Serving the Creator in the Age of AI

2.  We live in an age where new competitive pressures
are met with new efficiencies with astonishing
speed. For example, Amazon recently showcased
plans for the roll-out of its new convenience store
concept, in which cashiers will be completely
replaced by new “artificial intelligence-powered
technology” almost entirely by robots, leaving room
for as few as three human employees.

3.  According to newspaper resources, with such
projects Amazon aims to “utilize technology to
minimize labor”. Upon hearing such news, Luddites
of varying persuasions will surely be tempted to
instigate the protective and coercive measures to
slow or halt the pace of innovation. Yet, to do so will
only delay or exacerbate the inevitable.

4.  Instead, we’d do well to remember that doing less
with more also means having more time and
resources for more. According to the census results
in England and Wales since 1871, rise of machines has
been a job creator rather than making working
humans obsolete. In other words, technology
creates more jobs than it destroys, and we’d do well
to seize on that reality with optimism and a thirst for
the next opportunity for creative service.

5.  That optimism requires more than just a change in
attitude or orientation if we hope for the fruits to
endure. According to the economist and researcher
Tyler Cowen, our vocational priorities need a drastic
reconsideration if we aim to apply our skills and
study within the context of the economic order.

6.  As Cowen mentions, increasingly, machines are
providing the brains, too, and that raises the
question of where humans fit into this picture.
Cowen asserts that the crucial question to be asked
is: "Who will prosper and who won’t in this new kind
of machine economy?”

7.  According to Cowen, individuals with especially the following
types of skills would be crucial in the near future:
1. the “conscientious,”
2. “motivators,”
3. “people who listen to computers,”
4. “people with a marketing touch,”
5. “people with delicate feelings,” and a range of others.

8.  As researcher Michael Hendrix asserts, such a future
requires a new mindset of mobility and
adaptation. By building on our intuition and
creativity in addition to hard work, we can deal with
the intense global competition each of us faces as a
worker.

9.  As Muslims, especially, we should remember that
adapting to economic change is fundamentally
about adapting to human needs, and aligning the
cultivation of our minds and the toil of our hands
with love for and service to our neighbors. Rather
than blaming other foreign powers or situational
conditions, we can move forward by building on our
God-given intuition and creativity, staying pro-active
in our response to the shifts that are sure to come.

10.  As artificial intelligence and the subsequent
technology continues to improve, we needn’t be
fearful of our own position. We are not mere
machines, but creative and imaginative human-
beings created stewardesses on Earth by a creative
God, fully capable of adapting, mobilizing,
innovating our modes of service to be in line with His
love and mercy.

11.  When the economic conditions change, the voice of
God will speak, wisdom will come, and we can move
forward energetically and creatively, leaning not on
our own understanding. We may think that certain
forms of such destruction signal our end, but when
we align our hands to anticipate the dynamism of a
new set of needs, the ultimate solution may surprise
us after all.