Alibaba CEO Jack Ma gave a speech, warning about the dangers of the internet and its impact on society for the next thirty years. He also discussed automation’s impact on the world.
Stop complaining
“In the next 30 years, the world will see much more pain than happiness. Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life”, he told the Chinese Enterpreneur Club. He added that he warned about the internet and eCommerce’s dramatic impact fifteen years ago, but that his comments were largely ignored back then, because he was not well-known yet.
Ma says companies will need to comprehend how the internet and different technologies work. Cloud and artificial intelligence are absolutely necessary in the business world and that if leading people do not understand that, they should hire younger people who can explain it to them.
He also feels traditional companies need to stop complaining about the internet’s economic impact, pointing to the millions of jobs created directly and indirectly through Alibaba.
“Machines should only do what humans cannot. Only in this way can we have the opportunities to keep machines as working partners with humans, rather than as replacements”, he said about automation, which should not result in a major loss of jobs.
