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 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. He explained at the event that he had tried to warn people in the early days of e-commerce it would disrupt traditional retailers and the like, but few listened. This time, he wants to warn against the impact of new technologies so no one will be surprised. 
 
 “Fifteen years ago I gave speeches 200 or 300 times reminding everyone the Internet will impact all industries, but people didn’t listen because I was a nobody," he said. 
 
 Ma made the comments as Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce operator, spends billions of dollars to move into new businesses from film production and video streaming to finance and cloud computing. The Hangzhou-based company, considered a barometer of Chinese consumer sentiment, is looking to expand abroad since buying control of Lazada Group SA to establish a foothold in Southeast Asia, potentially setting up a clash with the likes of Amazon.com Inc. 
 
 Ma, 52, was also critical of the traditional banking industry, saying that lending must be available to more members of society. The lack of a robust credit system drives up the costs for everyone, he said. 
 
 Read more: Alibaba and Chinese consumption 
 
 The China Entrepreneur Club event is host to many of the country’s startup founders, but even here Ma got a celebrity’s reception. As he took the stage, the crowd surged closer and snapped selfies with Ma in the background. During a Q&A session, people jumped up and down to get attention and then often used the time with a microphone to marvel at the opportunity to talk with him. 
 
 Ma was at times brutal in his criticism of companies that won’t adapt. At one point, he said cloud computing and artificial intelligence are essential for business -- and if leaders don’t get that, they should find young people in their companies to explain it to them. Another time, he called for traditional industries to stop complaining about the internet’s effects on the economy. He said Alibaba critics ignore that Taobao, its main online marketplace, has created millions of jobs. 
 
 Alibaba shares have outperformed this year on expectations it can withstand efforts by rivals such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. to capture digital ad spending and muscle in on its turf. The company is moving into untapped rural markets and investing in new sources of income, such as online media and cloud computing -- one of its fastest-growing businesses in 2016. 
 
 He also warned that longer lifespans and better artificial intelligence were likely to lead to both aging labor forces and fewer jobs. “Machines should only do what humans cannot,” he said. “Only in this way can we have the opportunities to keep machines as working partners with humans, rather than as replacements.” 
 
 — With assistance by David Ramli ||||| Even top tech executives think they could be replaced by robots one day. 
 
 Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma, the man Fortune Magazine just named one of the world's great leaders, predicts that technology will make many CEOs irrelevant in the not-too-distant future. 
 
 "In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time Magazine as the best CEO," Ma said in a speech over the weekend at an entrepreneurship conference in central China. And he warned of dark times ahead for people who are unprepared for the upheaval technology is set to bring. 
 
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 "In the next three decades, the world will experience far more pain than happiness," the billionaire said, adding that education systems must raise children to be more creative and curious or they will be ill-prepared for the future. 
 
 Robots are quicker and more rational than humans, Ma said, and they don't get bogged down in emotions -- like getting angry at competitors. 
 
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 But he expressed optimism that robots will make life better for humans in the long run. 
 
 "Machines will do what human beings are incapable of doing," Ma said. "Machines will partner and cooperate with humans, rather than become mankind's biggest enemy." 
 
 That's a more relaxed outlook than that of another global tech leader, Elon Musk. The Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO said in 2014 that artificial intelligence is the greatest existential threat to humans, and he's now hoping to harness it in a way that will benefit society. 
 
 Ma's remarks come as Alibaba (BABA) continues to expand beyond its main e-commerce business. The company is a leading provider of cloud computing that has been pushing the power of big data and has expanded into digital media. 
 
 Related: Alibaba's 1 million American jobs promise isn't realistic 
 
 Ma predicts that technology will eventually create a problem plenty of office workers would love to have: a shorter work week. 
 
 "In 10 or 20 years, people will work less than four hours a day, maybe three days a week," he predicted. With less time spent working, he said, we will question how to live. 
 
 -- Nanlin Fang contributed to this report.
– How's this for a bleak tech warning: "In the next 30 years, the world will see much more pain than happiness." It comes from Jack Ma, founder of the online Chinese retailing behemoth Alibaba, as quoted by Bloomberg. "Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life," he added. Ma was speaking about how the rise of the internet and technology will affect societies around the world as traditional industries undergo profound change. He warned that education systems and business leaders must keep up, because the speed of change in fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics is only going to increase. "In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time magazine as the best CEO," Ma said, per CNN. He also predicted that in 20 years or so, most people will work fewer hours, perhaps four hours a day, three days a week. Whether that's good or bad might depend on how the shift to robotics is managed, he said. "Machines should only do what humans cannot," becoming partners rather than replacements, he advised. And in this area, Ma sounded optimistic: "Machines will partner and cooperate with humans, rather than become mankind's biggest enemy."