Story image

The AI tidal wave is coming, but it won't be as destructive as people think

16 Apr 2018

Artificial intelligence is coming to town – and despite the unshakeable rumours that it will destroy millions of jobs, new research suggests that AI won’t be different to any other tech-driven change in recent times.

It will, however, impact some people’s jobs as it delivers economic growth and productivity. According to NZ AI Forum executive director Ben Reid, jobs change all the time.


Next month a research report commissioned by the AI Forum will be released to the public. It analysed 50 international papers on the potential impacts of AI and automation and suggests that AI-driven job displacement will have a relatively modest influence.


The worst case scenario would represent up to 10% of the total natural job churn over the next 40 years, the report suggests.

“Based on our analysis, there is no obvious reason why existing labour market support policies would not be able to cope. It will be more about changes to jobs as automation alters the tasks within a job and the skills needed, rather than the entire job being lost,” Reid explains.


Reid adds that fairness, transparency, and accountability will be key challenges associated with AI in the future, and it’s time to start having those discussions.

More than 120 New Zealand organisations are actively involved in AI projects, including Soul Machines and FaceMe, as well as the Cacophony Project that uses AI to help New Zealand become predator-free.



Why businesses should ban email attachments
IRD issues more than $80 million of refunds in one week
Transformation of industry verticals through 5G – Frost & Sullivan
AWS announces the general availability of AWS Ground Station
Citrix to extend Workspace to Google Cloud
Hybrid cloud security big concern for business leaders
GitHub launches fund to sponsor open source developers
Check Point announces integration with Microsoft Azure