{"id":199085,"date":"2019-01-24T03:03:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T08:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=199085"},"modified":"2019-01-24T03:03:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T08:03:34","slug":"chefs-and-truck-drivers-beware-ai-is-coming-for-your-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/24\/chefs-and-truck-drivers-beware-ai-is-coming-for-your-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Chefs and truck drivers beware: AI is coming for your jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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But with new advances in artificial intelligence, it’s not just industrial and warehouse robots that will alter the American workforce. (Photo: Franck V.\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report.<\/p>\n

The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with \u201chigh exposure\u201d to automation \u2014 meaning at least 70 per cent of their tasks could soon be performed by machines using current technology. Among those most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and others in food services; short-haul truck drivers; and clerical office workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat population is going to need to upskill, reskill or change jobs fast,\u201d said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings and lead author of the report.<\/p>\n

Muro said the timeline for the changes could be \u201ca few years or it could be two decades.\u201d But it’s likely that automation will happen more swiftly during the next economic downturn. Businesses are typically eager to implement cost-cutting technology as they lay off workers.<\/p>\n

Some economic studies have found similar shifts toward automating production happened in the early part of previous recessions \u2014 and may have contributed to the \u201cjobless recovery\u201d that followed the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n

But with new advances in artificial intelligence, it’s not just industrial and warehouse robots that will alter the American workforce. Self-checkout kiosks and computerized hotel concierges will do their part.<\/p>\n

Most jobs will change somewhat as machines take over routine tasks, but a majority of U.S. workers will be able to adapt to that shift without being displaced.<\/p>\n

The changes will hit hardest in smaller cities, especially those in the heartland and Rust Belt and in states like Indiana and Kentucky, according to the report by the Washington think-tank . They will also disproportionately affect the younger workers who dominate food services and other industries at highest risk for automation.<\/p>\n

Some chain restaurants have already shifted to self-ordering machines ; a handful have experimented with robot-assisted kitchens .<\/p>\n

Google this year is piloting the use of its digital voice assistant at hotel lobbies to instantly interpret conversations across a few dozen languages. Autonomous vehicles could replace short-haul delivery drivers. Walmart and other retailers are preparing to open cashier-less stores powered by in-store sensors or cameras with facial recognition technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestaurants will be able to get along with significantly reduced workforces,\u201d Muro said. \u201cIn the hotel industry, instead of five people manning a desk to greet people, there’s one and people basically serve themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many economists find that automation has an overall positive effect on the labour market, said Matias Cortes, an assistant professor at York University in Toronto who was not involved with the Brookings report. It can create economic growth, reduce prices and increase demand while also creating new jobs that make up for those that disappear.<\/p>\n

But Cortes said there’s no doubt there are \u201cclear winners and losers.\u201d In the recent past, those hardest hit were men with low levels of education who dominated manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs, and women with intermediate levels of education who dominated clerical and administrative positions.<\/p>\n

In the future, the class of workers affected by automation could grow as machines become more intelligent. The Brookings report analyzed each occupation’s automation potential based on research by the McKinsey management consulting firm. Those jobs that remain largely unscathed will be those requiring not just advanced education, but also interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese high-paying jobs require a lot of creativity and problem-solving,\u201d Cortes said. \u201cThat’s going to be difficult for new technologies to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology","mauthors-matt-obrien","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}