Overture Echoing on the Chessboard
The story takes us back about 30 years ago, to 1997. At that time, the world held its breath for a historic showdown on the chessboard. On one side sat Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion hailed as humanity’s greatest intellect, and on the other, IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue. Many believed that human intuition and creativity could never be surpassed by machines, but the outcome was shocking. Deep Blue defeated Kasparov and claimed victory. (There is an interesting story that one of Deep Blue’s 44 moves was actually a bug the developers thought they had fixed.) This was more than just a chess game result; it was a historic moment when machines challenged the intellectual domain of humans. Although it was still a victory based on fixed rules and vast data-driven calculation, this event marked the first note of a grand overture toward the future.
Chapter 1: The Divine Move and Humanity’s Awakening
Time passed to 2016, Seoul, South Korea. If Deep Blue’s victory was a triumph of calculation, now a different dimension of intelligence appeared. Google DeepMind’s AI ‘AlphaGo’ challenged Lee Sedol, a top world Go player. Go is so complex that the number of possible moves exceeds the number of atoms in the universe, making it a uniquely human domain requiring intuition and creativity.
How did AlphaGo enter this realm? The secret lay in its ’learning’ methods.
- Step 1: Learning on the Shoulders of Giants (Supervised Learning) AlphaGo first studied countless professional players’ game records, learning the basic principles and patterns of Go, much like how we learn from great masters.
- Step 2: Training Beyond Itself (Reinforcement Learning) After mastering the basics, AlphaGo played millions of games against itself. Winning earned rewards, losing penalties, enabling it to discover which moves were better. Through this process, it began to find completely new and creative moves unseen in human records.
The result, as we all know, was AlphaGo’s 4-1 victory. Particularly, Lee Sedol’s ‘divine move’ in the fourth game was a shining moment of human creativity, but it also shocked humanity with AI’s terrifying potential and sparked a profound awakening.
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Without a Teacher, AlphaGo Zero
The year after the match with Lee Sedol, in 2017, the AlphaGo development team published a far more shocking paper in the prestigious journal
As the name ‘Zero’ implies, AlphaGo Zero never saw a single human game record. It was only given the rules of Go and played against itself. Like a master training alone deep in the mountains without a teacher. Astonishingly, within just three days, AlphaGo Zero overwhelmed ‘AlphaGo Lee,’ which had beaten Lee Sedol, with a perfect 100-0 record, and after 40 days reached a level called the god of Go.
Advertisement
The message was clear: AI can transcend the limits of human knowledge and experience data, create knowledge independently, and surpass human cognitive abilities. At this point, AI emerged not just as a tool but as a new paradigm shaking the foundations of labor and society. AlphaGo Zero’s emergence sparked the development of large language models (LLMs), and AI began spreading beyond the Go board into every corner of the world.
Chapter 3: New Job Scenarios Written by AI
The shock of AlphaGo Zero thrust the world into a massive AI whirlwind. Like a gold rush, everyone rushed to find the AI gold vein. Startups boldly declared, “We will change the world with AI,” and investors eagerly opened their vaults. Their strategy was clear: demonstrate AI’s potential, provide solutions to specific industry problems, and capture the market with ‘super-gap’ technology.
Thanks to massive investments, AI has now come close to us. For some, it brings dazzling opportunities; for others, daunting anxiety. Let’s look at two specific scenarios AI is writing in our workplaces.
Scenario 1: People Empowered by AI (Hope)
“This new drug candidate would have taken at least five years under normal circumstances.”
Ji-hye, a pharmaceutical researcher, goes to work with her AI colleague every day. Her AI colleague analyzes millions of papers and clinical data in just hours, suggesting new compound combinations that human researchers might miss. Previously, researchers stayed up all night forming hypotheses and enduring countless failures to find candidates. Now, with AI handling data analysis and simulation, Ji-hye and her team can spend more time verifying hypotheses and generating creative ideas.
“Thanks to AI, we are freed from repetitive tasks. Now we can ask more fundamental and creative questions that dig into the root causes of diseases. AI is not a competitor taking our jobs but the best partner amplifying human intelligence.”
