That World Economic Forum that took place last week. On the second day of the event, an interview with Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba displayed a show of honesty that we are not used to seeing from the industry leaders in the global market.
Jack Ma spoke about a number of topics and problems that the world is facing today. Everybody in the crowd seemed to relate to his words and he dived directly into the massive impact of technology and how it was transforming our world.
He also mentioned the dangerous aspects surrounding it. “We are very lucky because the world is in a big transformation because of technology. This new technology will create a lot of successful people, interesting careers but honestly, every new technology will create social problems. If we don’t align together, human beings are going to fight each other, because each technology revolution makes the world unbalanced.”
Another topic which he felt strongly about was the globalization and how it is too far along to be stopped by any of us. “Globalization is a growing pain. It is so easy to launch a trade war[,] but it is so difficult to stop a trade war and I’m scared and concerned.”
Some of his most thoughtful statements were related to the field of AI and how it is a big threat to humanity. “Artificial intelligence, [and] big data is a threat to human beings. I think AI should support human beings. Technology should always do something that enables people, not disable people. The computer will always be smarter than you are; they never forget, they never get angry. But computers can never be as wise a man. The AI and robots are going to kill a lot of jobs, because in the future it’ll be done by machines. Service industries offer hope—but they must be done uniquely.”
He did not stop there and sent a clear message to the tech giants and said that it is their responsibility to shape the future. “Google, Facebook, Amazon and Alibaba—we are the luckiest companies of this century. But we have the responsibility to have a good heart and do something good. Make sure that everything you do is for the future.”
This is a rare show of honesty among the industry leaders in the global market and Jack Ma could not have said truer words. You can watch his whole talk in the video below:
