Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence over the coming decades will further divide society into rich and poor. If governments do not act, analysts say, the next wave of automation will lead to significant job losses and dramatically increase social inequality.
According to the forecast of the British charity organization Sutton Trust, first of all, people with low qualifications will lose their jobs. For people from their poor families who were unable to attend a higher education institution, low-paid work is often the only possible area of employment. On the other hand, people with a higher standard of living will be able to undergo additional training and find a new job.
Automation threatens over 15 million jobs in the UK, analysts say. Robots will hurt lawyers, payroll managers and accountants, as automated systems can do the same job faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.
AI has already begun to keep people out of jobs. Some robotic analysts write notes for news agencies about fluctuations in stock prices and weather forecasts (for now, according to a strictly specified template), and a whole brigade of robot workers operates in Amazon warehouses. And last May, Foxconn, one of the largest assemblers of electronics, including iPhones, laid off 60,000 workers in its factories, replacing them with machinery.
ILYUKHIN OLEG
