Technologist: AI ‘Will Probably Replace 50 Percent of Human Jobs’

Popular venture capitalist and Google China Founder Kai-Fu Lee claimed that artificial intelligence “will probably replace 50 percent of human jobs,” during an interview with CNBC.

“Traditional companies are really slow. The banks, insurance companies, the hospitals, they really don’t understand how A.I. is already shaping the world, and they don’t understand that they possess something that’s really the biggest treasure… data,” explained Lee to CNBC. “So I expect the entrepreneurial section to continue to outgrow, and in many places displace and wipe out the traditional companies in China.”

“A.I. is the singular thing that will be bigger than all tech revolutions added together, including electricity, the industrial revolution, internet, mobile internet, because A.I. is pervasive,” he continued. “It is a decision engine that will replace people. Not one-on-one, but one with many. A.I. capabilities are way higher than people.”

Lee added that “The companies we invested in, one company can recognize three million faces simultaneously. No one can do that. One company can give out loans in eight seconds to any person who wants it.”

“These are things that are super human, and we think this will be in every industry and will probably replace 50 percent of human jobs, create a huge amount of wealth for mankind, and wipe out poverty,” concluded the venture capitalist.

Artificial intelligence wont be able to take over every job, however.

“Massive displacement of people, 50 percent of all jobs in 10 years, can only largely be replaced with service type of jobs,” Lee declared. “Service like tourist guide, masseuse, also craftsmen, artists, and also people-to-people connection, how they heal all the souls who feel they no longer have a way towards self-actualization.”

“Connecting to hospitals, orphanages, I think we need to change people’s thinking that service is a first-class job, and that we need to do what the machines are not good at,” continued. “Touching ones heart with your heart is something that machines, I believe, will never be good at.”

In an interview with Breitbart Tech last year, futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson disagreed, predicting that mankind would soon develop emotional bonds with artificial intelligence, even adding that sexual relationships with house robots could become commonplace.

“Artificial intelligence is reaching human levels and also becoming emotional as well,” Dr. Pearson claimed. “So people will actually have quite strong emotional relationships with their own robots. In many cases that will develop into a sexual one because they’ll already think that the appearance of the robot matches their preference anyway, so if it looks nice and it has a superb personality too it’s inevitable that people will form very strong emotional bonds with their robots and in many cases that will lead to sex.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.