China’s Richest Internet Entrepreneur Is Doomy-And-Gloomy On The Future Of The World

Alibaba Founder and Chairman Jack Ma claimed this weekend that a robot “will likely be on the cover of Time magazine as the best CEO,” in 30 years. Ma made these remarks during the entrepreneurship conference in Zhengzhou, China.

Ma also foresees that “In the next three decades, the world will experience far more pain than happiness,” and “In 10 or 20 years, people will work less than four hours a day, maybe three days a week.”

He warned that longer lifespans and better artificial intelligence capabilities were likely to lead to both aging labour forces and creation of fewer jobs.

“Machines should only do what humans cannot,” he said. “Only in this way can we have the opportunities to keep machines as working partners with humans, rather than as replacements”.

Ma reminded the audience that 15 years back he had delivered several speeches warning people on the disruption that e-commerce and the Internet will cause to traditional retail business model. But not much attention was paid to his analysis as he was a little-known, inconsequential figure then.

Ma also came down on the conventional banking industry and suggested that lending must become more inclusive to cover larger section of the society. He pointed out that lack of robust credit system increases the costs for all people.