Technology and social media were core issues at the World Economic Forum 2018 and are relevant for Myanmar's young workforce, manufacturing plants and service economy

1 กุมภาพันธ์ 2561

"Technology companies still need to do more in stepping up to their responsibilities for dealing with harmful and illegal online activity."

TECHNOLOGY and social media are core issues at this year’s World Economic Forum among leading executives and politicians. UK Prime Minister Theresa May spearheaded the call for tech companies to tackle extremist content online and for governments to prepare for workforce transitions in a time of technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence.

This is as relevant an issue for Myanmar as it is for the UK. Myanmar’s economy is characterised by a young workforce moving into factories and manufacturing plants as well as the service economy. Automation, digital platforms and other innovations are changing the fundamental nature of work just as the sizeable portion of the population is trying to hop on emerging employment opportunities. In a country where both education (i.e. skills provision) and industrialisation are still at a nascent stage, it is crucial for the decision-makers to see the economic imperative for understanding and adapting these shifts.

According to the list of registered participants seen by The Myanmar Times, Myanmar only has three delegates attending, including Mike DeNoma, CEO of KBZ Bank. Deputy finance minister U Set Aung was on a panel discussion along with Wai Wai Nu, pitching Myanmar as an investment destination. Hence, we have summarised this year’s Davos highlights for our readers.

The challenge

The British prime minister laid out four key issues to the global audience at the forum: governments should support the workforce to keep pace with technological changes; tech platforms must not allow harmful content to spread; investors must consider social impact of firms; and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) should be reviewed.

A McKinsey report published last November revealed that about half the activities people are paid to do globally could theoretically be automated using existing demonstrated technologies. In 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated, implying substantial workplace transformations and changes for all workers. Myanmar needs to tackle these changes to make sure that people don’t just transitioned to new jobs to find out that occupation will be erased within a few years. Additionally, the education system here makes skills revamp much more difficult than developed economies.

 

Tech and the workplace

Theresa May shared the focus of her industrial strategy: creating conditions right for businesses, driving investment in infrastructure and equipping people with the skills businesses demand in this changing economy.

The workforce has to be supported to adapt to technological changes because the labour market alone cannot resolve the the disruption.

For if we are to retain popular support for the rules-based system, we have to stop and understand ... what it can really feel like for someone who has worked hard for twenty years and who now finds that the job they know how to do today is not going to be a job that needs doing in the future. And the answer isn’t to pretend we can sit back and leave it to the labour market alone to resolve, - Theresa May, UK Prime Minister

The government’s focus should be on supporting new jobs and industries which build on the strengths of local communities, as well as helping people to prepare for future jobs.

“For example, on our East Coast, Hull is getting behind offshore wind, generating hundreds of jobs in partnership with Siemens. And just as we act to help support new jobs today, so we also need to help people secure the jobs of tomorrow,” the prime minister highlighted.

This is achieved by establishing a technical education system, national retraining scheme to help people learn throughout their career and a £40 million Institute of Coding - a consortium of more than 60 universities, businesses and industry experts to support training and retraining in digital skills. The institute also seeks to bring people from underrepresented groups into the tech sector, making the economic growth as inclusive as possible.

The opportunities of technology is wide-ranging, from low-carbon technologies to healthcare support for an ageing society to AI. Self-driving cars, for example, have the potential to radically reduce the number of road deaths. Diseases can be predicted and prevented in the future.

Central to this transformation is to ensure that this shift does not leave anyone behind.

The UK leader further warned that technology is already changing the nature of workplaces and leaving many people with less predictable working patterns. Hence, the employment law needs to keep pace with the way that technology is shaping modern working practices and prevent any exploitation.

She raised the example of Uber, saying that the company has “got things wrong along the way” regarding safety and employment issues. “The answer isn’t to shut Uber down but rather to address those concerns, and to establish and enforce the standards and protections that can make this technology work for customers and employees alike.”

