Paris (AFP)
Artificial intelligence is already partly at work with its phenomenal capacities, raising hopes but above all worries for employment, be it the repetitive tasks of cashiers or the more complex tasks of lawyers or lawyers. doctors.
According to a study by Oxford University that caused a sensation in 2013, 47% of American jobs could be replaced by intelligent robots in the next 20 years.
More measured, the OECD estimated last year that 14% of workers "are at high risk" that their current tasks are automated over the next 15 years.
In France, according to an estimate quoted in 2018 by a report by LREM MP Cédric Villani, 10% of jobs would be threatened to disappear, and 50% would be automated at more than 50%.
While recognizing that economic transitions have "often very high social and human costs," the mathematician remained confident, stressing that "the automation of tasks and trades can be a historic chance of the de-automatization of human labor", provided that a massive training effort is undertaken.
The machine has so far mostly replaced the man for physical tasks and predictive. But with artificial intelligence, it is the cognitive abilities of the man who compete with the machine.
"The challenge of artificial intelligence is to ensure that the robot can make a decision in a given environment," said Rachid Alami, director of research in robotics (LAAS-CNRS), at a conference in September.
No magic behind all this, but the processing of masses of data with a gigantic computing power, says the researcher. "You give the machine 100,000 images of cats in all possible configurations, and the machine will find a cat," he summarizes.
- Complex tasks -
"Deep learning" shapes the robots of the future, capable of performing complex tasks, but also to formulate a medical diagnosis, give the green light to a mortgage, drive an autonomous car, etc.
Therefore, almost all fields of work are concerned: logistics and transport, but also services, human resources, assistance to the person ...
"Artificial intelligence will not only affect cashiers," said Béatrice Clicq, Confederal Secretary for Equality and Sustainable Development at Force Ouvrière. She cites the example of the human resources sector, which already uses AI for CV analysis at risk, she says, of "recruiting clones".
The US company Hirevue claims a million job interviews screened through its artificial intelligence facial analysis technique. Candidates interviewed by video see their intonations, vocabulary and facial expressions compared by algorithm to a database compiled from previous successful candidates in the position.
A method that leads to recruit profiles similar to the model, at the risk of ousting less conventional but talented applicants, reinforcing discrimination already in play on the labor market, according to critics.
- "New proletarians" -
What will be the delta between deletions and job creation? No one is at risk for a prognosis, but "the populations concerned are not the same," says Béatrice Clicq.
The automation of many professions poses the risk of a "bipolarized" society, divided between the most fortunate, highly qualified jobs, and people with lower levels of education, restricted to precarious work or social assistance .
Already, digital platforms have created a category of "new proletarians" - the title of a book by sociologist Sarah Abdelnour - paid for by the task, such as bicycle delivery men or "click workers". The latter, paid a few cents per micro-computer task, is the invisible labor force essential to artificial intelligence, providing the millions of data needed for "deep learning".
Behind the sweet voice of Alexa, Amazon's voice interface, hundreds of thousands of conversations and voices have been "tagged" by these micro-workers.
The first impact of artificial intelligence will therefore have been to favor the emergence of a category of insecure workers scattered around the globe, making their collective organization difficult.
- The algorithms impose the tempo -
Flore Barcellini, a researcher at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, points out the "technocentric vision" conveyed by artificial intelligence: it is the technician who dominates, and the worker must bend to the machine. "There is a modernization injunction at all costs, without taking into account the participation of the workers themselves," she notes.
The risk is that the man is forced to "follow the machine". Already, the algorithms impose their tempo on the warehouse worker of Amazon, or Deliveroo's delivery man.
Dominique Turcq (author of "Working in the Post-Digital Era"), a consultant with McKinsey and the recruitment firm Manpower, believes that AI is "more of a machine to increase than a machine. replace ", opening to man new possibilities. "The question is: what do we do with the time we earn, for example, we could improve the quality of work".
But "be careful not to give the AI an expert role," he warns. What autonomy will the employee have if the machine dictates a choice he challenges? The doctor faced with the diagnosis of artificial intelligence? The bank clerk ready to give a loan that refused the machine?
What part of "intelligent work" will remain to man?
Marie David and Cédric Sauviat, two very critical polytechnicians (authors of "Artificial Intelligence, the new barbarism") fear that in fine, "the machine deprives the man of the possibility of being fulfilled" and "makes doubly incompetent" by performing tasks that should come back to him and by imposing on him a standard foreign to the human faculties.
Especially since the revolution of the AI is largely en route and that we contribute often without our knowledge. Each of us, for example, by connecting to Facebook or YouTube, voluntarily provides data that feeds the algorithms.
© 2019 AFP