Jo Davis, Managing Director at Broanmain Plastics, shares her view (and concerns) on AI while sending an important message to the industry: we can’t ever forget the importance of our manufacturing specialists’ knowledge and problem-solving skills.
jo davis
If you read my last column, you will understand how much I value humanity and connections. It’s why I, in this age of AI, strongly advocate for setting boundaries to ensure that our reliance on AI doesn’t diminish our industry (or emotional) intelligence.
My fear is not AI, but the speed at which it moves. Are we facing an existential risk of it outpacing decision-making and losing our fundamental processing knowledge at the same time? If so, what are the broader ethical, social, business and sustainability implications? Any journey of discovery benefits from human input, even AI. My concern is that it’s being labelled as a universal panacea that, if left to its own devices, could completely eradicate brain power.
We should never lose sight of our manufacturing specialists’ knowledge. Take calculators as an example. We didn’t cancel maths classes when calculators were adopted. Understanding formulas continues to be essential for accuracy and error checking. The same is true for automating manufacturing processes. Data alone doesn’t make things; this requires human input and context.
Our brilliant engineering minds are, and will long remain, our greatest assets. After all, would the father figure of AI, Alan Turing, have broken the Enigma codes without pulling upon his intellectual capacity? These mind-machine discovery connections were all rooted in human thought processes. As they are to this day!
The act of problem-solving is equally essential. Encouraging active learning fosters teamwork and morale, allowing us to think unconventionally. To lose this judgment and creativity, which remain exclusively human characteristics, is critical for AI users of the future. How will people learn what to input if they don’t know which questions to ask in the first place? Equally, how will they know if the answer is accurate?
It comes back to being informed and selective of how much AI superpower we consume. The carbon costs of AI data centres are another important conversation that can’t just be brushed aside. As a progressive industry, we’re on board with increasing our efficiencies and addressing labour challenges. We must be wise about which technologies and tools are game-changing and separate these from the AI fads. As an SME, we were probably slow to introduce robotics. This year, the timing and cost were right for us, and six months in, I am fully converted.
This reaffirms the importance of embracing technology, but doing so in a measured way. By bringing everyone in our team along on the robotics journey, I firmly believe that we have the balance between progress and performance just right.