World Economic Forum (WEF) Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab appears quite enthusiastic about a future where technology takes the lead and central role in people’s everyday lives, but also across industries.
More likely, when he talks about the supposedly upcoming “Intelligence Age” – given his own and his organization’s track record – Schwab might actually have in mind advanced technology programmed by the few, in control of the rest.
Schwab’s recent post on the WEF’s website reveals that he does see himself as a visionary: first, he takes credit for the phrase “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” (that, true, has produced a world where elites use Big Tech to control, influence, and muzzle the “unwashed masses”).
And now it’s time for the “Intelligence Age.” The concept is as simple as it is expansive: notions of the physical and biological “fusing” with the digital, while blockchain, but also currently more esoteric categories like quantum computing, and A(G)I, would “converge.”
And where they’d “fuse and converge” is – people’s lives. It’s already very much so happening, Schwab says, while promoting something he calls “environmental, social and geopolitical intelligence” to make sure everything goes smoothly, that is, without “divisions” (which is in his circles often a code word for, dissenting opinion).
According to Schwab, already “AI-driven systems are outperforming humans” in the healthcare industry. Similar, “positive” developments are present in agriculture as well, he goes on, as well as in finance. Not to mention the so-called smart, heavily mass-surveilled cities, “with sensors and AI managing everything from traffic flow to energy usage.”
Schwab does pay lip service to “risks” such as excessive automation in the workplace leaving huge amounts of people jobless, but he talks about it in terms of new opportunities, and seems to think politicians, education systems, etc., will “help people transition to new roles.”
What those “roles” may be, he doesn’t go into, except to note they will require “entirely different skill sets.”
If anything screams actual societal divisions, going forward – should Schwab’s predictions come true – it’s this. But he decides to treat this point as a minor problem.
And, there is one thing the WEF founder no doubt wants to present as far more concerning – and that is, “bias and misinformation” as a result of future sophisticated AI.
