Will We Be Replaced by AI After the Pandemic?

Editor’s Note: This article and its accompanying benefits are provided by VCBeat’s partner, Xinfeng Think Tank.

In early spring 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, sparked widespread anxiety among the public.

Executives at major corporations are growing increasingly anxious as their companies’ performance faces severe setbacks. Sinopec has started selling vegetables, Luckin Coffee has begun offering disinfectants, and Foxconn and BYD have shifted production to manufacture face masks.

Small and medium-sized enterprise owners are also worried: with operations halted for one or two months, no revenue coming in, yet employee salaries still needing to be paid, their very survival has become an uncertainty.

Individuals are even more anxious: Will I lose my job? Will I be left behind? How will I handle mortgage payments, the cost of infant formula, and tutoring fees?

As we can see, during the pandemic, internet healthcare platforms such as Haodf, DXY, and Chunyu Doctor launched online COVID-19 clinics, which not only provided strong support for scarce medical resources but also served as a valuable complement to their own business lines.

Also active on the front lines of the fight against the epidemic are intelligent robots. Beijing-based OrionStar and VCBeat Technology donated service robots to Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital. These robots can handle a wide range of basic tasks, such as cleaning, disinfection, and medication delivery. They not only alleviate the workload of medical staff but also reduce the risk of cross-infection, further demonstrating that medical robots address a genuine need rather than being a pseudo-demand.

Big data has proven even more powerful. Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent have launched personal “Health Codes,” which display users’ health and travel information, including body temperature, symptoms, and mobility status. Particularly in high-traffic settings like airports and railway stations, Health Codes enable rapid screening of suspected cases, helping to contain epidemic spread while significantly reducing the consumption of human and material resources.

The pandemic has demonstrated the potential of big data and artificial intelligence, which have also brought surprises to a wider range of industrial applications.

It may be hard to imagine that quantum computing can complete in just 200 seconds a computational workload that would take the fastest supercomputers currently available 10,000 years to finish. This new computing paradigm and its associated barriers will disrupt a large number of traditional IT companies.

You may find it hard to imagine that Amazon, leveraging computer vision to control drones capable of automatically avoiding obstacles, can deliver packages in just 30 minutes—a task that previously took over an hour. Once deployed at scale, this technology could render logistics companies and couriers obsolete.

You may find it even harder to imagine that humans have already developed 4-nanometer robots capable of performing direct “surgery” on chromosomes within the human body to treat cancer, leading to the replacement of a large number of physicians by these more efficient, precise, and safer robotic systems.

In the past, it was peers who competed for jobs; in the future, there will be an even more formidable competitor—big data and artificial intelligence.

When a magnitude 6 earthquake strikes, the vast majority of people will actively strive to survive. When a magnitude 8 earthquake hits, some individuals will close their eyes in resignation. However, when a truly catastrophic, indiscriminate disaster occurs, everyone will abandon all resistance.

Big data and artificial intelligence are not disasters, but their power is indeed catastrophic and indiscriminate. This compels us to reflect: What will constitute core competitiveness in the future? How replaceable are current jobs? Which capabilities will be in demand in the future?

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, the renowned scholar hailed as the “Father of Big Data,” posits in their latest book, The Age of Data Capital, that a vast number of “one-person companies” will emerge in the future, collaborating seamlessly on networks built upon big data and blockchain technology.

At its core, this reflects the profound liberation of individuality, imagination, and creativity in the era of digital intelligence. This liberation can be defined as the seamless acquisition of knowledge at the input stage and the realization of value at the output stage, enabling individuals to break free from self-imposed constraints and transcend limitations imposed by geography, language, time, and organizational structures.

In Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari also states that 99% of human decisions—including critical choices regarding spouses, careers, and life—are processed by various evolutionarily honed algorithms, which we refer to as feelings, emotions, and desires.

From this, we can draw at least one conclusion: the differences in algorithms between input and output essentially determine that machines cannot completely replace humans. Machines have only replaced jobs such as photography, reception, accounting, and cleaning, while some people, by virtue of their ability to control machines, will become more advanced individuals.

But in fact, our generation has personally experienced the information revolution. For example, telephone operators have disappeared, traditional media outlets have died off in large numbers, and small brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to survive under the impact of e-commerce.

The evolution of human history demonstrates that changes in productive forces and means of production inevitably lead to transformations in production relations. In the face of a dazzling array of emerging technologies, we need to establish a cognitive framework.

For instance, how can a traditional manufacturing enterprise equip itself with an “intelligent brain” to transition toward smart manufacturing? What smart city applications worldwide offer valuable lessons for us? Furthermore, given that we have used deep learning to make machines increasingly human-like, why do we still employ an industrialized education model that shapes the next generation to become more machine-like?

To this end, VBInsight has joined forces with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, known as the “Father of Big Data,” Wang Guoyin, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, Wu Kezhong, Chairman of Advantage Capital, and Professor Zhou Tao from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, among other experts, to meticulously develop a 50-lecture series on the era of digital intelligence.

In the course, VBInsight has specially invited Chen Yang, a CCTV announcer, to deliver 8-minute daily lessons through audio, images, and text, enabling you to easily grasp big data and artificial intelligence in just 50 days. Currently, over ten thousand individuals have enrolled in the course, including government officials, executives of large enterprises, owners of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as elites committed to enhancing their cognitive abilities and lifelong learning.

The 50-lecture series on the Digital Intelligence Era does not merely discuss technology for its own sake. Presented in an accessible and easy-to-understand style, it is packed with practical insights, delivering hands-on strategies, representative case studies, and forward-thinking perspectives from the age of digital intelligence. Much like the ancient Arabian legend in which the vizier’s daughter captivates the king with tales from One Thousand and One Nights—featuring Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Sinbad the Sailor—this series unfolds a thousand and one nights of fascinating stories.

Now, we have secured 300 exclusive spots for our followers. Register here to get the course for just RMB 58, down from the original price of RMB 199. Those interested in enrolling can simply scan the QR code below.