50 years ago I was assigned to manage a consumer test for a new and apparently scary thing called microwave ovens. To be precise we were to test the behaviour and response of consumers, not the ovens. Professional-grade ovens were already used in bars and restaurants around the world, but now Philips in Sweden had decided to launch a lighter version for regular households.
THE DANGEROUS MICROWAVE OVEN
The real consumer oven was ready but not yet approved by the authorities, so we got delivery of 15 of the smallest restaurant ovens. We also received 15 packages of mixed foodstuffs and a primitive typed-written manual. The Achilles heal turned out to be the 15 households. There were all sorts of rumours about dangerous radioactivity going around at the time. And the very idea of bringing a lethal contraption like that into people’s homes! So dangerous! So irresponsible!
I volunteered my family as test household #1, and 14 Philips employees followed suit. We carried out the project and got a lot of useful feedback, and nobody died. The consumer ovens were launched, including reassuring documentation from medical authorities. But the rumours persisted long after that, and it took many years for the micro to be standard in regular household kitchens.
THE JOB-SNATCHING WORD PROCESSING SYSTEM
Around 10 years later I was involved in the launch of Xerox first word processing systems. An ingenious invention that would later evolve into the first generation personal computers, PCs. The first machines were extremely difficult to handle, and several secretaries and other intended users actually ran out of the classrooms in sheer desperation. But, maybe more to the point, many people also warned about the new super-efficient work tools stealing the jobs of professional typists and secretaries. In those days few other people knew how to type. Bosses had secretaries and the rest of us were referred to collective typing pools.
Our marketing and sales messages kept reassuring the secretaries that we would free them from a lot of boring routine chores, enabling them to spend more time on qualified work. Which was absolutely true. But just like in manufacturing and other sectors, business transformation and automation also require people to adapt and maybe learn new things.
THIS NEW THING CALLED AI
Sure, AI is different from microwave ovens and word processing systems, in more ways than one. More far-reaching implications, and more difficult to assess. Still, to me the simplistic headlines about mass unemployment and the-end-of-mankind-as-we-know-it look a lot like that microwave radiation to me. Let’s focus on the real challenges instead.
AI is already a miracle worker in manufacturing, administration, traffic control and numerous other environments. Phyron is pushing the limits of creativity and efficiency of automated video and stills. Let’s make the best of it now.
