Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2019
Although the debate is likely to be interesting, it is yet another on one section of the Scottish economy. Developments such as AI do not happen in a vacuum; they have an impact on other areas of the economy. In order to reap their economic benefits for all our citizens, we need to have an industrial strategy that will co-ordinate our response—one that will pull all our economic levers together and ensure that we create the right conditions to maximise their impact.
Artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies have a lot to offer. They are already changing the way in which we work and live: from Alexa to driverless cars, a huge range of AI technology is already in use. It has the ability to change lives for the better—but it will definitely change them, so we need to make the right choices now to ensure that we will all benefit.
I recently attended a conference in the Western Isles on the subject of dementia. One of the speakers there was very knowledgeable in that area. When he developed dementia, he put that knowledge to good use. He is now planning for his future to be spent at home, maximising his independence by using technology. He already uses Alexa to order his shopping from a local store—not a large supermarket chain, but a small, privately owned shop. He is adapting his fridge to allow his wife, who works away a lot, to see what is there and to order what he should be eating, while, with the help of Alexa, he will continue to order what he probably should not be eating. That allows him independence, but it also allows others to look after him. He does not like being told what to do, so he has programmed Alexa to suggest what he should do and why—thereby using persuasion rather than demand. He knows how artificial intelligence works and programmes it to suit his needs. He admits that positivity was not his first reaction to his diagnosis—as anyone else would be, he was absolutely devastated—but he is now positively taking control of his future.
Such technology will become more and more available and will help people with all kinds of conditions to live their lives more independently. They will not all need to be experts, but they will need the skills to ensure that AI meets their needs. Of course, a note of caution should be sounded: such technology is not like a human being and can do only what it is programmed to do—it is a tool, not a human substitute.
People talk about jobs being lost to AI and robotics. That should not happen, but I recognise the danger of our allowing it to do so. I have never found a form of technology that has allowed me to work less; I have always seen it as allowing me to do more. I believe that that is true of all new technologies. The danger lies in people not keeping up their skills and training so that their jobs are easily replaced by machines that they do not know how to operate.
That point is made in the briefing from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and its partners. They state that there would be a net increase in jobs and that
“it would also be ‘the biggest shake-up in a lifetime’ to Scotland’s labour market”,
with
“the displacement of 544,000 jobs”.
They suggest that priority therefore has to be given to retraining people who will be displaced and ensuring that our education and skills development is fit for the future. Other members have made that point.
That brings into sharp focus the importance of lifelong learning. We have lost a third of our places in further education under this Government, yet further education is where those skills will be learned. The speed of change means that we require constant upgrading of skills.
Close the Gap also sent us a briefing, which points out the underrepresentation of women in the technical sector, where only 23 per cent of the workforce are women. That not only affects women’s earnings, but affects the products that are made by the sector and their suitability for women, and that not only disadvantages women in the technical sector, but impacts on the jobs that they can do in every sector where products and tools are designed for men. The smartphone is an example.
We cannot afford to leave people behind, and that is why this debate must not happen in a silo. It must happen as part of a wider debate around an industrial strategy. We need to look ahead at new technologies and how to develop them and maximise the knock-on jobs, putting the technologies into practice and ensuring that we have a workforce that is ready to do that. Very soon, every job will require skills in technology. The pace of change is incredible and it is speeding up. We need to ensure that our workforce keeps pace with that.
This is not just about work; it is about every aspect of life. We read about the technology that will bring about driverless cars, which is fast approaching, but there are already cars that react to differing road conditions to make them safer, from reacting to icy conditions and ensuring that the car slows down to ensuring that, when the driver brakes hard, it is enough to stop the vehicle in an emergency.
All of that will lead to improvements in our standard of living, but we all need to be part of it and to benefit from it. AI will have the ability to create a larger gap between the haves and the have-nots if we do not take steps to address that now, and preparing the workforce for the change will determine whether we can all benefit. The UK industrial strategy rightly encompasses AI, but we do not have a Scottish industrial strategy at all. The Scottish Government needs to move away from ticking boxes and silo thinking. It needs to produce an industrial strategy that ties all our economic levers together, ensuring that we have a plan to maximise the positive impact of the changes in our industrial base.
I move amendment S5M-19822.3, to insert at end:
“, and considers that this approach should form part of a wider Scottish industrial strategy, ensuring that all of Scotland’s economic opportunities are not only secured but also coordinated across the country in order to safeguard the labour market from widening existing gender and economic inequalities from AI, and striving to achieve inclusive growth in the process.”
15:13Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.