Why We Need Technology with Compassion at GBF 2018

Technology has always helped humanity flourish. As we move into the future and all its potential, how do we ensure technology continues to help all of humanity flourish together? In the future I see a huge need for human skills. Care, support, compassion, the very things that make us human. We're living in an incredible transformative time with AI. Robots. Dexterous robotics. Robotics. Agricultural technology. The ability to construct whole genomes. Decision-making technologies. One word, miracles. This is way bigger than the Industrial Revolution, but we can't see it. Most people have two simultaneous reactions. One is, ah, the wonder. It's so great. And the other is, oh my god, it's gonna take all our jobs away. Technology creates new possibilities for increased welfare, but it does not guarantee that we will realize those good outcomes. But we know developing countries, they have a lot of young workers. If they do not have the opportunity or ability to acquire the technology, they will become poorer. Right now, only the most highly educated people know how to design and create with these technologies. We really need to think about how we can close that gap to empower a much broader group of people to be able to create with it in areas that matter to them. Technology can help us change their lives. Unbanked populations are now able to do financial transactions. Operations can be robotically performed long-distance. Autonomous transportation has the potential to reduce pollution and a lot of vehicle fatalities. Technology supports the human values of the society we aspire to have. And we begin to do things that machines can't do, like invent things. Culture, music, spiritual creative parts of humans that are really hard to automate.