Technological unemployment

Technological unemployment refers to the displacement of human workers from the job market in favour of some form of automated worker or technology.

Jobs under threat from automation

Potential jobs under threat from automation range from manual and unskilled labour, to more complex roles such as in healthcare, law, and stock trading.

According to a joint study conducted by Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School, “[…] 47 percent of jobs in the US are “at risk” of being automated in the next 20 years.”

Below is a list of jobs currently facing threat of loss to automated technologies.

Accounting & Finance

• As AI becomes more advanced, it will be more able to handle tasks such as filing people's taxes.
• A Japanese firm named Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance layed off 34 employees and replaced them with an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can calculate insurance payouts.
• At JP Morgan, An AI named COIN has Completed 360,000 Hours of Finance Work in Just Seconds
• Wall Street Traders could be under threat from artificial intelligence.

Construction

• A new type of robot that lays brick is coming to the UK, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

• Recycled roads which require no maintenance, leading to fewer jobs in the public infrastructure sector.

• In the past building a house could take weeks, or even months, new 3D printing technology is changing this. Some homes Can Now Be Made In A Day With 3D Printing this will lead to fewer jobs in the construction industry. A house 3D printed by the company PassivDom costs $32,000 and takes only 8 hours to build.

• A bridge in Amsterdam is being 3D printed.

Customer Service

• Thanks to developments in personalization and human interaction, artificial intelligence is more efficient than ever in customer service.

• In the fast food industry, the ability of ordering via either smartphone apps, or through computerised kiosks is also becoming more prevalent. This may lead to a reduction in the number of customer service jobs at such businesses.

Farming, Fishing and Food Production

• InnovaSea Systems has raised $15 million to develop an all-in-one system for farming fish in the open ocean. They plan to bring the product to market in 2018. They will test its technology at fish farms in Panama and Mexico this could lead to a reduced need of fisherman.
• Farming has become more and more machine automated. In the future, farmers may sit behind screens.
• Drones are also being used more frequently in the agriculture sector.
• 3D printed lab-grown meat could also disrupt the food industry as a whole.

Healthcare and Legal professionals

• Due to progress in AI, certain jobs within these fields will be replaced.
• A chatbot has been developed that can overturn parking tickets, has also given free legal aid to people who couldn’t afford lawyers for their emergency housing issues, and is now being used to help refugees with asylum applications.
• Unchanged for the past hundred years, the legal industry now faces being automatized.

Information Technology

• Vinod Khosla, envisions a future where Artificial Intelligence will take over 80 percent of IT jobs.

Manual Labour & Food Preparation

• Robot manufacturers are increasingly targeting the services sector, and that includes flipping burgers.

• A machine named "Sally" can create a variety of salads using a combination of 21 ingredients. Although the machine does need human help in order for it to operate.

• Shipping company Shentong Express has managed to slash labor costs in half by using sorting robots developed by Hikvision.

• An automated fruit picking machine could replace many manual labour jobs.

Sex Workers

• In February of 2017 it was reported that a brothel in Barcelona had opened using "sex dolls".
• In March of the same year; reports said that the brothel had been forced out after protests by sex trade workers who complained it was stealing their trade.

Transportation workers

• With the rise of automated driving technologies; taxi drivers, bus drivers, and truck drivers are all under threat their jobs being replaced.
• Drones as a means of delivering goods directly could also lead to a reduced need for delivery drivers and perhaps even postal services.
• A robot that can replace fork-lift truck operators is being put into production.

Writing and Content Creation

• It is predicted that by 2018, 20% of business content will be authored by machines.
• The trailer for the movie Morgan was created with the help of AI.

List of Technologies Used in Automation

• 3D Printing
• AI
• Driverless cars
• Drones
• Machine learning
• Robotics

Possible solutions

• Basic income
• Doughnut Economics as proposed by Kate Raworth.
• Education being made more affordable.
• Robot Tax - a concept backed by Bill Gates although this idea has recieved critism.
• Increased focus on entrepreneurship.
• Shorter Work Weeks.
• Job Guarantee Programs.

Related Media

Books

• The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism by Calum Chace.
• Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford

Infographics

Below are links to infographics relating to Technological Unemployment:

• Will Automation Steal My Job? - Futurism.
• Future of Work by Ross Dawson
• The jobs of the future – and two skills you need to get them - contains an infographic on job skills that David Deming believes will become crucial.

Podcasts

• What Should We Do About Job Automation? - Podacast from The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) with; Michael Osborne, Ryan Avent, and Judy Wajcman.

In Fiction

Technological unemployment related themes have featured in fictitious media such as:

• The Jetsons, which features shorter work weeks.
• Humans and Real Humans where humanoid robots have replaced many jobs.

Critique of Technological Unemployment

• Whereas some believe that automation will lead to technological unemployment, others believe that new jobs will be created in their place. Information technology, artificial intelligence and robotics will affect almost all occupations, but how that will occur for each is unclear. Many people will be displaced by technology, while the demand for other jobs will increase. New industries will be born and other as-yet-unimagined jobs will be created.

• Some also believe that increased automation will lead to a reduction in meaningless jobs, and that this is a good thing.

• Others have attempted to put together lists of jobs that could survive automation.

• A report from The Heritage Foundation makes the case that automation and technology increase living standards.

• Thomas Frey says there are 78 skills that will be difficult to automate.

• An article written on Computing.co.uk states; "Robots 'have created 261,000 new jobs' in US automotive sector, not destroyed them" Hinting that although in the short term job losses may occur, others may replace them.

Automation Risk

Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers worries that automation is creating is a world devoid of consciousness.

See also

• Basic income
• Humans Need Not Apply by CGP Grey
• Robot Tax

External links

• Technological unemployment on Wikipedia