History of automation leading to unemployment

#History of automation leading to unemployment software#

While many expect recent AI technologies to affect society in dramatically different ways than technological developments in the past, evidence supports the contrary.ДЄI is sometimes characterized as part of the вЂFourth Industrial RevolutionвЂ™.

#History of automation leading to unemployment software#

What do history and the most recent studies tell us about how AI based automation will impact our jobs and the future of society?ДЄnd in particular, will the impact of AI-based automation be any more significant than that of non-AI based automation enabled by computers and robotics in the past?ДЄfter all, recent advances in more intelligent robotics to perform physical labor and AI software to perform mental labor follow a long line of technological developments via automation starting from the first industrial revolution. Such large numbers have prompted a myriad of fearful responses in popular media, with articles like вЂњ The AI Revolution Is Coming-And It Will Take Your Job Sooner Than You ThinkвЂќ and вЂњ New Study: Artificial Intelligence Is Coming For Your Job, Millennials.вЂќД«ut, just how warranted are these concerns? One widely cited estimate, from a 2013 Oxford study, is that as much as 47% of current US jobs are at risk of automation 1. The concern of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over everyoneвЂ™s jobs is becoming increasingly urgent as recent AI breakthroughs (likeAlphaGo, IBM Watson, self-driving cars, and many more) attract publicattention.ДЄs AI progresses, some believe that it will steadily and inevitably take over large sectors of the workforce and will bring mass-scale unemployment and social unrest. To alleviate short-term economic impact, it is important for governments to enact policies that value human capital and help displaced workers transition to new jobs in growing industries, such as healthcare and education.

These disparities may have socially and politically destabilizing effects. For the jobs that AI will displace, the impact will vary greatly across countries, industries, education levels, socioeconomic status, age, and gender.This augmentation may raise demand in some industries while depressing wages in others.

Like with many new technology that came before, many AI tools will augment and not replace workers by automating subtasks of a job.

The actual percentage of jobs that will be automated will be lower, because technology adoption lags behind technology development due to costs in implementation, maintainence, and overcoming cultural and regulatory hurdles.

While as many as 47% of current jobs contain tasks that may be automatable, less than 5% of jobs will be fully automatable by 2030.

Recent AI advances, while seemingly impressive, are very narrow in scope and require a lot of human supervision and input to work in real applications.