[ad_1]
Robots are not replacing everyone, but a quarter of American jobs will be severely disrupted by artificial intelligence that will speed up the automation of existing work, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution.
The report, released Thursday, says that about 36 million Americans work in jobs highly exposed to automation, which means that at least 70 percent of their jobs could soon be done by machines using current technologies. Among the people most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and other people working in food services; truck drivers over short distances; and office workers.
"This population is going to need to develop skills, recover skills or change jobs quickly," said Mark Muro, senior researcher at Brookings and lead author of the report.
Muro said the schedule of changes could be "a few years or two decades." But it is likely that automation will occur more quickly during the next economic downturn. Companies are usually eager to implement cost-saving technology when they fire workers.
Some economic studies have shown that similar changes to the automation of production had occurred at the beginning of previous recessions – and may have contributed to the "jobless recovery" that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
But with new advances in artificial intelligence, it is not just industrial and warehouse robots that will change the American workforce. Self-service kiosks and computerized hotel concierges will do their part.
Most of the jobs will change somewhat as the machines take on routine tasks, but the majority of American workers will be able to adapt to this change without being displaced.
The changes will hit hardest the smaller cities, especially those in the center and Rust Belt and states like Indiana and Kentucky, according to the Washington Think Tank report. They will also disproportionately affect young workers who dominate food services and other high-risk automation industries.
Some restaurant chains have already opted for automatic machines; a handful of them experimented with robot badisted kitchens.
This year, Google is testing the use of its digital voice badistant in hotel lobbies to instantly interpret conversations in a few dozen languages. Autonomous vehicles could replace delivery drivers over short distances. Walmart and other retailers are preparing to open stores without boxes equipped with sensors or in-store cameras with facial recognition technology.
"The restaurants will be able to hear with greatly reduced staff," said Muro. "In the hospitality industry, instead of five people who run an office to welcome people, there is one and people serve themselves."
Many economists believe that automation has an overall positive effect on the labor market, said Matias Cortes, an badistant professor at York University in Toronto, who did not participate in the Brookings report. It can create economic growth, reduce prices and increase demand, while creating new jobs that compensate for those that are disappearing.
But Cortes said that there was no doubt that there were "winners and losers". In recent years, the hardest hit were the low-educated men who dominated the manufacturing sector and other blue-collar jobs, and the women with medium-level education who dominated office jobs. and administrative positions.
In the future, the number of workers affected by automation could increase as machines become smarter. The Brookings Report badyzed the potential for automation of each profession based on McKinsey Management Consulting research. Jobs that remain largely unscathed will be those that require not only advanced education, but also interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
"These high paying jobs require a lot of creativity and problem solving," Cortes said. "It's going to be difficult for new technologies to replace."
Source link