Like Ji-hye’s case, AI acts as a powerful assistant in many professional fields. Lawyers use AI to instantly analyze vast case law and devise litigation strategies; architects design the most efficient and safe building structures using AI simulations. Those who learn to collaborate with AI demonstrate unprecedented productivity and creativity, creating new value.
Advertisement
Scenario 2: People Displaced by Machines (Concern)
“It’s the work I’ve done all my life, but now I’m told I’m worse than a machine.”
Mr. Sang-hoon, a bank manager who has worked in loan screening for 30 years, recently found an unfamiliar program running on his desk. It was an AI screening system that, by inputting customer credit info, income, and debt, instantly determines loan eligibility and limits. Tasks he used decades of experience to judge comprehensively were now done faster and more accurately by AI.
Eventually, the company drastically downsized the loan screening department, and Mr. Sang-hoon had to leave the job he devoted his life to.
“I protested that AI trained on biased data and machines can’t understand human circumstances, but it was useless. In the face of cost and efficiency, my experience became obsolete. Now, learning new technology feels daunting, and I’m lost about how to make a living.”
Mr. Sang-hoon’s story is no longer a distant future. Repetitive tasks based on fixed rules—data entry, customer service, production line inspection—are rapidly replaced by AI and automation robots. This has led to many losing jobs or suffering employment insecurity, making ’technological unemployment’ a real social issue. It also risks widening income gaps between those with and without technology, threatening social stability.
Future Crossroads: Jobs That Disappear vs. Jobs That Survive
Experts predict a major shift in the job landscape in the AI era.
- Jobs at high risk of disappearing: Those involving simple, repetitive tasks and decisions based on standardized data. (e.g., telemarketers, data entry clerks, cashiers, some administrative roles)
- Jobs that will survive or become more important: Those solving complex problems, deeply communicating with others, and generating creative ideas. (e.g., AI specialists, data scientists, psychological counselors, artists, strategy consultants, elder care professionals)
The key is not that ‘jobs’ themselves disappear but that the ’tasks’ composing jobs change. For example, the medical profession won’t vanish, but with AI assisting diagnosis, doctors’ roles will shift toward deeper patient interaction and comprehensive treatment planning. Ultimately, to survive in the future labor market, cultivating uniquely human abilities that AI cannot replicate—critical thinking, creativity, empathy, and communication skills (social skills)—will be more important than anything else.
Facing this massive change, we must also answer important social questions. How can the benefits of AI development be shared by all? How should social safety nets (e.g., basic income discussions) and retraining systems be established for those who lose jobs? How can ethical standards and regulations be created so AI technology develops without alienating humans and enhances human dignity?
Advertisement
The future AI unfolds is still an unfinished scenario. Whether it becomes a utopia or dystopia depends on our society’s intense deliberation and consensus.
Epilogue: Between Frustration and Admiration, AI Beside Us
Remember in 2011 when IBM’s AI ‘Watson’ defeated human champions on a famous US quiz show? We marveled at its intelligence. But just over ten years later, we sometimes get annoyed at the AI speaker in our living rooms, saying, “You don’t know that? Search again!”
This remarkable shift in perception is the clearest proof of how deeply and naturally AI has permeated our lives. Now, whenever we open social media, we unconsciously consume content AI has tailored to our tastes. We marvel when a friend’s profile picture is a stunning AI-generated artwork. With just a few taps, AI turns ordinary photos into art and perfectly recommends background music for short videos. Artificial intelligence is no longer a special genius on a chess or Go board but an invisible presence shaping our daily lives in our hands.
From Deep Blue to AlphaGo Zero to today’s generative AI, the rapid technological journey has been breathless. Now, instead of fearing or cheering AI’s future, we must seriously consider and find answers on how to build a better world with AI. Will we, like Ji-hye, soar higher with AI wings, or like Mr. Sang-hoon, lose direction in the waves of technology? At this great crossroads, the protagonist of the journey is not technology but ourselves.