London Mayor Sadiq Khan: AI could become a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ for jobs
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan warns of job losses due to AI
- Entry-level jobs will be the first to disappear, he notes
- There are positives, says Khan, but they require responsible deployment
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that artificial intelligence could “pave the way for a new era of mass unemployment”.
London is particularly vulnerable, he argues, because the city relies heavily on white-collar workers in the financial and creative sectors, particularly given the high concentration of professional services like accounting, law, consulting and marketing, all of which are under threat from advances in AI.
Junior and entry-level jobs will be the first to suffer, Khan stressed in a speech to business leaders, saying “we have a moral, social and economic duty to act.”
Moral, social and economic duty to act
This comes alongside the launch of a London AI in the Future of Work taskforce, offering free AI training to London residents and seeking to assess potential damage to the jobs landscape.
Khan describes a clear choice for business leaders to be responsible in their deployment of technology: “Seize the potential of AI and use it as a superpower for positive transformation and creation or surrender to it and sit back and watch as it becomes a weapon of mass job destruction.” »
He admitted that AI had huge potential benefits, falling to the party line amid the UK government’s plans to “unleash AI” in the public sector, explaining that “AI could enable us to transform our public services, increase productivity and tackle some of our most complex challenges.”
More than half of Londoners expect their jobs to change in the next year thanks to AI, with the Bank of England governor warning that AI is likely to replace jobs as well as a “sharp market correction” when the AI bubble bursts, which could lead to particular financial difficulties if unemployment rises in the meantime.
It is worth noting that the Labor government has outlined plans to introduce AI into every corner of UK industry with multi-billion pound investments, and confirmed huge infrastructure projects to support the technology.
Via: The guardian
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