When Google's Peter Norvig, the world's leading expert on artificial intelligence, came to Australia this week one of the most commonly asked questions was – "What will it mean for truck drivers?"
That question embodies the fear that has engulfed many sections of the Australian workforce about algorithms, machine learning and robots and what these technologies will mean for millions of jobs.
The idea that truckies will be victims of the transition to a driverless world has been fuelled by all sorts of wild and not-so-wild predictions.
Tech entrepreneur, Mike Cannon-Brookes, told the AFR Business Summit earlier this year that the 2.5 million people in Australia who drive a car as a significant part of their job would ultimately lose their jobs.
"Those jobs are all going away whether it takes 10 years, 15 years or 20 years, it doesn't matter," Cannon-Brookes said.
"Pretending they're not may make people feel better right now, and the irony is the people in those jobs today ... will probably be retired. It's their children that will suffer the pain."
But Norvig said the jobs of truckers like those of so many other blue and white collar workers will not disappear because of AI.
"I think if I was a truck driver I think at my age I'm going to retire a truck driver," he said.
"I think I'm going to be spending less and less of my time driving the truck.
"But truck drivers do more than just drive right. They help load and unload, they work through the paperwork.
I think more of my job will be doing that and maybe I'll be more of a customer service representative at both ends when I'm loading and unloading.
"You still want a human there but maybe a lot of the time when the truck is rolling I'm sleeping and then I do my important job when I get to the end."
Norvig was speaking to journalists after an event at the University of NSW Computer Science and Engineering faculty on Thursday.
In a conversation with the university's professor of artificial intelligence, Toby Walsh, Norvig repeatedly returned to the way science removes the repetitive tasks and not the jobs.
"There are tasks that people do and I think we should focus on the tasks not the jobs," he said.
"There are parts of what you do that are repetitive and not very interesting and we have a lot of data on it and we're probably going to be able to build computer systems to take over those tasks.
"Then what remains is the part that is new and we don't have any data for and we are still going to want to have humans to do those parts. Humans will have very good tools to be much more productive and get their work done.
"This partnership by humans with a new set of tools can be better than any and everything that we are doing."
Norvig used Google as a prime example of how AI can be implemented to save money, work more efficiently, optimise processes and make lots of money. He says companies can partner with Google and rent their data analysis.
He also used Google as a case study in how other companies should prepare their staff for the increasing use of AI in daily business life.
Norvig said Google had put out course materials on AI for staff and had recently put 10,000 engineers through a short course on machine learning. Also, he had been given time to update his book called Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach which was jointly written with Stuart Russell and is regarded as the definitive book on AI.
Norvig is a huge believer in constant reskilling and education.
"You know we've had this model that you go to school for four years and you get a piece of paper that says I never have to learn anything ever again," he said.
"That's not going to hold up. People are going to have to be retraining and getting new skills throughout their career."
He said universities had an obligation to teach people to be adaptive and willing to learn new things.
Norvig's advice for Australian business confused or unsure about AI was to put someone in charge of the subject.
"I think every company should have somebody who has a basic understanding, who can follow what's going on in the field and look for where the opportunities are," he said.
"And if you have the staff at that level then they can make the choice and they may say: "You know what here's an opportunity we should staff up a project and we should do it ourselves. "Or they should say: "We have specific needs but we can partner with somebody else who's already done most of it and together that will work out.
"So, you've got to have somebody who understands how to make that call. And. From that the rest will flow."
