The words “intelligence” and “White House” aren’t terms we use in the same sentence much lately, but today it’s necessary, as the Biden administration’s annual Economic Report of the President includes an entire section on artificial intelligence (AI) and the possibility of Americans losing their jobs because of an AI takeover.
The White House released a report Thursday that found roughly 10% of the U.S. workforce is in occupations with a high degree of exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) with lower performance requirements that could leave them more vulnerable to displacement.
According to the report, 20% of American workers are in occupations that have a high level of exposure to AI. About half of them — or 10% of the U.S. workforce — are not only highly exposed to AI but have relatively low performance requirements that could result in their displacement due to AI-powered automation.
Those findings were included in the Biden administration’s annual Economic Report of the President prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers and featured a full chapter on AI and its economic impact, some of which focused on AI’s impact on the labor force.
The growth of AI has been a matter of concern for some time now.
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Here’s where the usual government-speak comes in, though:
The report’s findings suggest “the demographic characteristics of workers negatively affected by AI may be somewhat different from those of individuals simply exposed to AI,” according to the report.
“For example, many high school graduates lacking four-year degrees have jobs that are highly AI exposed and that have relatively low performance requirements. A similar fraction of college graduates are exposed to AI, but their performance requirements are higher on average, and so they may be at less risk of displacement,” the report said.
One suspects it won’t be long before some Biden administration spokesdroid comes up with the inevitable “women and minorities hardest hit” line.
Artificial intelligence isn’t really “intelligent,” and it is hard to see it taking over any occupation where any level of creativity is concerned. A computer program, after all, can only respond to anything as it’s programmed to respond; AI, at least as it exists now, is a tool and nothing more. A program is only as good as its programmer, and “garbage in, garbage out” applies. No conceivable AI could take the place of, for instance, animal lab work in the development of medical treatments; the most complex computer models imaginable are still laughably crude – and predictable – when compared with biological systems. One would suspect that applies to plenty of other disciplines, like engineering. As far as lower-skill jobs, like, for example, fast-food workers, then counter workers’ jobs may be replaced by automated systems, which could said to be, on some level, AI. It’s more appropriate to blame the government’s insistence on continually raising the costs associated with employment rather than the development of AI.
Let’s face it – it’s going to be a long time before AI gets this dangerous – or this cool:
