Jack Ma Sees Decades of Pain as Internet Upends Old Economy

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma said society should prepare for decades of pain as the internet disrupts the economy. The world must change education systems and establish how to work with robots to help soften the blow caused by automation and the internet economy, Ma said in a speech to an entrepreneurship conference in Zhengzhou, China. "In the next 30 years, the world will see much more pain than happiness," Ma said of job disruptions caused by the internet. "Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life." It was an unusual speech for the Alibaba co-founder, who tends to embrace his role as visionary and extol the promise of the future.