Tag: artificial intelligence

OM in the News: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

“Artificial intelligence is shaping up as the next industrial revolution, poised to rapidly reinvent business, the global economy and how people work and interact with each other,” writes The Wall Street Journal (March 7, 2017).  AI is creating a lot of new opportunities. Just as about 100 years ago electrification changed all of industry,  AI will impact every major industry. Here are the observations from two industry experts interviewed by the Journal:

  1. In a few years everyone will be using speech recognition. It will feel natural. You’ll soon forget what it was like before you could talk to computers.
  2. A team at Imperial College London just developed an AI that could diagnose pulmonary hypertension better than cardiologists typically do. Cardiologists have about 60% accuracy. This system does 80% accuracy.
  3. AI technology needs a lot of customization for a business context. This means that business leaders hire a senior AI leader to sort this out for them.
  4. Almost anything that a typical person can do with less than 1 second of mental thought we can either now or in the very near future automate with AI. There are a lot of jobs that can be accomplished by stringing together many 1-second tasks. Consider a security guard monitoring security footage– a complex job. But the job can be broken down into a lot of smaller tasks, which involve 1 second of cognitive thinking.
  5. The transition that’s going to occur over the next 10-15 years that is significant. Just as AI will destroy jobs, it will create new jobs that we can’t yet imagine. The challenge is the skills mismatch.
  6. The ratio of jobs destroyed to new jobs? In the short term, unfavorable.

Classroom discussion questions:

1.Why is AI important to operations management?

2.What can students do to prepare for AI?

OM in the News: Robots and Our Future Jobs

A technician demonstrates the Hubo robot at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos
A technician demonstrates the Hubo robot at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Korea’s Hubo won a $2 million prize for beating 22 competitors in a U.S. D.O.D competition.

The Davos Robot, an adult-sized automaton, which can climb stairs and enter and exit a car, will be a star attraction at the World Economic Forum conference, reports BusinessWeek (Jan. 18-24, 2016). It illustrates a looming challenge for the 2,500 delegates: How to protect their companies and jobs by harnessing advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, without exacerbating the economic frustration and populist discord spreading around the globe.

At Davos, there are panels on what happens when robots go to war, potentially replacing “both soldiers and generals,” and whether innovation “is failing the middle class” by eliminating jobs. Few experts dispute that the rise of robots and sophisticated software to power them will create winners and losers, as did the steam engine and the advent of mass production.

Oxford U. researchers say 1/2 of American jobs are at risk of being automated within the next 2 decades. Most notable are high-skill roles that have so far been largely shielded from the advances of technology. A WEF analysis estimates a net loss of 5 million jobs in 15 major economies by 2020.

In finance, Merrill Lynch is already looking to automate investment advice for clients. The same for Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, who say they’ll develop or acquire robo-advisers. McKinsey estimates that by 2025 robots or automated software will be able to do the jobs of 140 million knowledge workers.

Those on the cutting edge of developing new computing systems are more optimistic. At IBM, researchers are working to build products atop the Watson computing platform that will search for job candidates, analyze academic research or even help oncologists make better treatment decisions. Such revolutionary technology is the only way to solve “the big problems” like climate change and disease, while also making ordinary workers more productive and better at their jobs.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What are the major changes robots are expected to bring into OM?
  2. How can artificial intelligence be used in the finance industry?

OM in the News: The Rise of the Robot Work Force Stokes Human Fears

Robotic bellhop delivers fresh towels to a Silicon Valley hotel
Robotic bellhop delivers fresh towels to a Silicon Valley hotel

A machine that administers sedatives recently began treating patients at a Seattle hospital. At a Silicon Valley hotel, a bellhop robot delivers items to people’s rooms. Last spring, a software algorithm wrote a breaking news article about an earthquake that the Los Angeles Times published. “Although fears that technology will displace jobs are at least as old as the Luddites, there are signs,” writes The New York Times (Dec.16, 2014), “that this time may really be different.” The technological breakthroughs of recent years — allowing machines to mimic the human mind — are enabling machines to do knowledge jobs and service jobs, in addition to factory and clerical work.

Economists long argued that just as buggy-makers gave way to car factories, technology would create as many jobs as it destroyed. Now many are not so sure. Artificial intelligence has become vastly more sophisticated in a short time. Self-driving vehicles are an example of the crosscurrents. They could put truck and taxi drivers out of work — or they could enable drivers to be more productive during the time they used to spend driving, which could earn them more money.

The challenge is evident for white-collar jobs, too. Ad sales agents and pilots are two jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will decline in number over the next decade. Flying a plane is largely automated today and will become more so. (Boeing, by the way, announced last week that it is preparing for 1-pilot commercial jets). And at Google, the biggest seller of online ads, software does much of the selling and placing of search ads, meaning there is much less need for salespeople. Telemarketers are among those most at risk, adds The NY Times.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Is artificial intelligence having as great an impact as the article suggests?

2. What other service applications can robots help perform?

OM in the News: The Rise of the Robot Reporter

Here is an application of service technology that we missed in Chapter 7:  Wired Magazine (May, 2012) presents a fascinating tale of how artificial intelligence is taking a prominent role in sports and financial news reporting.

Consider this : Every 30 seconds or so, the algorithmic bull pen of Chicago’s Narrative Science extrudes a story whose very byline is a question of philosophical inquiry. The computer-written product could be a  second-half update of a Big Ten basketball contest, a preview of a corporate earnings statement, or a summary of the presidential horse race. The articles run on the websites of  publishers like Forbes, as well as other  media powers (many of which are keeping their identities private).

And the articles don’t read like robots wrote them: ”  Friona fell 10-8 to Boys Ranch in five innings on Monday at Friona despite racking up seven hits and eight runs. Friona was led by a flawless day at the dish by Hunter Sundre, who went 2-2 against Boys Ranch pitching. Sundre singled in the third inning and tripled in the fourth inning … Friona piled up the steals, swiping eight bags in all …”

It may not win a Pulitzer, but the grandparents of a Little Leaguer would welcome this game summary—available on the web even before the two teams finished shaking hands. Narrative Science’s algorithms built the article using pitch-by-pitch game data that parents entered into an iPhone app called GameChanger. Last year the software produced nearly 400,000 accounts of Little League games. This year that number is expected to top 1.5 million and Narrative’s CEO predicts that  more than 90% of news would be written by computers in 15 years. He also believes that as Narrative Science grows, its stories will go higher up the journalism food chain—from commodity news to explanatory journalism and, ultimately, detailed long-form articles.

Discussion questions:

1. Why is AI of interest to OM managers?

2. How could this be used beyond newspapers and wire services?