to newspapers, to media sites (not including Facebook, of course, but that’s an article for another day), we hear the cry that AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is coming to take over our jobs and eliminate the need for humans. AI refers to technologies including machine learning, cognitive computing, and the use of neural networks, among others. Fears are emerging that as these technologies become more sophisticated and increase in capabilities they will be able to perform tasks better than humans. Therefore, many pessimists reason, pretty soon there won’t be any jobs left for human beings to do and the world as we know it will be turned upside down. While it is true that AI will be able to take over and automate some tasks in the near future (think: administrative duties, research, etc.), we have also seen and realized the potential of machines to execute complex activities, such as autonomous driving and medical diagnosis. These capabilities do reduce the need for human beings to perform (having a greater impact on unskilled labor), causing some to cry out that this is the demise of the human workforce. However, what is missing from this supposition is an understanding of history and the growth of opportunity that will come from AI. First, let us look at history, one of our best teachers. Once upon a time most of the population was employed in agriculture. In the 1800s nearly 80% of the U.S. population was in an agricultural role, compared to only 2% in 2010. Then something started to happen: technology developed enabling us to not only increase our productivity here in the United States, but trading food globally became more feasible. This meant that many agricultural jobs were eliminated and people had the same fear that exists about AI today. What we saw happen, however, was that this increase in productivity provided great benefits for society as a whole. With decreasing food prices, less labor needed for production, and the ability to dedicate more resources to other high value activities, the benefits have clearly outweighed the lost jobs. Additionally, while some jobs are eliminated due to AI, many others will be created. At the recent World Economic Forum IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty pointed out that what will emerge is the continuing partnering of man and machine. Doctors can get access to information and recommendations in a new, comprehensive way enabling them to treat patients more effectively. Teachers will be able to use cognitive computing to better understand student needs and personalize lessons. Financial institutions will have tools to work with and interpret regulations, freeing up time to instead focus on creating customer value and controlling risk. As we have seen in the past, more wants emerge as our technology improves. There will always be human desires to be fulfilled, thus there will always be jobs to perform. By working with AI and making use of our increased productive time to be innovative and creative, we will continue to realize benefits as we have throughout all of history. Until the day comes when we no longer have any wants and needs, there will be work for humans to get done.
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Paul Mulholland & Kristen Borowski
Left I realized later than most that Trumpanzees have no standards whatsoever. After the Iowa Caucuses, having lost to Ted Cruz many insisted Trump had in fact won because nobody expected him to come this far at all, and more importantly, it was the first time people had come out to vote for him. About a year later, we are confronted with the same problem: could Donald Trump lose his supporters under any circumstances? Don’t count on it. Trump supporters do not seem discouraged that Trump’s recent executive order is not the total ban on Muslims that Trump supporters were promised during the campaign. The non-discrimination of the order is at least as worrisome as its discrimination. Trump cut the number of refugees the U.S. is to accept this year in half regardless of origin (more refugees come from Congo than any other country), and banned all Syrian refugees indefinitely. He also banned all nationals of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Syria from entering the U.S. for 90 days (can terrorists come in on the 91st day? No, terrorists aren’t allowed in to begin with!) Thus far, he has prevented several professors, Yazidi refugees (non-Muslim polytheists that ISIS tried and failed to exterminate), and about 500 Iraqis granted U.S. visas for assisting the U.S. military. He has inconvenienced foreign workers of Google and Microsoft far more than any jihadist outfit. Meanwhile, according to The Economist, not one “terrorist” attack has been committed by a citizen of the seven countries in the last ten years. And the order only discriminates against less than 10% of the world’s terrorists-to-be. Donald Trump has fallen short of his own stupid policy. The order reads, “The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law.” Now that is a proposition worth considering, especially its second half. But does it apply to everyone in these seven countries? This is not vetting or monitoring. US law already requires a visa for those who have visited Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Iran; as our right columnist explains in detail. What she should have justified was the ban, not the visa requirement, if only because that is what we are talking about here. The Courts have stayed the order on Due Process and Equal Protection grounds and it is currently being appealed. But Trump’s clownish and sinister attempt to ban a religion and explicit contempt for the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, make Americans less safe and reaffirm, again, one of Trump’s few honest statements “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Right I don’t why it is so hard for people to understand that President Trump’s Executive Order is not a Muslim ban. It is a way to monitor immigration into our country by vetting immigrants and asylum seekers and keeping out those seeking to bring harm to the United States. To the Democrats and liberals who think so poorly of this Executive Order: read the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. Per a January 21, 2016 press release from the Department of Homeland Security, “travelers in the following categories are no longer eligible to travel or be admitted to the United States under the VWP: Nationals of VWP countries who have traveled to or been present in Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria on or after March 1, 2011...Nationals of VWP countries who are also nationals of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria.” (Read