Smart machines are coming to the business world, but don’t tell that to the CEOs. Sixty-percent of CEOs surveyed by Gartner Research say the emergence of smart machines capable of absorbing millions of middle-class jobs within 15 years is a “futurist fantasy.”
The survey results reflect the anxiety about automation of the work world and the advent of smart machines that Gartner says will have a widespread and deep business impact by 2020.
That CEOs are dismissive about smart machines should come as no surprise. Their perspectives reflect a common human reaction that a self-learning intelligent agent or robot will replace lots and lots of jobs. The reality is actually quite different. People will adapt to smart machines in their lives. It’s just out of the question that they would not. Without these smart machines, the work people do will be almost impossible to perform. Cloud services are early evidence that machines are replacing people. To keep data centers running, machines are programmed to adapt to different types of workloads.

The CEOs Are Wrong: Smart Machines Will Replace Millions Of Jobs

The Highways Agency is harvesting information from the devices as part of a project to monitor traffic flow and ease congestion.

The information is being passed on by mobile phone companies and other data firms so the agency can identify areas of heavy traffic and help motorists avoid them.

The agency says that all the information it receives is processed and anonymous so that the movements of an individual motorist cannot be identified.

However, Big Brother Watch, the privacy campaign group, said the scheme raised more questions about the extent to which people’s movements were being tracked and their data used without their knowledge.

Nick Pickles, its director, said: “This yet another example of how our lives are being monitored at an extremely detailed level, and just how much of that data is being shared and sold on for a vast range of purposes.

Highways Agency tracks millions of motorists' handsets in 'smart' trials