Experts warn that AI will destroy jobs and widen inequality

American experts say that the development of artificial intelligence will destroy many existing professions and widen wealth inequality. The Guardian reports this.

According to Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard, this has happened before in human history. However, he says, the market is expected to see some combination of AI and existing jobs.

“The question is whether the change in the composition of jobs will worsen existing inequality? Will AI increase productivity so much that, even if it replaces many jobs, it creates new ones and raises living standards?” Katz said.

Anu Madgavkar, lead labor market researcher at McKinsey Global Institute, believes that one in four workers in the United States will see AI and related technologies being introduced into their work more frequently. According to her, 50-60% of companies report using AI to some extent.

“Therefore, sooner or later people will have to learn to work with AI,” Madgavkar said.

Unlike previous automation cycles, the current wave targets office work, customer service, and sales.

“These are categories of professions that will experience the strongest displacement. People will have to work with it or master other skills,” Madgavkar said.

Several experts noted that new technologies will harm mid-level workers more than low-paid manual labor. AI or robots will have difficulty replacing janitors, Madgavkar says.

According to her, in the catering sector new technologies may take customer orders, but “we won’t see many small robots delivering food to tables.”

MIT economist David Autor and the chief economist of the National Federation of Labor, William Spriggs, say AI will help boost productivity in some professions. In his words, this would lead to higher wages.

“Companies do not want to discuss the benefits of these technologies. They prefer to frighten with new technologies. They want you to be grateful for having a job, and to keep being paid peanuts,” he said.

MIT economist David Autor declined to make any forecasts. In his words, a shortage of jobs in the United States does not worry him.

“In any case, we currently have a shortage of labor resources. I am more concerned about the change in the composition of jobs,” the economist said.

Autor expressed concern that AI will displace middle-class professions and erode the value of some positions. As a result, many will move into low-paid work, for example in the catering sector.

“The question is whether AI will devalue many skill sets and make labour more commodified,” he noted.

Experts noted the role of AI in creating positions for engineers and certain types of managers. According to them, any reductions in jobs can be offset by increasing staffing in healthcare as the population ages.

Juliet Schor, economist at Boston College, believes that instead of firing workers, companies could cut the workweek to three or four days.

“Reducing working time is indeed a much better way to respond to technological changes that replace the workforce,” she said.

Schor warned that AI will generate a large amount of unemployment. Even if some form of universal basic income were introduced, it would still create inequality among people.

MIT professor Julie Shah said that using AI and robots to “augment workers, not replace them” will lead to higher employment. As an example she cited French and Canadian companies that used such an approach.

In December 2022, scientists noted a tendency for robots to displace workers in manufacturing.

In October, researchers noted the tendency of people to overestimate the role of automation in displacing jobs.

In January, researchers forecast that AI will replace about 30 popular professions in the near future.