OREANDA-NEWS. Jack Ma, the billionaire and founder of Alibaba, said that people should work 12 hours a week, while most of the work should be done for them by artificial intelligence. This is reported by the American media.

Speaking at the World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Shanghai, Ma expressed the view that people should work only three days a week, four hours a day. According to him, this can be achieved thanks to technological progress and the reform of education systems. “Over the next 10–20 years, every person, country, government should focus on reforming education systems so that our children can find work that requires only three days a week and four hours a day. If we do not change our education system, we will all have problems”, he said.

An example of how new technologies give people more free time, Ma called electricity. According to him, thanks to electricity, people have time to go to karaoke or a disco in the evening, and artificial intelligence will give people more time to enjoy the fact that they are people.

At the same time, in April, Jack Ma expressed a completely different point of view. Then he spoke out in defense of overtime, which he claimed was common in his company. “Personally, I think that the opportunity to work six days a week from nine in the morning until nine in the evening is a great blessing. Many companies and many people are unable to work from nine in the morning until nine in the evening. If you don't work in this mode when you are young, then when will you still have such an opportunity?", Said Ma.

In mid-June, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, at the 108th International Labor Conference in Geneva, announced that technological progress would shorten the working week to four days in the future. As the head of government noted, jobs will be reduced in the economy, working hours will be reduced, and leisure will expand among people.