- Title: AI an economic blessing or curse? History offers clues
- Date: 7th August 2023
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JULY 6, 2023) (Reuters) VARIOUS OF 'NADINE', A SOCIAL ROBOT MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES (JULY 25, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT AT MIT, SIMON JOHNSON, SAYING: ''Yes, history is very informative about big technological transformations. Of course, every time is different. Every technology is different. The point of impact, the way it affects jobs, the way it affects opportunities for for companies, that's different. But but we know from repeated experiences that you're going to... How the patent is going to play out, what what what sort of opportunities are going to be presented and also what the what the kind of risks are.'' GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JULY 6, 2023) (Reuters) VARIOUS OF 'DESDEMONA', THE ROCKSTAR ROBOT OF THE JAM GALAXY BAND MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES (JULY 25, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT AT MIT, SIMON JOHNSON, SAYING: ''AI definitely has the potential to increase inequality. It may benefit other people also, but that could also take a really long time. So a lot of times technological transformations eventually do help a lot of people, but eventually might be 100 years or even even more. So I think the question with that is how quickly can you share the benefits.'' GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JULY 6, 2023) (Reuters) HUMANOID ROBOT 'GEMINOID' MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES (JULY 25, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT AT MIT, SIMON JOHNSON, SAYING: ''No, I think the biggest leap was the Industrial revolution, the coming of the factory, moving people from agriculture to cities. Of course, that was also a lot slower. So if you look at what happened in Britain, which was by far the pioneer of industrial technology, it's about 100 years for that technology to really come to fruition and to have a really big impact on the broader economy. So AI is up there in terms of potential impact, but it's also really fast, right? It's coming at us much faster than electricity did, for example. That was a big deal in the early 20th century, but that took up to about 20 or 30 years to roll out fully. I already I mean, within a few days, Chad GPT was affecting jobs around the world and I think within five years the effects are going to be quite profound in many places.'' GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JULY 6, 2023) (Reuters) VARIOUS OF 'AMECA' ROBOT DESIGNED BY BRITISH COMPANY ENGINEERED ARTS MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES (JULY 25, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT AT MIT, SIMON JOHNSON, SAYING: ''I think a certain amount of fear is justified. I don't think we're facing the robot apocalypse, the Terminator scenario. That's in the minds of Hollywood. But we are facing a loss of jobs. And you can see that in Hollywood right now in the writers strike, because the writers are asking for more compensation, but they're also asking to control AI and to control how to limit how AI is used in the production of movies and television shows. And the reason they're focussed on that is really, I think, quite smart and astute and really necessary because you can already use these AIs to replace writers to produce at least mediocre, mediocre first drafts. Right? And so there's a real temptation to studios to go down that route. I think that would be a massive mistake in terms of losing human creativity, ingenuity, new stuff, but the studios might do that. And so I think. No. On the Terminator. Yes, on the job loss. And I think the job loss is actually, if anything, more serious in potential impact than many people at the top of policy in the UK, US and elsewhere are considering right now.'' LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 18, 2023) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) 31 YEAR OLD WORKS IN PROPERTY, USED TO WORK IN TECH (PROPERTY RELATED), BELLE, SAYING ''I think it can help us in a lot of ways, be more efficient, etc., solve problems than I guess like a lot of humans we can't solve. They solve quicker and are just able to just do things and a lot more efficient, quicker way, more intelligent way. But then it's also quite worrying because of people. I guess the people who created it are worried about what they've created.'' (SOUNDBITE) (English) 57 YEAR OLD, ACCOUNTANT, FILIP LYAPOV, SAYING: ''I have this threat for 40 years. I'm an accountant. Everyone has been saying, Oh, this is not a good career. The software will take a jobs. It will never happen. I mean, however clever is the software, there still be some people who have to maintain and make archives and tell them what to do, how to do it, so they will be a great help of software. I do use software, but I don't think it will extinct. There will be extinction of accountants.†PEOPLE WALKING IN LONDON
- Embargoed: 21st August 2023 07:07
- Keywords: AI job losses robotics
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Europe,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA001790218072023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: If medieval advances in the plough didn't lift Europe's peasants out of poverty, it was largely because their rulers took the wealth generated by the new gains in output and used it to build cathedrals instead.
Economists say something similar could happen with artificial intelligence (AI) if it enters our lives in such a way that the touted benefits are enjoyed by the few rather than the many.
Simon Johnson, professor of global economics and management at MIT Sloan School of Management says every technology advancement has a varying affect on humanity but says the risks and benefits tend to repeat.
Johnson stresses that while AI may have a detrimental effect on jobs, he believes that like many technological transformations it will eventually benfit most people.
Although Johnson says this may take 100 years or more.
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