A TED Talk Review: The Jobs We'll Lose to Machines and the Ones We Won't

The world champion of public speaking, Manoj Vasudevan, said that you should ask yourself three questions before giving any presentation. First, what is your audience's return on their time invested? Second, what is your proof? Lastly, what is the 'FUNDA'(Feel, Unveil, Notice, Do, Achieve)? These questions that I used as my guide in reviewing the TED Talk that I have chosen.

My husband told me that when we have our children, he will be teaching them how to code at an early age because jobs are going to be replaced by technology. I would definitely help him in teaching our kids because for me, programming can help to improve logical thinking and problem solving abilities. But how true was the idea that "jobs are going to be replaced by technology"? That is why I decided to watch Anthony John Goldbloom's presentation.

Goldbloom's Audience's Return for Time Invested 

Today, machines are capable of more complex applications like grading essays and diagnosing diseases. Many of us would definitely be interested if you read the title "The Jobs We'll Lose to Machines  and  the Ones We Won't". For me, as a programmer, the return for the time have invested watching this video is that I have learned the limitations of machines or artificial intelligence. For others who have different professions or specializations, this presentation would definitely help them in assessing their career path, or this presentation could encourage them to be more fearless and inspired to do their best in whatever jobs they have chosen.

Goldbloom's Proof

Anthony John Goldbloom is the founder and CEO of Kaggle, a Silicon Valley start-up which has used predictive modeling competitions to solve problems for NASA. He said, "My company, Kaggle, operates on the cutting edge of machine learning. We bring together hundreds of thousands of experts to solve important problems for industry and academia. This gives us a unique perspective on what machines can do, what they can't do and what jobs they might automate or threaten." After saying these words, he showed a  simple line graph to display the information they have gathered.

Goldbloom's FUNDA

1. Feel - Goldbloom made me feel like I am Yahli, his niece. He started his presentation by telling a story. His first slide was his niece's picture and said, "This is my niece. Her name is Yahli. She is nine months old. Her mum is a doctor, and her dad is a lawyer. By the time Yahli goes to college, the jobs her parents do are going to look dramatically different." I felt that he did this presentation because he cares.

2. Unveil - He very well revealed a new knowledge to me. He showed credible proofs, displayed simple images, and used short but clear explanations to show what tasks that the machines can outperform humans at and vice versa.

3. Notice - He gave examples of tasks that were previously done by humans which are now done by machines like assessing credit risk from loan applications or sorting the mail by reading handwritten characters from zip codes. Then he added, "We have no chance of competing against machines on frequent, high-volume tasks. But there are things we can do that machines can't do. Where machines have made very little progress is in tackling novel situations. They can't handle things they haven't seen many times before. The fundamental limitations of machine learning is that it needs to learn from large volumes of past data. Now, humans don't. We have the ability to connect seemingly disparate threads to solve problems we've never seen before." After this part, I said to myself, "he is right!" He just reminded me of the things that I have already been noticing or seeing.

4. Do - He ended his talk by saying, "Now, as mentioned, machines are not making progress on novel situations. The copy behind a marketing campaign needs to grab consumers' attention. It has to stand out from the crowd. Business strategy means finding gaps in the market, things that nobody else is doing. It will be humans that are creating the copy behind our marketing campaigns, and it will be humans that are developing our business strategy. So Yahli, whatever you decide to do, let every day bring you a new challenge. If it does, then you will stay ahead of the machines." His advice to Yahli was also what he wanted his audience to do.

5. Achieve - His last five words, I believe, are the words that tell us (his audience) what he wanted us to achieve, "stay ahead of the machines".

Anthony John Goldbloom's TED Talk is a perfect example of a good presentation. His content was relevant  and informative. His format was visually appealing and easy to follow and understand. I would definitely share this video to my friends and family so they could also use the lessons I have learned, not only about public speaking but also on how and why we should appreciate the new challenges that we are facing in life.