Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1304419
7 OPINION Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world T he past two decades ig- nited the technological revolution we are living today. However, even though companies embraced it in pub- lic, most of them have been slow in adapting their workplaces. We've all heard about the famous paperless office, but employees are still drowning in a sea of pa- per. Process re-engineering was another buzz word, but cus- tomers still face manual sys- tems with time-consuming processes at the backend. Re- mote working was the cor- nerstone of our technological advancement, yet employers were afraid of losing control, and their doubts extinguished these excellent initiatives. en the pandemic hap- pened. Everyone was in shock and panic seeped in. e only solution was to switch online, quickly digitise our paperwork and start rethinking our pro- cesses. And companies realised that things weren't so bad after all. As a matter of fact, before the pandemic, only 10% of the workforce primarily worked from home. When it finally passes, this number will in- crease to 25%. Furthermore, employers are more open to this alternative form of work because it carries several ben- efits such as downsizing of- fice space, decreasing meet- ing hours, reducing business travel, and making office hours more flexible. But there's another bene- fit which many employers do not realise. e talent pool of potential employees sudden- ly increased by several folds. Workers do not need to reside in the country where they are working (if they can work re- motely). Some countries like Bermuda, Croatia and many others are even offering work- ing visas. But this pandemic is also opening up new horizons for another sector which has a lot of untapped potential; peo- ple with disabilities. Data is the fuel which modern computer systems consume, but it might be challenging to obtain. Because of this, the demand for data workers who collect, store, manage and an- alyse data is on the rise. is work can range from simple to specialised manual processing. Some companies use people to extract textual information (like a list of events from a website) and turn it into struc- tured data (like an excel sheet) which can then be processed automatically. is job would be ideal for someone having a mild cognitive disability. Other organisations might need peo- ple to go through audio record- ings and transcribe the text or mark different features (such as who is speaking and in which section). Anyone with a visual disability can efficiently per- form such a task. Many hos- pitals have specialised nurses whose job is to draw bounda- ries in medical images. Some- one with a physical disability and adequate training can do this. Once the data is in a usable form, knowledge workers ma- nipulate it and process it fur- ther. In this case; physical, au- ditory or visual disabilities are not a stumbling block for these tasks since most of the work is performed via a computer. Call centre personnel with visual impairments can quickly ser- vice clients from the comfort of their homes. Factory workers with auditory or physical dis- abilities can monitor machines from their work station, per- form changes via the software and request engineering main- tenance when needed. All this without leaving their work or home office. Manual work can be slight- ly more challenging. However, today we are witnessing a rise in computer-mediated physical work where the computer acts as an intermediary between the human and the task at hand. In the UK, a company is providing remote fork lifter services. Es- sentially, a person sits at a desk and operates a remote-con- trolled fork lifter located in a warehouse somewhere around the world. Several screens pro- vide a wide field of view so the operator can see what is around the vehicle and a joystick (or steering wheel) with floor ped- als is used to control the fork lift- er. e cars have microphones which provide ambience noise to the operator and alert him if something goes wrong. e USA is testing a robot to pull over suspect cars. Unfor- tunately, many cops get shot, or run-over in traffic stops. By using this go-between robot, the police officer stays safely in his vehicle and operates a robot which speaks with the driver of the stopped car. It checks the car, requests identification and even places a spike strip in front of the car's rear wheels (to prevent the motorist from driving away). In a Japan cafe, robot workers are controlled remotely by par- alysed people. ey can move, observe, talk to customers, carry objects, just from the eye movements of the operator. In this way, people who are house- bound because of conditions such as spinal cord injuries or progressive neurodegenerative diseases like ALS can still earn a living. e possibilities unleashed by technology are practically limitless. And in the coming years, more opportunities will arise. ese technologies are providing employers with a new pool of talent, one which was not available before. ey are also providing people with new opportunities which take them beyond their limits while also allowing them to earn a decent living. More important than money, work gives digni- ty to people together with the hope of a better future, both for them and their families. Beyond the frontiers of disabilities 29.10.2020 We are witnessing a rise in computer- mediated physical work where the computer acts as an intermediary between the human and the task at hand