Artificial intelligence boss Terry Walby fought back against billionaire Stephen Schwarzman’s criticisms of the new technology today, saying it creates rather than destroys jobs.
His intervention comes in the week Blackstone boss Schwarzman gave Oxford University £150 million to fund a new humanities hub that will look at the ethics of artificial intelligence.
Schwarzman believes there will be major downsides to AI, including “higher levels of unemployment which could damage the fabric of democracy”.
But Walby, who yesterday sold his robotic automation platform Thoughtonomy for £80 million to AIM-listed AI firm Blue Prism, dismissed Schwarzman as a scaremonger and a headline grabber.
According to Walby, 51, whose firm shifts repetitive back-office tasks to machines, AI technology is creating jobs and saving workers time. He said: “What we are seeing with AI is improving productivity, freeing up people’s time. Why do medical secretaries spend so much time registering patients? They should freed up to do something else.”
He added: “We have seen no redundancies at the firms where our tech has been employed. In fact we’ve created jobs such as head of AI and robotics.”
Walby founded his firm in 2013 and his first office was at the Silicon Roundabout tech hub in Old Street.
“I saw an opportunity, saw a problem and took a chance. I don’t believe in working in the evenings on the side. The only way for entrepreneurs to make a business work is to commit 100%.”
Thoughtonomy now has 54 employees, annual revenues of £9.8 million and a client list that includes Hovis and Rentokil.
Walby, who majority owns the company alongside staff and some angel investors, said he wasn’t looking to leave after yesterday’s deal.
“Most of the deal was funded by shares in Blue Prism so I’ll be staying on. I wasn’t looking for an out.”
