Project Proposal- Said Babaev

For Unit 3, I plan to explore the research question: Is the automation of industries helping humanity, or is it paving the way for a doomsday scenario where humans will soon become obsolete?

Message:

The message I want to teach my audience is that automation affects different industries differently positive on some areas while extremely negative on others. An important insight I’ve learned through Unit 2 is that automation is not innately good or bad, it’s a tool that has to be consciously integrated and managed. To allow policymakers as well as individuals to avoid the worst of the damage and maximize the benefits, it is important to understand how automation restructures the labor market.

Audience:

I am targeting young professionals or college students either studying or entering exclusively into fields that will be impacted highly by automation e.g. education, technology or engineering. These are the folks at their career inflection points and need to understand what automation implies for them. Through an industry focus, I hope to take these insights, make them relatable, and actionable for how they make decisions about adapting to the changing nature of the job market.

Genre:

For this project, I have chosen the interview genre. I will interview two friends with contrasting experiences: The first is a teacher who thinks his job will not be in danger from AI, and the second is a computer engineer who’s already finding it difficult to get hired because automation is growing so fast. It gives me the freedom to tackle the real world perspective of the topic, to humanize the topic and present both sides of the coin when it comes to automation. Most obvious way to tie abstract research to personal, concrete experiences is through interviews.

Plan:

First, I’m going to write down a list of worthy and focused interview questions that touch on my research question. The interview questions will probe the interviewees’ professional experience, understandings of the place of automation in their industries, and what they see coming in the future. After conducting the interviews, I will analyze them, and arrange the content in a manner that reveals how drastically different are these two industries. Additionally, I will seek out more data and insights that could further help contextualize their view points for my project’s pursuit of well rounded and informative results.

Concerns:

My prime concern is to keep the interviews balanced and bring out some valuable insights, which connects with my research question. Also, I intend to find the right balance between our personal stories and technical information to make the project a success and for us, as an audience, to enjoy it. A challenge is to make sure the opposing view doesn’t take away from the larger message of how automation is complex, and how it has different effects across industries.

Mentor Text:

I will use the mentor text “Automation: As a guide, The Good, The Bad, and The Future.” This text is an excellent example to follow when combining expert opinions with anecdotal evidence to make a well-constructed and very balanced story. Most importantly, I will use interviews to provide multiple perspectives and do this effectively without losing the integrity of each person’s voice which will be a strong model for my own project.

By adopting this approach I’ll be able to connect the research this unit has generated with real world experiences so my project will be well rounded, interesting and informative. With research, interviews and thoughtful analysis this attempts to give a nuanced view of the impact of automation on today’s job market.