Understanding the Impact of Machine Learning on Labor and Education (eBook)

This book provides a novel framework for understanding and revising labor markets and education policies in an era of machine learning. It posits that while learning and knowing both require thinking, learning is fundamentally different than knowing because it results in cognitive processes that change over time. Learning, in contrast to knowing, requires time and agency. Therefore, 'learning algorithms'-that enable machines to modify their actions based on real-world experiences-are a fundamentally new form of artificial intelligence that have potential to be even more disruptive to labor markets than prior introductions of digital technology. To explore the difference between knowing and learning, Turing's 'Imitation Game,'-that he proposed as a test for machine thinking-is expanded to include time dependence.   The arguments presented in the book introduce three novel concepts:   (1) Comparative learning advantage: This is a concept analogous to comparative labor advantage but arises from the disparate times required to learn new knowledge bases/skillsets. It is argued that in the future, comparative learning advantages between humans and machines will determine their division of labor.   (2) Two dimensions of job performance-expertise and interpersonal: Job tasks can be sorted into two broad categories. Tasks that require expertise have stable endpoints, which makes these tasks inherently repetitive and subject to automation. Tasks that are interpersonal are highly context-dependent and lack stable endpoints, which makes these tasks inherently non-routine. Humans compared to machines have a comparative learning advantage along the interpersonal dimension, which is increasing in value economically.   (3) The Learning Game is a time-dependent version of Turing's 'Imitation Game.' It is more than a thought experiment. The 'Learning Game' provides a mathematical framework with quantitative criteria for training and assessing comparative learning advantages.   The book is highly interdisciplinary-presenting philosophical arguments in economics, artificial intelligence, and education. It also provides data, mathematical analysis, and testable criteria that researchers in these fields will find of practical use. The book calls for a rethinking of how labor markets operate and how the education system should prepare students for future jobs. It concludes with a list of counterintuitive recommendations for future education and labor policies that all stakeholders-employers, employees, educators, students, and political leaders-should heed.

Joseph Ganem, Ph.D., is a professor of Physics at Loyola University Maryland and the chair of the Loyola Physics Department. He is an author on numerous scientific papers in the fields of optical materials, lasers, and magnetic resonance. He has taught physics in the classroom for more than 25 years and has served on the Maryland State Advisory Council for Gifted and Talented Education. Dr. Ganem is the author of 'The Robot Factory: Pseudoscience in Education and Its Threat to American Democracy' and also of the award-winning book 'The Two Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy.' He speaks and writes frequently on science, consumer, and education issues and has been a contributor of articles on these topics to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. For its 2017 'Best of Baltimore' awards, Baltimore magazine named him one the 'Best Baltimoreans' in its people in the media section for the category 'Best Defense of Science.' Dr. Ganem earned a Ph.D. from Washington University in Saint Louis, a M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.S. from the University of Rochester.