This November marks the happening of another AI & Blockchain summit in the Maltese Islands. Some initial questions come to mind when such a summit is mentioned. Initially, what is AI? What exactly is blockchain? What are they in relevance to each other? How will this advancement impact the job market? And very likely, a multitude of other potentially brain-wrecking questions. This is exactly why we are going to try to facilitate this vagueness surrounding the industry of AI & Blockchain.
What is AI?
It is commonly known that AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It is intelligence which is meant to mirror that of humans but it is artificially engineered within machines and computers. AI comes with three main functions; learning, reasoning & self-correction. At present, it is also being widely used to analyse past data in order to be able to predict potential future data. For instance, predictive text in smartphones and popular sites or applications. Such attempts towards AI have been around for quite a while, although they weren’t always as popular they go as far back as the 1950’s when a very famous philosopher and scholar by the name of Alan Turing lead an experiment focusing on the intelligence of machines. It was meant to prove or disprove the ability of machines to think like humans.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is the technology that lies beneath digital currencies. It works in such a way that digital information is distributed and not copied. It uses ‘digital ledgers’ which are stored in a distributed network in order to ensure that each individual piece of data can only have one owner. This makes the information very hard to hack, given that it exists simultaneously in millions of places. The term blockchain can be explained as follows; the term ‘block’ is a record of new transactions. Each new transaction is added to the ‘chain’ when it is completed.
AI & Blockchain
It seems that the technology behind blockchain holds the promise of adding structure and reliability to the algorithms attached to AI. This would eventually lead to the strengthening of areas such as; security, quality and integrity of intelligence produced by AI.
What is the impact of AI & Blockchain on the job market?
“Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the centre. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.” — Vitalik Buterin, co-founder Ethereum and Bitcoin Magazine
Both AI and Blockchain are products of advancement within the 21st century. They carry with them, the threat that some jobs which are currently held by humans might cease to exist - see our article on the evolution of jobs within the Financial Industry for a more detailed explanation of this progress. The advancement of such technology will facilitate certain processes and will create spaces for technology to carry out actions that were previously carried out by humans but in shorter time spans. Having said so, this will not necessarily eliminate the need for humans entirely or completely across all job sectors. It will more likely create different openings for humans which will undoubtedly come along with the continuous advancements within the sectors. As the co-founder of Ethereal mentions, Blockchain will more likely restructure the market than completely obliterate the need for human input. Continuing to advance in both AI and Blockchain will more likely lead to a reshaping of the job market. It is a shifting of job needs and roles and not a complete redundancy of them. This helps to lessen the general fear that is more normally associated with the advancement of technology.
General Conference Details
The AI and Blockchain summit in Malta will take place on the 7th and 8th of November. It will offer room for networking, learning and creating business opportunities. For more information regarding the conference, visit their website.
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