Uber, alongside Singapore-based Grab, were newcomers to Yangon last year. The authorities have sought to regulate the taxi sector through these channels, and improve road safety, services and traffic. In the same vein, from Uber to AirBnB, Nay Pyi Taw needs to allow the sharing economy to flourish while implementing a sound regulatory framework. There is a lot to be done.

 

Social media without borders

When technology platforms work across borders, no one country and no one government alone can deliver international rules and standards for a global digital world. Hence, Theresa May urged tech firms, investors and all international stakeholders to join forces.

“First, technology companies still need to do more in stepping up to their responsibilities for dealing with harmful and illegal online activity. Companies simply cannot stand by while their platforms are used to facilitate child abuse, modern slavery or the spreading of terrorist and extremist content,” Mrs May said, stressing that ultimately this content should be removed automatically.

Companies simply cannot stand by while their platforms are used to facilitate child abuse, modern slavery or the spreading of terrorist and extremist content, - Theresa May, UK Prime Minister

She argued that technology companies employ some of the brightest minds in the world - they should be able to design a system where unacceptable content is deleted automatically. Citing the negative example of the encrypted messaging service, Telegram, which was accused of offering a platform for terrorist and extremist groups to communicate and recruit, the premier urged the tech giants to work together with smaller players to fend off criminals and terrorists.

No tech firm wants to be known as a platform for terrorism, or the best place for child pornography, she pointed out. Governments should look at the legal liability that social media companies have for the content shared on their sites and improve and evaluate the existing frameworks and definitions.

“The status quo is increasingly unsustainable as it becomes clear these platforms are no longer just passive hosts. But applying the existing standards of liability for publishers is not straightforward so we need to consider what is most appropriate for the modern economy.”

These warnings are timely reminders for Myanmar, where Facebook dominates the internet landscape. The supremacy has huge implications for the sharing of information in the era of fake news and when terrorist or harmful content is a threat. Nay Pyi Taw needs to engage with the tech giant to raise the game.

 

Investors and AI

“Second, investors can play a vital role by considering the social impact of the companies they are investing in. This is fundamental to the proper functioning of markets, choice and competition,” the PM went on, urging investors to use their influence to ensure the company takes these issues seriously.

Earlier this month, a group of shareholders demanded that Facebook and Twitter disclose more information about sexual harassment, fake news, hate speech and other forms of abuse that take place on the companies’ platforms. This incident illustrates that investors can make a big difference.

The British leader also argued that the ethical implications of AI deserve attention.

“Third, in a global digital age we need the norms and rules we establish to be shared by all. This includes establishing the rules and standards that can make the most of Artificial Intelligence in a responsible way, such as by ensuring that algorithms don’t perpetuate the human biases of their developers,” Mrs May observed. The UK has established a pioneering Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation to build a common understanding of how to ensure the safe, ethical and innovative deployment of AI. Myanmar needs to follow suit.

Similarly, the digital economy was one of the major themes in Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech.

“If we don’t manage it we will have Luddites as we did in the past,” she said, referring to a group of desperate weavers who broke into factories and smashed textile machines because their jobs were threatened.

“Data will be the raw material of the twenty first century – which brings with it complex challenges, from economic inclusion to privacy. The EU would shift towards a common digital market,” she cautioned.

These concerns are shared by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma.

“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,” he noted.

Myanmar recently launched its Digital Economy Development Committee (DEDC) last July and is currently drafting the digital economy development master plan. It is pivotal that the blueprint will take into account the social responsibility of Facebook, how the digital skills gap will be bridged and how regulations could oversee the ethics of AI and algorithms.

Data will be the raw material of the twenty first century – which brings with it complex challenges, from economic inclusion to privacy. - Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

* The Myanmar Times initially reported that there were no official or political representatives present from Myanmar. 

 

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/davos-2018-myanmar-tech-social-media-and-future-work.html )