A final year Economics student of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Victor Ikechukwu, has argued that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not come to take away jobs but has come to help us improve on them.
Victor made the submission while participating in a debate organised by the Nigeria Economic Students’ Association (NESA), UNN chapter.
The debate was part of NESA’s departmental week programme held from May 22 to 26, 2023.
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Speaking during the intellectual exchange, Victor stated that people do not know what Artificial Intelligence has come to do.
According to the young budding researcher whose team won the debate with a ₦70,000 cash price, some of the gains of AI are: enhancing the net productivity of workers; leads to net employability ratio of workers; and reducing the mortality rate among health institutions.
Other gains of AI, according to him, are helping to improve data literacy and also aiding workers’ development because training and educational programmes will be employed to achieve that.
Elaborating on the points noted, Victor advised that people should not be scared that technology is taking their jobs away. “It is not a threat to the labour force, it can only be a threat to you as a worker if you are not improving and acquiring new skills,” he stated, adding that “For instance, if a worker is producing two units of goods per hour, with the help of AI, the numbers of the output of the worker will improve at the geometric level.”
“AI is not independent of itself, only people who can be able to work with the AI are capable of producing,” he concluded.
The debate which took place on the carrier day of NESA week held on 22 May 2023, on the topic: “The impact of Artificial intelligence on employment: A threat to the labour force,” was organized by the office of the Secretary General of the Economics department,
Emeto Tracy.
According to Ms. Emeto, conducting NESA Debate on Career Day during the Economics Departmental week is a constitutional requirement.
She said: “Participating in a debate goes beyond academic improvement. Of course, the debate topic enables you to become more enlightened in the subject of discourse. It also improves your public speaking skills, and research skills and helps in networking with other students.”
In a chat with our correspondent, the current NESA president, Ngadi Godspromise, said debates help to arouse the spirit of students because, in the cause of listening to the argument being presented, they learn real-life experiences, hence, the essence of organising debates for students.
Interestingly, Victor Ikechukwu also won the debate conducted by the former Executives the previous year.
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