AI will end the west’s weak productivity and low growth. But who exactly will benefit?
E lon Musk is not most people’s idea of a classic technophobe, so when the owner of Twitter warns of the dangers of artificial intelligence, it is worth sitting up and taking notice. Fearful that a new generation of ever-smarter machines threatens life on Earth as we know it, Musk was one of many at the cutting edge of technological change calling for a six-month timeout in the training of new AI systems.
There is nothing new in the idea that the machines are coming, and they are out to get us. Techno-optimists are right to say that the same arguments were aired by Luddites in the early 19th century. By this token, the chatbot ChatGPT is to the fourth industrial revolution what the spinning jenny was to the first – a product that symbolises the dawning of a new era.
In the past, there has been a pattern to events. New technology has arrived on the scene and has offered the prospect of doing things quicker and better. Fears have been raised of mass unemployment as machines take the jobs previously done by humans. Eventually, the pessimists have been proved wrong, and the new technology has led to higher levels of employment.
There is little doubt that AI will be a gamechanger that can bring to an end a long period of weak productivity and low growth common to western economies since the global financial crisis erupted 15 years ago. As was the case when tractors took the place of farm hands, a single machine will be able to do what countless workers formerly did. That’s really not in question.
What is in doubt is who will benefit from the boost to productivity. What if all the gains are seized by a handful of tech giants? What if history fails to repeat itself, and AI destroys more jobs than it creates? What if AI does lead
Read more on theguardian.com