the full bill here.) So President Trump didn’t single out these countries; President Obama did so long before. Now what do you have to say? According to the Pew Research Center, the top ten countries in 2010 with the largest Muslim populations are Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco. One out of the the ten countries here made the ban. The Left columnist is distracted by old news about the Iowa Caucuses and Ted Cruz...I guess you fell asleep on November 8; the Electoral Map spoke for itself as did the people. We don’t want to continue down the liberal path; we don’t want to have a problem, similar to that of Europe, and their millions of “refugees” who have driven trucks through crowds and have ruthlessly murdered innocent people. President Trump is preventing that by taking care of immigration properly and legally, i.e. following strict vetting and security procedures. Time to take off the rose colored glasses and check the facts. The Washington Examiner cites a report by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest that 72 people from the 7 banned countries have been convicted of terrorism. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the terrorists behind the November 2015 Paris attacks, spent a lot of time training with ISIS in Syria. Newsflash to the left: ISIS plays by their own rules. They don’t care about policy or protocol--they care only about their caliphate and bringing destruction to the West. While we sit around and bicker over semantics, they are strengthening themselves. When you arrive home each night, what do you do? You close your front door behind you and lock it to protect yourself and your family. Wake up--bad people live in this world and want to harm good people. We can prevent it by staying vigilant and protecting our freedom. United we stand against the Islamic terrorist threat; divided we fall. 1. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/01/21/united-states-begins-implementation-changes-visa-waiver-program 2. https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/158/text 3. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/muslims/pf_15-04-02_projectionstables74/ 4. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-72-convicted-of-terrorism-from-trump-7-mostly-muslim-countries/article/2614582 5. http://news.sky.com/story/abaaoud-profile-of-man-behind-paris-attacks-10339387 Sean Lange
With references to truffles and a variety of cheese on his résumé, and a strong record of dedication to small businesses, Jon Steinberg may be naturally viewed as a patron of the innumerable family-owned gourmet delis popular in the New Jersey-New York area. But rather than streetside grocers, Steinberg specializes in millennials’ streaming choices. The 1999 Princeton grad’s senior thesis presciently predicted how the newest generation of Americans would use the Internet for widespread public expression; as Buzzfeed’s CEO from 2012 to 2014, Steinberg grew the kaleidoscope of viral videos, breaking news, and frivolous quizzes into the social media epicenter for adolescents. First hired by Google to run its Small-Medium Business Partnerships team, Steinberg eventually left to run Buzzfeed and serve as DailyMail’s U.S. CEO. However, the expertise he gained from developing Silicon Valley start-ups led to advisor roles for many other embryonic e-companies, including Bustle, TheSkimm, and Taboola. Steinberg’s work with digital entertainment outposts cracked the threshold of stardom in 2015 when he launched the video publishing service Truffle Pig, a collaboration of his Daily Mail network and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s production team, at the Cannes Film Festival. The inceptive tagline captured Steinberg’s latest theory on online videos: “Truffles are like great content. Rare, prized and loved by everyone. But it takes a certain kind of beast to find them. To get truffles, you need a Truffle Pig.” The media mastermind didn’t always embrace the correlation between foraging the fancy fungi and cultivating custom content. But as data emerged that Buzzfeed’s millennial audience only viewed fractions of videos and quickly glossed over analytic media posts, Steinberg became concerned that the short, shareable, trend-ready videos were too ephemeral and too myriad to be meaningful. This issue became especially relevant this week, as users confused suspect memos about Donald Trump, going viral on social feeds and posted among Buzzfeed’s collage of content, or legitimate news stories. Chief editor Ben Smith insisted that the company’s signature obligation is to publish any and all material popularly circulating the internet, regardless of its verity. In 2016, Steinberg founded an antithesis: Cheddar, a platform that live streams video feed like network television. Instead of brief clips and animations, the website airs cutting-edge interviews with corporate luminaries, or real-time critical commentary from the Oscars. Cheddar also streams two hours daily from the NYSE floor. While officially covering the realms of business, technology, and entertainment, the in-depth videos that Cheddar researches and edits are focused for the business-savvy, the tech-minded, the media junkie, and the sophisticated millennial viewer. Like how the appetite for fine food in Princeton is catered by numerous novelty vendors rather than a single superstore, Steinberg is serving the top-tier desire for viral news in boutique broadcasts —cheese shop-style. JoAnna DiCicco
President Trump has been hastily dishing out several executive orders during the first few weeks of his presidency. On only his fourth day, President Trump issued two executive orders that dealt with the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipeline projects. The Keystone pipeline is a system in Canada and the United States that runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to Nebraska. The order regarding the Keystone XL calls for TransCanada, the operator, to re-apply for a cross-border permit within 60 days, and a final decision will subsequently be made. The request was previously denied, so having this opportunity for re-application is a positive step for TransCanada. The Dakota Access Pipeline is virtually an underground pipeline that extends from North Dakota to Illinois. The order regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was directed to the Army, requesting that the Corps of Engineers review the request of Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s builders, and approve it as soon as possible when legal and warranted. A positive aspect is that, the completion of the production of these pipelines contributes to the increase of domestic