Last week I spoke at a debate on the effects of technology in
the workplace. The event got me thinking about this vast, complex
subject. Here's a two-minute summary of my musings.
It seems to me that innovation will remain the key driver of
growth and human welfare. Rising prosperity and insatiable human
demand seem likely to create new industries and jobs to replace
those destroyed by technology. In short, robots won't steal all
the jobs. This has been the pattern of the last 200 years and I
think it will persistent.
The counter-case is that today's technologies are so
transformational it will be different this time. New technologies,
such as artificial intelligence, will replace not just repetitive
or manual jobs, but the creative cognitive work which is makes up
the bulk of work in rich countries. The number of jobs, the quality
of work and wages could all suffer.
