The Role of Information Technologies to Adapt to a Global Pandemic

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the rise of AI, robots, and algorithms in the economy, which is expected to completely disrupt employment patterns. With the advancement of technologies, employment patterns will shift to a polarization between AI's rationality and humanness. Robots and social machines have already replaced people in a variety of jobs. Almost all traditional professions are prospected to be infused with or influenced by AI, algorithms, and robotics in the future. AI and robots offer the luxuries of affordability and democratization of access to services, as they will be—in the long run—commercially more affordable and readily available to serve all humanity. Also, the longevity potential of machines outperforms any human ever having lived. These new technologies also come with the price of overpopulation problems and the potential for misuse and violent action. Just like many other technologies, robots could be misused. This chapter discusses the current trend of digital disruption and its wider societal implications.