A news report on BBC News dated 28th March 2023 was headed ‘AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million jobs’. They were quoting research from  Investment bank Goldman Sachs which estimates that AI could replace a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe.  It’s a sobering thought that many types of jobs could be ‘enhanced’ by technology but also totally replaced.

The article mentions administration jobs and the legal profession but does not make mention the service industry. Already a company called Operto is advertising automated hotel check-in ‘end to the front desk’ and I found another company online, Service Robots advertising robot bar tenders and Amy the robot waiter.

But this isn’t new, many jobs from the early to mid part of the 20th Century no longer exist or are worked by a minor workforce compared to the mammoth industries they were, look at telephone operators, or car and factory production lines. Long gone are the long ranks of employees dutifully applying themselves to the daily routines of these roles.

Even jobs today can be devalued by technology, the report uses taxi drivers as an example where ‘The Knowledge’ has much less value now due to the introduction of GPS and platforms such as Uber which, the report states led to heavy wage cuts directly attributable to the devaluing of The Knowledge.

In 1990 E. M. Foster wrote  ‘The Machine Stops’ where the world population of the future, (now, really, I guess) was totally dependent on machines to do everything for them.  Even religion became based on automation. Then one day it just stops and it is pretty much the end for that society.

We seem to be driven to make our AI more and more human in its skills and abilities. Machine Learning is something that already exists, image and speech recognition, sat nav’s calculating quicker routes, Alexa, it’s all around us.  We want quicker and easier and so demand fuels research, and research is expanding the abilities and use of AI. Are we creating our own dystopian future as predicted by those old writers?

It appears even Elon Musk is asking for the brakes to be put on the advance of AI.  He added his name to an open letter warning of the potential risks of AI technology as he and other key figures in the field see the race for such technology going out of control, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also signed the letter.

But what of the AI systems themselves? I have always been a strong advocate of workers’ rights and ensuring fair systems of work as well as championing the invaluable concept of employee voice.  But another recent article talked about poetry being written and Laura Kuenssberg in one of her articles on AI talked about 22-year-old Millie Houlton who, incensed by a parking ticket, asked chatbot ChatGPT to ‘please help me write a letter to the council. They gave me a parking ticket’.  It dutifully did just that, she sent it off and the computer’s version of her appeal successfully got her out of a £60 fine.

Although the systems behind AI are designed by humans.  the actual product is totally created by the AI itself.  I wonder, should we be looking at intellectual property rights for AI?  What other worker rights should be considered through legal moralism?  Will the robot bar person get an equivalent of the working time directive? 

Maybe I should start reviewing my HR policies now and be ahead of the game!