Baidu CEO Robin Li says artificial intelligence will have much bigger impact on society than the internet

Artificial intelligence will have a much bigger impact on society than the internet in the decades ahead because of its potential to transform the way businesses and industries work, according to Baidu chairman Robin Li Yanhong.

AI, comprising technologies which perform tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence, such as understanding language and recognising objects and sounds, has been a contentious subject, with tech leaders like Elon Musk warning of technology running amok and governments studying the potential disruptive impact on jobs.

Others argue that AI will raise productivity and free up labour to pursue higher-value work, especially pertinent for developed economies with ageing populations. China has made the pursuit of AI a national priority, setting out a plan to become a leader in the technology by 2030.

An IMF study of 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries found that about 26 million jobs globally will “probably disappear” as a result of advances in AI, Lagarde said in a video of the session.

Women are also more likely to be more affected by men by the impact of AI because there are more women doing jobs that involve repetitive tasks, she said.

Li said that while machines will replace a lot of jobs currently performed by humans, AI will also create a lot of new jobs, such as in areas like data labelling, where humans tag the data and feed them to computers to learn.