Job disruption in AI era likely to catch Asian governments by surprise, says MIT report

The speed and scale of the transition to artificial intelligence is likely to take Asian governments by surprise, potentially causing economic and social shocks, according to MIT Technology Review.

In a report released Wednesday, the technology media outlet warns of the risk of Asia’s employment landscape becoming “increasingly polarised” with a growing number of workers excluded from the value creation side of AI.

“Decision-makers in Asia must assume that technology will continually evolve, making the need for continuous reskilling and training critical,” said the report, adding that many governments in the region remain “systematically unprepared” for the changes ahead.

The findings in the report were based on a survey of about 900 executives across 13 Asia-Pacific markets including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and South Korea. Over half of the respondents were from companies with more than US$1 billion in revenue.

Potential disruption of job markets has been one of the most hotly debated issues around AI ethics. In a study of 15 countries, the World Forum estimates that AI – often called the fourth industrial revolution – will destroy 75 million jobs but create 133 million new ones by 2020. Separately, a University of Oxford study found that the US alone would see 67.7 million job losses over the next 20 years.

In Asia, AI is expected to affect one in every five jobs and eliminate one in eight, according to analytics platform Faethm, which provided data used in the report. About 42 per cent of respondents surveyed said they thought AI would eliminate or reduce more jobs than it creates over the next five years.