ROBOTS causing millions of job losses could lead to the rise of communism
ROBOTS causing millions of job losses could lead to the
rise of communism
MILLIONS of job losses caused by robots could lead to the
rise of communism, according to the governor of the Bank of England.
By Jerry Lawton / Published 15th April 2018
Mark Carney warned the automation of jobs currently done
by humans could trigger mass unemployment and wage stagnation.
That will create vast inequalities between workers who
benefit from artificial intelligence and those whose careers are wiped out by
it.
“If you substitute platforms for textile mills, machine
learning for steam engines, Twitter for the telegraph, you have exactly the
same dynamics as existed 150 years ago when Karl Marx was scribbling The
Communist Manifesto,” he said.
Mr Carney told the Canada Growth Summit a new robot-led
industrial revolution had already begun and would affect nearly all careers.
The automation of jobs could trigger mass unemployment
Law firms already use artificial intelligence to comb
through documents and read evidence - something traditionally done by junior
lawyers.
Banks have computerised vast swathes of customer service
departments resulting in job losses.
Taxi and lorry driving jobs will go as self-driving
technology improves, he said.
The first industrial revolution saw a huge growth in
production during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
But wages did not rise for decades as machines meant most
new jobs created by technology were low-skilled.
Many experts believe political unrest sparked by the
resulting inequalities led to the rise of left-and right-wing extremism across
Europe.
To prevent it happening again Mr Carney suggested workers
should train for jobs which require a higher emotional intelligence in sectors
such as care and leisure.
City fund manager vice-chairman Edward Bonham Carter, 57,
the brother of actress Helena, believes a `significant number of jobs' will be
wiped out over the next 30 years.
“It's relatively easy to think of the jobs that might get
removed and automated,” he said.
“Whereas before it was manual labour that could be
repeated and mechanised, now quite a lot of the service jobs in theory could be
replaced.” Edward Bonham Carter
“It's starting to happen in the middle-class area,
professional jobs.
“What's different from the previous industrial
revolutions is that it's the professional classes that are now being
threatened.
“Whereas before it was manual labour that could be
repeated and mechanised, now quite a lot of the service jobs in theory could be
replaced.
“So it's not just truck drivers.”
He said Britain needs to shake-up an education system
which currently focuses on testing children's ability to retain information
like robots.
“I think the key things are analytical skills,
communications skills, skills that robots are probably going to be behind
humans on - empathy, dealing with other humans,” he added.
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