As AI-based tech becomes ever more sophisticated, concerns about its possible negative effects on society are growing. Chief among these is the threat it poses to the labour market. Indeed, in a new paper entitled Future Risks of Frontier AI, the Government Office for Science considers a scenario in which increased automation disrupts the UK’s workforce, leading to increased unemployment and poverty by 2030.
Such outcomes are far from unlikely. IBM’s chairman and CEO, Arvind Krishna, expects that about 7,800 jobs at the company could be replaced by generative AI in the medium term, for instance. Meanwhile, BT Group’s leadership team has been open about its plan to slash the firm’s headcount by 55,000, using tech including AI to automate up to 10,000 jobs within seven years.
Harmeen Mehta, the telco’s chief digital and innovation officer, believes that too much attention is being paid to the technology’s negative impact on people whose jobs it’s already affecting.