Alex Pollock has wrestled with a topic that keeps many intellectuals awake at night: How far can we go with automation before we run the danger of losing the wonder of human invention? Writer and technology researcher Pollock does not hold back while expressing ideas. Machines are accelerating and accomplishing more. There is always a disturbance fragrance around. As he often says, though, “A robot cannot write a love letter or invent punk rock.” He says it with a smile, but there is weight beneath the fun.
Pollock first notes the tough figures: Oxford Economics estimate that by 2030 robots could replace up to 20 million manufacturing jobs. Fields ranging from data entry to logistics to repeated financial chores? quickly fading. Still, when researchers matched artificial intelligence musical compositions to those created by humans, most listeners favored songs with human fingerprints.
Imagine the workplace of twenty-seven years hence. Requirements fed into an artificial intelligence tool by a project manager. A Gantt chart in minutes arrives, accurate, orderly, color-coded. You will be staring at a blank screen, though, if you use the same instrument to create a campaign that appeals to hearts. Pollock thinks this is so because templates or databases cannot build originality.
There is no opponent in technology. Time saved by automation can literally return hours to creators—artists, marketers, inventors—to fiddle, draw, or just gaze at the ceiling until inspiration comes to them. Pollock joked that occasionally thirty minutes of “productive procrastination” and two cups of coffee produce actual innovation. AI can manage drudgery hence freeing room for the spark of creativity.
Some worry, of course, about artificial intelligence learning too much. Should our concerns arise? Pollock advises not to panic, but to keep both eyes open. While algorithms might learn to replicate brushstrokes or words, real art is entwined with mistakes, aspirations, and strange impulses. Van Gogh lacked “efficient.” J.K. Rowling wrote not out of prediction.