The Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ) of Brac University is going to organize a public lecture on ‘The Economic, Social and Political impact of Artificial Intelligence’ by Akhter Matin Chaudhury, Chairman, Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre (BYLC). The lecture will be held on Thursdays, 09 January at 03:00pm – 05:00 pm at Brac University Auditorium (UB 02, Ground Floor) and will be chaired by Manzoor Hasan, Executive Director of CPJ.
Abstract of the Lecture:
There is much talk at this time about the so called 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). There are also frequent references to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this connection. Usually, these are conflated. That is not correct as the 4th Industrial Revolution will happen even without AI. It’s just that the impact of AI will be much more fundamental, severe, invasive, intrusive and pervasive.
Much is made of the impact on employment that 4IR and AI will inflict. The nature and the number of traditional jobs seem to be the obvious victims. 4IR will allow an adjustment to shifting technology. AI will not.
4IR visualizes greater efficiency in existing technology whereas AI is entirely new technology, akin to a light bulb compared to a candle. AI countenances ubiquitous, unlimited and virtually free, energy, quantum computing and intelligent machines and machine learning. AI will upend today’s norms and disrupt current paradigms
4IR is predictable and therefore manageable. AI on the other hand will be ubiquitous and inevitable and therefore not manageable under the known paradigms of human existence. Technology will be king and the owners of this technology will wear the crown. Allowed unfettered development technology will render humans irrelevant, not just expendable.
The economic impact of mass unemployment could be so detrimental that society itself will fundamentally change. And of course the nature of politics will have to change to cope with the altered state.
So, what would society look like in this seemingly dystopian future? How would economies function? What would be the political impact of a fundamental change in the human condition? How would the role of the state change? Is liberal democracy under threat?
It is a grim montage wherein I lay out a possible scenario not because it could happen but because it most likely will happen, unless the impact and implications of AI based technological development are thoroughly understood and addressed by state actors and regulators. To ignore the extent and potential of AI to alter society would be shortsighted, without redemption, putting humanity at the risk of irrelevance.
Brief Bio
Akhter Matin Chaudhury is a Fellow and Life Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh.
Mr. Chaudhury qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1976 in the United Kingdom. He returned to Bangladesh in 1987 to join BOC Bangladesh Ltd. serving there in various capacities, including General Manager (Finance) & Company Secretary and finally as Board Director responsible for the Gases business. He left BOC in 1998 to co-found Eshna Consulting Team Ltd., a management consulting company, of which he was Managing Director till 2000. Mr. Akhter Chaudhury was Chairman & Managing Director of Nuvista Pharma Ltd., formerly, Organon (Bangladesh) Ltd., from 2001 to 2018.
At present, Mr. Chaudhury is the Principal Consultant of Black Swan Consultancy.
Other credentials: