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AI and the future of work: Experts Azeem Azhar and Adam Grant weigh in
Listen:What does this new era of generative artificial intelligence mean for the future of work? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with tech expert Azeem Azhar and organizational psychologist Adam Grant on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to learn more about how this exciting and anxiety-inducing technology is already changing our lives, what comes next, and what the experts are still getting wrong about the most powerful technology to hit the workforce since the personal computer.
The rapid advances in generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which has only been public for a little over a year, are stirring up excitement and deep anxieties about how we work and if we work. Artificial intelligence can potentially increase productivity and prosperity massively, but there are fears of job replacement and unequal access to technology. Will AI be the productivity booster CEOs hope for, the job killer employees fear?
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
Larry Summers: Which jobs will AI replace?
Which jobs are most at risk of being replaced by AI? GZERO World caught up with former US Secretary of Treasury Larry Summers about how technological advances in artificial intelligence could change the labor market. The transformation, he says, could come slowly, then all at once.
“I suspect there's going to be less impact than many people fear in most sectors over the next three years,” Summers tells Ian Bremmer in the interview, “and more impact over the next 10 or 15 years.”
AI will affect some jobs more than others, Summers predicts. For example, AI will likely change the role of doctors, who diagnose people based on large amounts of data before it impacts the jobs of nurses, who provide daily medical care and human compassion. A personal touch is still hard to replace.
More broadly, Summers believes that "traditional hierarchies and ways of thinking" face profound change. And that’s what could make some influential groups nervous. Because AI is likely to affect people who have access to power before regular workers. It’s even probable, he tells Bremmer, that we’ll see “restrictionist and protectionist policies that limit our ability to benefit from these technologies or slow down [their development].”
Watch all of Summers' interview in the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, airing on public television across the US - check local listings.
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- How AI is changing the world of work - GZERO Media ›
US job growth slows for a fifth straight month, but labor market remains strong.
What We’re Watching: US jobs report & new China, Afghan energy extraction deal
Jobs report: US labor market remains strong
The Fed’s interest rate hikes, designed to battle inflation, have slowed US job growth for a fifth straight month. The American economy added 223,000 jobs in December, well below last year's peak of 714,000 in February but still above expectations of around 200,000. The December numbers put the monthly average for 2022 at 375,000. A slowdown has been in effect since last August, but the labor market is still hot: 4.5 million jobs were created last year, the second highest since 1940. Such resilience likely means more interest rate hikes are to be expected. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate hit a historic low of 3.5%. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest job gains, followed by healthcare and construction, while retail, manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing saw the least. President Joe Biden said the historic job gains are giving American families more “breathing room” amid the “cost-of-living squeeze.”
China, Afghan energy extraction deal reached
The Taliban have signed their first energy extraction deal. A Chinese company has sealed a three-year, $540 million agreement with Afghanistan to drill and extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the north. The deal spans three Afghan provinces and will create 3,000 jobs. No country officially recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government, and it has been globally criticized for its treatment of women. Yet, the Chinese have maintained and strengthened their diplomatic presence in the war-torn country, which sits atop an estimated $3 trillion of untapped oil and minerals. Beijing’s presence has been punished by the Islamic State, which attacked and injured several Chinese personnel in Kabul last month. But with tensions rising between Beijing’s erstwhile South Asian ally, Pakistan, and the Taliban, whose offshoots have stepped up their attacks on the nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, we’ll be watching to see whether the new oil deal might convince the Taliban to halt their support of terrorism.