Apparently, Donald Trump could be the least of Silicon Valley‘s problems. I’ve read articles that shook me to the core. Whether you run a computer service shop doing PC repairs, or you work in IT support and you?re the one people always go to to get their laptops fixed, you should be cautious. The whole IT community should be cautious. And they should all be asking the same question?Can robots replace IT jobs?
According to Vinod Khoslo, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (which Oracle bought out in 2010), the answer is yes. He should know since he helped launch the computer server. Khosla believes artificial intelligence (let’s just call them robots) will run every data center in America. Many IT and computer repair companies already use programs like managed services to automate a lot of their work. Imagine robots taking over the rest of the work that those companies use human technicians to do. Khosla spoke at a conference in San Francisco and stated robots can replace 80% of IT staff. He also says AI technology can replace most doctors. But as you can imagine, this doesn’t sit well with many people. He replied with the quote: “But we’re all in the other 20%, not the 80% that’s automated.”
Khosla said job automation will become normal in due time. Furthermore, he claims robots will be better than humans at diagnosing problems. I hate to say it, but evidence backs him on that claim. Companies have already started replacing human workers with programs that monitor, diagnose, and even in some cases fix, problems their systems have before they even realize the problems are there! They get full IT support without having to call a computer service shop or wait for their IT service to show up, and that?s just the beginning of how human workers are being replaced in this industry. In fact, automated data centers and corporate networks are becoming the order of the day.
Do you know what got me though? Vinod Khosla didn’t give a timeline of this change, but it sounds like he wants this sooner than later, and said he’s excited about such changes. I am not. Does it occur to Mr. Khosla how many lost jobs will come out of this? His quote about the 20% to 80% isn’t a good enough explanation, either. I want to believe no human jobs will be lost. I wish I could believe no human family will go without. But I know how human nature is, especially at the top. There are companies who’d rather replace cashiers with robots rather than give cashiers an extra wage. And we’re talking minimum wage. Imagine what those at the top would do to a technician working in computer repair making $15-$20 an hour. That’s scary, not exciting. Or I could be looking at this the wrong way. But what do you think? Can robots replace IT jobs?