Why entrepreneurship is the only escape from AI-fuelled unemployment

Unlike previous revolutions in industrialisation, artificial intelligence will disrupt jobs higher up the value chain, David Young, the former secretary state of employment, has warned.

Addressing an audience at the CogX AI event in London this week, he said the effect of AI on employment needs to be addressed now. “We must not condemn people to being out of work. We have to create an entrepreneurial society.”

In one working lifetime, the number of working hours has halved.

“Imagine now the soulless job of writing out invoices,” he said. This was liberated by technology in the 1950s. When technology began entering factories in the 1960s, a computer-controlled lathe did the work of eight workers.

“When you have Amazon being able to deliver on the same day, it’s changing the way we shop,” said Young. “AI will make a major difference. For example, once we have autonomous cars, we won’t need 80% of cars. They won’t be owned any more, which will lead to big changes in manufacturing.”

Young said AI will never truly replace the need for real people, which means society will need to reassess certain job functions in the care sector that have traditionally been considered low-paid.

“I’ve heard a lot of tosh about machines taking over the healthcare industry,” he said. “Could AI deliver the illogicity of humanity? People will not put up with a soulless machine. People want someone to complain to.”