Obama Warns A.I. Could Destroy 'Millions' of Jobs Maya Kosoff - Vanity Fair
go to original December 22, 2016

What should we do when robots take most jobs? (It will happen sooner than think.) Robert Reich explains why a universal basic income may be the answer. (Inequality Media)

While incoming president Donald Trump uses his Twitter account to save the U.S. economy 800 jobs at a time, outside in the real world, the labor market continues to face radical technological changes for which Trump’s preferred solution - reshoring traditional manufacturing jobs - is entirely inadequate. As the White House explains in a troubling new report, rapid advances in artificial intelligence and A.I.-driven automation threatens to eliminate jobs for millions of U.S. workers. Among those most likely to be impacted are workers with less education, who broke for Trump by a substantial margin.

The report, a follow-up to a previous study released by the Obama administration called “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence,”, argues that improvements in artificial intelligence are critical to America’s ability to increase its economic growth long-term. “As we look at A.I., our biggest economic concern is we won’t have enough of it and that we won’t have enough productivity growth,” Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters in a call Tuesday. “Anything we can do to have more A.I. will contribute to more productivity growth and will help make possible more wage and income growth.” But the White House is also clear that these advancements will likely displace huge numbers of “lower-paid, lower-skilled, and less-educated workers” in easily-automated jobs, like taxi services and trucking:

Some specific predictions are possible based on the current trajectory of AI technology. For example, driving jobs and housecleaning jobs are both jobs that require relatively less education to perform. Advancements in computer vision and related technologies have made the feasibility of fully automated vehicles (AVs), which do not require a human driver, appear more likely, potentially displacing some workers in driving-dominant professions.

CEA estimates that 2.2 to 3.1 million existing part- and full-time U.S. jobs may be threatened or substantially altered by AV technology.

The White House suggests a range of policy responses to address the sectors impacted most by automation, including improving education - everything from better early-childhood education to job retraining programs - and investing in the social safety net to protect displaced workers. Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and a higher minimum wage - all programs and policies that could be on the chopping block once Trump becomes president - are all mentioned as ways to soften the blow.

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