General election 2017: Workers' rights v robo jobs - a quandary for all campaigns

Clever computers that learn on the job could recast Britain's job market - for better or worse. What are the parties vying for power in the general election saying on the subject? Twenty-nine-year-old Lee Hayhow is the third generation of his family to work as a lorry driver, following his father and grandfather. He is proud of his job. "I've always enjoyed lorries and driving. I trained as a professional driver. I always do it to the best of my ability. He estimates it costs £3,000 to train as a heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) driver. Mr Hayhow's employer, O'Donovan Waste Disposal, paid for this, but not all firms do, he says. And he would be delighted to see the next generation of Hayhows - his two young daughters - follow his career path. But by then, the decision may not be theirs to take. Lorry driving, like many other jobs that help power the British economy, could be facing a huge shake-up. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) - a field of computer science in which machines are taught to carry out tasks that require human traits of thought or intelligence - have led some to predict a knock-on catastrophe for jobs. Nowhere is the exponential growth of AI more apparent than in the race towards self-driving vehicles. There have been stark warnings about its impact on the jobs market as computer programs are honed to perform a number of roles, including call centre work, banking and paralegal responsibilities, retail and catering tasks, and journalism. Up to 46% of jobs in Scotland could be at risk within the next decade, the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland recently claimed. Accountancy firm PwC predicted 30% of existing jobs in the UK could be "at high risk of automation" by the 2030s. Calum Chace, author of Surviving AI and the Economic Singularity, foresees "quite a lot" of unemployment caused by the takeover of technology "in a decade and a lot in two decades". "The industrial revolution was mechanisation and humans had something else to offer - cognitive skills.