The term “Industrial revolution” was coined by professor Klaus Schwab. He is the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. So he has some good credentials. He described “The fourth disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things, robotics, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are changing the way people live and work." So this is the era of AI and machine learning, genome editing, 3D printing, Internet of Things, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and so much more. And we're not talking about the future here. These things are currently affecting our personal and work lives and they are ever-evolving.
(source:forbes.com)
Today we are living on the cusp of this fourth Industrial Revolution, which is also referenced as industry 4.0 or 4IR. For some reason people love three character acronyms. I really think that these acronyms could be one of the characteristics and disadvantages of this Industrial Revolution. This brings us to the main subject and that's the pros and cons of this for 4IR.And because we're talking about the 4IR, let's cover four of each.
Advantages of 4.0:
Higher productivity. Apparently, productivity of each industrial era goes up 50 times over the preceding age. This is mainly because of increased automation. Also, another advantage is the improved quality of life. Technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, playing a game, and even controlling the lights and temperature in our house. Any of these can be done remotely. Vacuuming can be done by a robot. And soon we'll have fully autonomous cars and who knows what else. Klaus Schwab mentioned that "a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between physical, digital, and biological spheres" will create new markets and growth opportunities. It will blend improvements from several fields that were often previously separated to create a new product or a new service. Not only will there be more knowledge workers, but knowledge workers in these new fields. There will also be a lower barrier to entrepreneurship. We can already see that with new technologies such as 3D printing for prototyping. The barriers between inventors and markets are reduced. Entrepreneurs can now establish the companies and test various products with a lower startup cost without the traditional time and cost constraints often encountered with traditional prototyping methods. The typical barriers to entry are removed from the entrepreneurship equation altogether.
Disadvantages of 4.0:
Inequality. It's really all about who gets the benefits of these technologies and of the results they help produce. The reality is that the largest beneficiaries tend to be the providers of intellectual and physical capital, so shareholders, investors, and innovators. Technology is one of the main reasons why incomes have stagnated or even decreased for a majority of the population in high income countries. The demand for highly skilled workers has increased, while the demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased and the part in between will start to wear thin. So this could also lead to potential job losses. Not to even mention that
For developing countries there are technological and infrastructure challenges and skill challenges that are not easy to overcome. Cybersecurity risk. When everything is connected, the risk of hacking data and tampering with it or using it for malicious intent is now more prevalent. It's not as contained as before. Not to mention that it challenges the very nature of identity and privacy, especially with the increased use of data analytics and machine learning.
Core industries disruptions. We see this already. Taxis are competing against Uber and ola. Traditional television and cinema compete with Netflix and YouTube. The hotel industry with Oyo. And any store competing with Amazon. This has ramifications in the type of services being offered and the model through which they are offered, as well as the jobs associated with them. Lastly, there are ethical issues. With improved AI, genetic engineering, and increased automation there are new ethical concerns and questions of morality that already differ greatly from one individual to another. With access to more data about an individual or a group of individuals, the risk of using it for personal gain and manipulation is even greater. I think we all remember the Cambridge Analytica data scandal in early 2018, when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. And this is only an example of those data misuses that we know of. So here we are on the edge of the fourth Industrial
Revolution that radically impacts our daily lives. It can be an era of economic and knowledge growth and improvements in the way we live and work, but we also need to be wary of its disruption potential and find ways to mitigate those risks.
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