Honavar said the types of jobs being replaced by automation has shifted.
“The difference is historically through the Industrial Revolution and until fairly recently, the part of the work that was being automated was physical labor and often work that was dangerous, what people didn't really want to do,” he said. “But I think what's different now is that we're talking about what used to be considered cognitive work, knowledge work.”
There will be tasks in almost every job that are amenable to automation, according to Honavar, and nearly every job will change because of automation and AI.
Ickes said the effect will create a mismatch of skills causing job displacement, and there needs to be a way to address the problem.
“Usually the winners outnumber the losers but the losers feel that pain, and it's up to policy to set up mechanisms to help with the people who lose from these changes,” Ickes said. “Especially if society is going to really gain from automation and AI, where there's big productivity gains and big wealth gains and big GDP gains. That would afford the resources to enable us to deal with the people who are hurt by it.”
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