Technology, being a community enabler, lay at the heart of the in-depth discussions conducted during the 9th International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) which concluded in Sharjah on Thursday.

A series of brainstorming sessions during the emirate’s leading communication event showed a significant discrepancy over the main intent of technology, with some viewing tech as an enabler, not a disruptor, while others had no qualms asking: ‘Is there still a space for humans?’ as Gemmaine Walsh, Director of Communications Group, Department for Education- UK, wondered during her presentation at the forum.

“I’m very impressed by the type of technology being pursued in the UAE. It’s really impressive. For my part and in my lecture during the forum I asked if there is still a space for humans. I hope the answer is absolutely yes,” Walsh told the Emirates News Agency, WAM, on the sidelines of the forum’s second day on Thursday.

“In UK, we have been harnessing a lot of technology over various fronts, trying to listen to what citizens are telling us. We set up a new unit called Arnold. It’s a robot designed to run a better system aimed to listen to people and respond to their needs in a better way,” she said.

An automated Robot negating the onerous logging of data, Arnold to its friends, doesn’t look like the robots we all imagined. It is actually a computer programme, but it is having a massive impact on how quickly and effectively communication with the public and addressing their concerns can be.

“Effective, responsive communications and engagement with the public has to be at the heart of all public service and government communication,” said Walsh.

Having said so, she continues, “One of the challenges for me about technology is why you’re using it? How do you use it? And what do you want to do with it? Personally I see technology as an enabler. It’s a means to an end and we should definitely harness it as humans. But fundamentally there is nothing more powerful than human connectivity and human emotions.” Out of this perspective, Walsh believes that distance learning has a future despite all challenges surrounding it. “Tech in all works, whether in education or other fields, has a future. It ensures more access to data and better a performance, but fundamentally for me it is still about humans working together.”

A different view was expressed by US Expert Kris Bennett, Chief Learning Officer, Blockchain Training Alliance, USA, Training Alliance USA.

“Technology is not developed with the sole intent of developing new modes of communication. It has its own side effects. The so-called ‘dot.com revolution’ is not focused exclusively on giving people new ways to communicate. It absolutely changes the way we communicate and share information,” he said.

He went on to say that in 25 years from now, AI, blockchain and big data would make the way we are communicating now look very limited in comparison to how it would be in the future.

Responding to concerns about potential jobs losses due to Artificial Intelligence, Bennett said, “In time of large technological leaps, yes some people do get displaced but it ends up overall creating much more opportunities than it does remove jobs.”

 “AI can replace human beings in doing a lot of repetitive analysis-type work, so we really need to make sure to build sound decision models into AI because it is very easy for our own intentional bias to adopt these models.” A different view was expressed by Michaelle Jean, the former Governor General of Canada, who opinionated that tech has had a negative impact on news making.

Judging from her own experience as a former journalist on the rise of new media versus traditional journalism, Jean said in her interview with WAM, “When I went to the other side as a public figure in the government, I could see how very disruptive fake news is.

“Unfortunately once anything is said now (on social media), even though it’s wrong, it becomes ‘undisputed fact’. The professional care of verifying the objectivity of things being said is missing.”

WAM