Last week’s poll: AI, robotics and jobs

Last week we asked what effect AI and robotics would have on employment in Britain’s engineering sector, and it appears that respondents aren’t too worried about robots taking their jobs.

Just under half (47 per cent) of poll respondents thought that overall employment will increase but that jobs will change. This was followed by the 32 per cent who thought most manual jobs will be lost to automation, and 17 per cent who thought changes would be focussed in particular regions. The remaining four per cent thought there would be no overall change.

The poll was based on an OECD report that forecast 10 per cent of US jobs and 12 per cent of UK positions as being under threat from AI and robotics.

The results of the poll were largely reflected in the debate that followed, with Michael Morley writing to say: “I think that AI is often over-hyped. However, many low skill jobs will be lost as they require little in the way of complex multi-context information processing – I believe it will be a long time before we see a truly generally intelligent AI.”