LAST year a Hong Kong venture capital fund appointed a computer program to its board. This incarnation of artificial intelligence, an algorithm called VITAL, will vote on investment decisions alongside its five human counterparts.

It's a sign that the Big Data revolution is conquering territories that, until now, belonged exclusively to humans. How will this affect us? Will millions of jobs disappear? Or will this new digital landscape create new job opportunities for new types of employees?

During the industrial revolution of the late 18th century we moved from hand production methods to machines with the arrival of steam and coal power. In many cases machines replaced humans; in many others, factories were swamped by humans that ran the machines. Millions of jobs were destroyed, but the new businesses created by the industrial revolution generated millions more. In fact, unemployment in Britain was less than 9.4 per cent during the worst two years of 1840s. At the same time, industrialisation led to lower prices and widespread improvement in living standards.