production. It is also evident that the prices of oil and gas will most definitely be affected, either positively or negatively. According to Bloomberg, the completion of the Keystone XL would increase the price of gas in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain area by 10 to 20 cents per gallon. CNN Money seconds this, explaining that the oil being produced in Canada and North Dakota already has problems reaching the Gulf. This gas supply can only be sold domestically, and therefore competition will be reduced in the Midwest refineries who can pay lower prices. When the Canadian oil can access the Gulf, the excess in the Midwest no longer exists, meaning that prices will increase. According to Tyson Slocum, Director of the Public Citizen’s Energy Program, oil production is heavier in the United States than it has been in the past, but gas consumption remains at a flat rate. This causes refined products to be exported, which in turn keeps the refined products off the domestic market, creating the illusion of scarcity, keeping gas prices high. The pipelines will continue this trend by importing Canadian oil so that domestic companies can export the refined fuel, creating high prices for American consumers. Overall, these executive orders present abundant opportunity for the oil and gas industry and a huge hurdle for environmentalists. Kristen Townend
In the smartphone industry, one brand is consistently at the forefront: Apple. Apple Inc. offers phones that are sleek and reliable, and Americans know the company for its innovation. In other areas of the world, however, Apple has not been able to maintain the same presence. Apple has set its sights on the untapped market of India. India is one of the world’s most rapidly growing smartphone markets, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed interest in breaking into the area. Although Apple overtook Samsung as the world’s top seller of smartphones in 2016, its presence in Asia has not been as significant as desired. Given that Apple’s iPhone sales in Asia have declined, the growth potential that exists in India is attractive. In 2016, Apple’s third quarter earnings report disclosed a 33 percent decrease in sales in the Greater China region, encompassing Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. This shortfall can be partially attributed to popular competitors in the area, namely Samsung and various Chinese smartphone manufacturers. Chinese manufacturers have been advancing in both the Greater China region and in India, causing stiff competition for Apple throughout the continent. Samsung reacted to this progress by reducing its prices, a move that caters to the Indian consumer. The cost of the iPhone in India is steep; many Indians consider it to be an indulgence. Instead of paying full price, many Indians opt to wait until new models come out so that the price of older models will decrease. Apple’s success with the Indian consumer will be contingent upon its ability to overcome such barriers, and reduce the price hurdle that Indians currently face. The Indian government has conditioned Apple’s manufacturing iPhones in the country on the company’s promise to contribute a substantial investment to the country and promote job growth. In addition to the fulfillment of this request, Apple must formulate a strategy that will allow the company to compete with the likes of Samsung and local manufacturers, and gain popularity and loyalty with the Indian consumer. Alyssa J Freitas
After receiving a message on LinkedIn from a TCNJ grad asking me to review a book he authored, I was intrigued. He sent me an envelope and inside I found a relatively thin, 200 page book with the images of spring break partiers and a man in a hospital bed overlapping on the cover. The back of the book offers a synopsis about the true story of a Trenton State College (the former name of TCNJ) student whose entire life changed when he was hit by a drunk driver while on spring break vacation in Florida. Normally, as loyal readers of The B,B&L know, I review business and professional development books. While this book is not explicitly either, it offers readers a compelling story of the value of hard work and determination, as well as the power of a positive mindset. Through the opening of the book the reader learns that the author Steven Benvenisti is a personal injury attorney. When he was faced with a gruesome drunk driving case he made a vow that if he won he would write this book and would work to eradicate drunk driving. The story begins when Ben, a student and CA (community advisor, referred to as an RA at other schools) at Trenton State College, goes to Florida for spring break with his fraternity brothers. After a night of fun out on the town, Ben is hit by a drunk driver while he was crossing the street. The injuries he sustained put him in a coma that doctors did not believe he would emerge from and damaged his legs beyond recognition. Ben woke from his coma, but was still met with a dim diagnosis. He experienced periods of depression and mourning for the life he lost, however he decided that if he was going to recover he would need to approach what seemed like an insurmountable challenge one step at a time. After uncountable surgeries, hours of physical therapy, and pushing his mind further each day, Ben was not only able to recover but improve his capabilities compared to before the accident. There were two key themes that emerged that greatly contributed to his recovery. The first is the undeniable power of your mindset. Whatever you are thinking at this particular moment is what influences your emotions. Once you realize this you can notice whenever you are slipping into an unproductive mindset (telling yourself you are not good enough, worrying about things you cannot control, etc) and course correct. The second theme that was carried throughout every stage of Ben’s recovery is that whenever you find yourself tired, overwhelmed, and not wanting to carry on that is a signal that it is time to work twice as hard for as long as possible. This principle carried Ben through his physical recovery and his law school journey. “Law school?” you might wonder. “Isn’t the author an attorney too…?” Why yes, you perceptive reader, you. At the very end of the book the author reveals that he is Ben and this story is his personal experience. Benvenisti is actively working with the Mothers Against Drunk Driving to educate and bring awareness to the needless and preventable pain drunk driving can cause. This book will make you appreciate the impact your actions can have on others as well as demonstrate that anything, even what was declared impossible, is possible for those who are willing to work for it. |