AI will make a lifetime of learning critical, predicts Google chief evangelist Vint Cerf.

The legendary engineer and internet evangelist at Google, Vint Cerf, was in Dublin recently for the Irish Government’s international Data Summit.

Known as one of the ‘fathers of the internet’, Cerf, along with Bob Kahn, co-designed TCP/IP: the infrastructure on which the entire internet depends to send and receive data.

Cerf said that the AI-driven revolution will be no different than previous industrial revolutions that destroyed some roles, but enhanced and created others.

“However, it is very important to recognise that people whose jobs evaporated, because of AI or automation in general, may not be prepared to do the new jobs unless they get retraining.

“So, this notion of education over a period of a lifetime will certainly have to become a part of our normal society.”

Words by John Kennedy