A really fascinating speech today by Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist and Executive Director at the Bank of England. This is worth reading in its entirety, but in short the Bank has analysed the job market and believes that up to 15 million could be at risk as AI advances. Sales and Customer Service roles could be most at risk.
As I posted a few days ago, this is probably a worst-case view, and will only occur if we allow it to happen, but it would be naive to assume that AI won’t bring massive changes to our work patterns. To assume the change will be similar to previous industrial revolutions is to greatly underestimate the impact AI will have on all of our lives: never before will machines been better than a human at everything. Previous industrial revolutions have left many roles for humans to adapt into. AI has the ultimate potential to leave no roles for humans.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/2015/864.aspx
“Yet the smarter machines become, the greater the likelihood that the space remaining for uniquely-human skills could shrink further. Machines are already undertaking tasks which were unthinkable – if not unimaginable – a decade ago…
As digital replaced analogue, perhaps artificial intelligence will one day surpass the brain’s cognitive capacity, a tipping point referred to as the “singularity” (Stanislaw (1958)))…
If these visions were to be realised, however futuristic this sounds, the labour market patterns of the past three centuries would shift to warp speed. If the option of skilling-up is no longer available, this increases the risk of large scale un- or under-employment. The wage premium for those occupying skilled positions could explode, further widening wage differentials.”