Computer scientists warn how robots and artificial intelligence will steal your job and create inequality
Top computer scientists in the US warned over the weekend that the rise of AI and robots in the work place could cause mass unemployment and dislocated economies, rather than simply unlocking productivity gains and freeing us all up to watch TV and play sports.
And a recent report from Citi, produced in conjunction with the University of Oxford, highlights how increased automation could lead to greater inequality.
The report, released last month and titled "Technology at work: V2.0", concludes that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK are at risk of being replaced by automation, 47 per cent of US jobs are at risk, and across the OECD as a whole an average of 57 per cent of jobs are at risk. In China, the risk of automation is as high as 77 per cent.
Most of the jobs at risk are low-skilled service jobs like call centres or in manufacturing industries. But increasingly skilled jobs are at risk of being replaced. The next big thing in financial technology at the moment is "roboadvice" — algorithms that can recommend savings and investment products to someone in the same way a financial advisor would. If roboadvisors take off it could lead to huge upheavals in that high-skilled profession.
But Citi says governments and populations are going to have to prepare for these changes, which are going to hit the world of work faster than technology advances have in the past.
The report predicts that many workers will have to retrain in their lifetime as jobs are replaced by machines. Citi recommends investment in education as the single biggest factor that could help mitigate the impact of increased automation and AI.
Top computer scientists in the US warned over the weekend that the rise of AI and robots in the work place could cause mass unemployment and dislocated economies, rather than simply unlocking productivity gains and freeing us all up to watch TV and play sports.
And a recent report from Citi, produced in conjunction with the University of Oxford, highlights how increased automation could lead to greater inequality.
The report, released last month and titled "Technology at work: V2.0", concludes that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK are at risk of being replaced by automation, 47 per cent of US jobs are at risk, and across the OECD as a whole an average of 57 per cent of jobs are at risk. In China, the risk of automation is as high as 77 per cent.
Most of the jobs at risk are low-skilled service jobs like call centres or in manufacturing industries. But increasingly skilled jobs are at risk of being replaced. The next big thing in financial technology at the moment is "roboadvice" — algorithms that can recommend savings and investment products to someone in the same way a financial advisor would. If roboadvisors take off it could lead to huge upheavals in that high-skilled profession.
But Citi says governments and populations are going to have to prepare for these changes, which are going to hit the world of work faster than technology advances have in the past.
The report predicts that many workers will have to retrain in their lifetime as jobs are replaced by machines. Citi recommends investment in education as the single biggest factor that could help mitigate the impact of increased automation and AI.
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