Multiple measures to properly respond to AI

At present, artificial intelligence (AI) is setting off a new wave of scientific and technological revolution, big data, big models, and big computing power are integrating with each other, reshaping innovation and industrial ecology, and promoting profound changes in many industrial fields. Many people have a tendency of technological optimism, and only see that AI can promote the improvement of the level of new quality productivity and the development of social modernization, but China can not ignore the risks and challenges brought by the development of AI technology to society in the future. In addition to the weaponization of AI and the risk of private data leakage, this challenge may also bring greater employment pressure and social inequality.

China is about to enter the 15th Five-Year Plan for economic and social development, which is a key period of development for China to achieve Chinese-style modernization. For AI, we must be highly aware, take precautions, properly respond to, and accurately govern.

First, AI’s challenge to employment cannot be ignored. It is becoming increasingly clear that AI, ChatGPT, etc. are replacing complex labor and mental labor, which will not only impact “blue collar” jobs, but also impact the jobs that were originally “white collar” jobs.

For example, intelligent robots make unmanned workshops and unmanned factories continue to emerge, and some jobs will disappear completely. Some repetitive, regular, predictable, low-skill office jobs will gradually be replaced. AI is more efficient than humans in image recognition, speech recognition, data analysis, data induction, etc., so jobs such as translation, text editing, credit evaluation, investment decisions, tax processing, lawyers, logistics management, after-sales service and so on May be gradually replaced.

At present, in the medical field, AI has begun to be used to assist diagnosis, drug development, medical imaging and precision surgery; In the field of research and design, AI is already helping life scientists form complex structure predictions and simulations of proteins; In the field of technological innovation, AI is already widely used in product design, performance testing and quality control. As autonomous driving technology matures, AI will have a greater impact on driver positions. In a series of high-risk industries such as underground mining, cold operation, fire rescue and so on, AI has advantages that ordinary people do not have.

In the digital economy, this phenomenon is even more prevalent. The goal of AI development is not always to be a complementary tool to human workers, but to replace humans in many work scenarios. Those who can benefit from the development of AI are mainly the large technology companies that develop AI and the investors behind it, and middle-class jobs will face greater challenges, resulting in excessive concentration of economic resources to specific fields and groups, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, and low-skilled workers facing difficulties in life and insufficient educational opportunities. Over time, the risk of social class solidification increases, which is not conducive to social stability and development.

China needs to optimize the public governance system, and the employment impact and distribution gap brought by AI will cause social contradictions.

First and foremost, the strategy of giving priority to employment should be implemented. In the “15th Five-Year Plan” period and beyond, China should continue to deepen reform, improve the promotion mechanism conducive to more full employment, do everything possible to expand employment capacity and alleviate structural employment contradictions. It is necessary to vigorously develop AI derivative industries, such as AI risk management institutions, AI-based service industries, and AI education and training; We need to improve the lifelong vocational training system throughout society, and provide low-skilled workers with convenient retraining services in new technologies, so as to improve their skills and increase their job opportunities. In the large-scale promotion of AI, we must follow the principle of first standing and then breaking, and oppose the wrong practice of formalism that ignores the social bearing capacity and is intelligent only for the sake of intelligence.

Second, the gig economy should be viewed and developed from a strategic perspective. In the age of AI, the devaluation of knowledge will accelerate, the career life of a specialty will be shorter and shorter, and lifetime employment will be reduced. Therefore, people need to constantly retire from their jobs to recharge their learning, employment, unemployment, study, re-employment will become the normal life, therefore, to encourage flexible employment, and vigorously develop gig economy. The whole society should be fully prepared in terms of institutional systems, cultural atmosphere, platform construction, precision services, and ecological governance, raise the level of high-quality and flexible employment, and constantly enhance the people’s sense of gain and happiness.

Third, the monopoly of large enterprises in digital technology and AI should be broken to promote orderly competition. Our country should improve the legal system, restrict the behavior of large enterprises using industry advantage position to compete, and promote the development of small and medium-sized technology-based enterprises. It is necessary to encourage the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and specialized new enterprises in the field of AI tools, algorithms, standards, inspection and testing, and services, and form a benign industrial ecosystem of large models, large platforms, large computing power, large enterprises and specialized new small enterprises to cooperate, complement each other, and promote each other. This will not only absorb a large number of jobs, but also create unprecedented new industries and new economic formats. At the same time, in the process of technological development, it is necessary to allow workers to have more say, let front-line workers actively participate in the reform that affects the direction of technological development, and try to make technological development complement people, rather than completely replace people.

Finally, we should continue to improve the social security system. At present, there are tens of millions of college students and postgraduates in our country every year, and the employment pressure of college students is increasing day by day. During the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan” period, we must hold the bottom line of social security, improve the unemployment insurance and social security system as soon as possible, actively use big data and AI technology, implement precise assistance for unemployed college students and unemployed people, ensure that zero employment family dynamics are eliminated, ensure social stability, and serve the overall situation of modernization.