With the explosion of AI and AI-based tools over the past few months, it comes as no surprise that many industry leaders are talking about the potential impact it will have on the job market, and how it will potentially negatitvely impact the white-collar industry too.
According to Mustafar Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, he predicts that the fast progress of AI will pose a significant threat to white-collar workers, which could potentially result in large quantites of people experiencing negative consequences in the upcoming decades.
“Unquestionably, many of the tasks in white-collar land will look very different in the next 5 to 10 years”.
Mustafar Suleyman
With the rapid development of AI technology taking the world by storm, and the ever-increasing tools and software that are flooding the market, there is no doubt that a large number of traditional white-collar jobs will be made redundant to make way for a more streamlined workforce that has the potential to be more more productive than it’s human counterparts.
The issue will reach many sectors and industries, and most, if not all, will have losers in some shape or form.
Some of the predicted industries that are expected to be impacted by this include the car industry, medical diagnostics, copywriting and teaching. It is also worth noting that although a large variety of jobs will be permanently changed, there is also a large risk of such jobs also being eradicated.
Not only that, there are also experts who state other dangerous lurking outside of job losses, with an ai advisor stating that we “only have three years” before it becomes too powerful.
Recent research from Goldman Sachs predicted that advancements in generative AI could boost global gross domestic product (GDP) by 6 percent over a 10-year period.
On the flip side, this would potentially cause 300m job losses due to automation.
Once more, focusing on Mustafar Suleyman, he has implored that the US and other governments have to look into ways to support workers, and must consider methods to limit the potential impact AI automation will have on people.
He states that impacted workers will need “material compensation”.
A continuing trend that has been floating around for a while now is the prospect of a universal basic income (UBI). A UBI is a policy where every citizen recieves a regular, unconditional cash payment from the government. This income would cover basic essential needs regardless of employment status. It is said to promote financial security and reduce poverty.
Is the traditional office job doomed?
With the increase in investment into AI by the tech giants incredibly common now, it is no surprise to have the fear of the working future increase. Microsoft, Google and OpenAI all have their hand in the proverbial AI pie, so we are bound to experience a very different world in the next 10 years.
It is not to say that we should all be pessimistic about the prospect of such a future. We must remember that seismic shifts in the labor market have occured in the past, and will continue to occur in the future. Where there are jobs lost, jobs that do not exist today will be common in the future.
Without a doubt, we will be experiencing a categorically different world within the next decade. The world we have grown comfotable with will be drastically different.
However, being fearful of the potential impact only lowers your chance of cooperating with this dramatic change.
Remember, those who fail to learn and coexist with AI will be left behind compared to their counterparts who are already in the process of learning it.
