Artificial intelligence is a threat to humanity, says Alibaba founder

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a big threat to human beings and machines are going to replace several of us in the future, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma said at Davos.

Ma was speaking during one of the sessions at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. The discussion delved on the impact of technology, artificial intelligence, role of women business leaders in today’s world and globalisation, during which, the Alibaba founder warned that technologies like AI and Big Data could be a threat and would disable people instead of empowering them.

“The computer will always be smarter than you are; they never forget, they never get angry. But computers can never be as wise a man. The AI and robots are going to kill a lot of jobs, because in the future it’ll be done by machines. Service industries offer hope – but they must be done uniquely.”

He emphasised that technology should always give people new opportunities, not remove them.

“Each technology revolution has made the world unbalanced,” Ma said.

Ma noted that dring the first technology revolution caused the First World War and the second technology revolution caused the Second World War.

He said that with third the tech revolution, should a third world war happens, “it should be fought against disease, pollution and poverty, not against each other.”

Ma said there’s a need to work together or “human beings are going to fight each other as each technology revolution has made the world unbalanced.”

He then said that tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and AliBaba are the luckiest companies of this century. However, they should take responsibility to have a good heart, and do something good. “Make sure that everything you do is for the future,” said Ma.

“People like us have the money and resources and we should spend money on technology that enables people, empowers people and makes life better,” he added.

The new technology will create a lot of successful people, interesting careers but, honestly, every new technology will create social problems.

On women in business

He said that the senior management at Alibaba has 37 percent women.

“If you want your company to be successful; if you want your company to operate with wisdom, with care, then women are the best,” said Ma.

“37 percent of senior management in Alibaba are women. Part of the ‘secret sauce’ of our success is because we have so many women colleagues.”