People nowadays are surrounded by new concepts such as “Internet of things”, “Big data”, and “Cloud computing”. We are excited to realize that we have already lived in the “future” that we dreamed about years ago. Yet we are also frightened to anticipate the coming changes brought by the unexpectedly fast-developing technologies.
The 2017 World Internet of Things Exposition kicked off in Wuxi on Sep. 10. As one of the most important guests, the founder of Alibaba Group – Jack Ma stood on the stage and shared his thoughts on the social development in the future.
Will human beings be replaced by robots?
“In terms of development of robots, we must have absolute confidence.”
The fantasies of human dominating robots started to collapse when master Go players Lee Se-dol and Ke Jie were both defeated by Google’s AI computer program AlphaGo. People started to question: will human beings be surpassed by robots? Or even be dominated?
Ma said that he does not believe in the sayings that robots will be competing with humans. Human beings and robots should find their distinctive features and develop in different ways. Human beings acquire wisdom while robots have intelligence. The future society should be a world in which humans are more like humans, and robots are more like machines.
Human beings must have absolute confidence in terms of development of robots, Ma said. In the past, we were eager to fly but were constrained by the fact that we do not have wings like birds. Thus, we gave machines wings and created airplanes. We were eager to run faster; thus, we gave machines wheels and invented cars. However, if we want cars to run with two legs just like us, they will never run faster. Our ancestors had already realized that machines were far more powerful than humans when they invented the first machine. For example, we can never run faster than cars, or be more accurate than computers.
Ma suggested that we don’t have to compete with computers: “To compete with computers in Go is like to compete with cars in speed. If you are depressed about the result that we failed the competition, I think your depression will only have to add up.”
To Jack Ma, the real remarkable robots are those who can do what man cannot do. “I have an ugly writing but I find it very intriguing. And computers can do very elegant font but it’s not precious. No matter how flawless robots can make chairs, I still prefer the chairs made by human。“
What will the future manufacturing industry look like?
“The future manufacturing industry will be more like service industry.”
In the 2017 Computing Conference held in Hangzhou, Jack Ma proposed the development strategy of “5 renews” – “Renewed Retail”, “Renewed Manufacture”, “Renewed Finance”, “Renewed Technology” and “Renewed Energy”.
Ma believed that the future retailing industry will be a combination of On-line and Off-line businesses. Combined with intelligent logistics, the huge transformation of “Renewed Manufacture” will come.
It would be hopeless for manufacturing industry without Internet, and it would be even more hopeless for Internet without manufacturing industry, said Ma. He predicted that labels like Made-in-China or Made-in-US will be replaced by “Made-in-Internet.”
Ma also outlined the blueprint for the future manufacturing industry. The production will focus on personalization and customization instead of mass production. The business model will be C2B (Customer to Business) rather than B2C (Business to Customer). Computer engineers will write code in workshops instead of offices.
We can say that the essence of manufacturing industry in the future will be service industry, said Ma. It would be absolutely essential for all Internet companies to think how to enhance the ability to make their services products.
Enterprises will be the leading force in the “New Industrial Revolution”. However, every revolution is accompanied by elimination. “In the next 10 to 15 years, a large number of manufacturers will face much more pain than they do today,” Ma said.
Who shall solve the problem in revolution?
“Believe in youngsters for they are smarter than us.”
Jack Ma’s biggest concern for the future is in education. He thought that the educational revolution should be ahead of other revolutions. The communities, the country, even the whole world should pay attention to what industries will emerge in the next 30 years. And they should adjust the curriculum of schools and colleges based on these changes.
As the pioneering figure in the industry, Ma gave his hope of future to the next generation, “What we cannot solve right now will be properly solved by our children. The 80s, 90s, or even 2000s, they are smarter than us.”
A piece of news that a CEO born in the 2000s challenges “older generations of entrepreneurs” has been a hit these days. Ma believed that the responsibilities shouldered on those youngsters are no less than “older generations” like him. “When smart phones first came out, we all thought that such small screens can never defeat personal computers. But nowadays phones can do so much more than computers. They become more and more powerful.
As the “aboriginals” of the Internet era, youngsters believe more in their actual engagement instead of others’ experience. Thus, we should give them absolute confidence. They have their thoughts and ideas for solving the problems.
