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Economists once dismissed the AI job threat, but not any more
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Economists surveyed in a study found it unlikely but plausible that millions of jobs could disappear in the next five and 25 years.
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Ben Casselman
NEW YORK - Among tech evangelists in Silicon Valley, it has become conventional wisdom that artificial intelligence will rapidly reshape the labour market, for better or worse. Economists, however, have often discussed AI’s impact with a scepticism bordering on dismissiveness.
Rising unemployment among young college graduates? The result of high interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty. Dire predictions of widespread job losses? A failure to understand the lessons of past technological revolutions. Even the layoffs that companies themselves blamed on AI were often chalked up to “AI-washing” from executives looking for something to blame other than their own mismanagement.
