Artificial intelligence cannot fail to reshape work. Many workers fear (rightly or wrongly) that AI will replace them. More optimistic observers rightly argue that new jobs will be created.
But we have seen big changes in economic eras before. And one clear danger is that the people losing jobs to AI will not be the people getting the new AI-related jobs. In the transition from an industrial to an information economy, big and sustained job losses have occurred in some regions and industries, to some specific workers.
There is plenty of evidence that many of those workers never again were able to replace the lost income or jobs. Among the biggest losers in the U.S. economy are males 25 to 54. Labor force participation for people in that demographic has been dropped steadily since 1950.
That 70-year trend might well add new demographics as we make the transition from an early-stage information economy to a middle-age information economy where artificial intelligence is applied to most activities, as was the case for computing and software.
About 74 percent of polled workers in India agree that AI is better than people for at least some tasks. About 58 percent of surveyed U.S. workers agree that AI is better than people at some tasks.
Fully 73 percent of U.S. respondents to a Gallup poll believe AI will reduce more jobs than it creates.
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