- London Mayor Sadiq Khan warns of job losses due to AI
- Entry level jobs will be the first to fall, he notes
- There are positives, says Khan, but they require responsible implementation
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has warned that artificial intelligence could “herald a new era of mass unemployment”.
London is particularly vulnerable, he argues, because the city relies heavily on white-collar workers in finance and creative industries, particularly given the high concentration of professional services such as accountancy, law, consultancy and marketing – all of which are at risk from AI advancement.
Junior and entry-level jobs will be the first to suffer, Khan pointed out in a speech to business leaders, arguing “we have a moral, social and economic duty to act”.
Moral, social and economic duty to act
With this comes the launch of a London task force on AI in the future of work, offering free AI training for Londoners and seeking to assess the potential damage to the employment landscape.
Khan describes a clear choice for business leaders to be responsible in their deployment of the technology: “Embrace the potential of AI and use it as a superpower for positive transformation and creation, or surrender to it and sit back and watch it become a weapon of mass job destruction.”
Acknowledging the huge potential benefits of AI, he aligned with the UK Government’s plans to ‘unleash AI’ in the public sector, explaining that “AI could enable us to transform our public services, turbocharge productivity and tackle some of our most complex challenges”.
Over half of Londoners expect their jobs to change in the next year thanks to AI, and the Governor of the Bank of England warns that AI is likely to replace jobs as well as a ‘sharp market correction’ when the AI bubble bursts, which could cause particular economic difficulties should unemployment rise in the meantime.
It should be noted that the Labor government has laid out plans to push artificial intelligence into every corner of UK industry with multi-billion pound investments and has confirmed huge infrastructure projects to support the technology.
Via: The Guardian
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