AI Weekly: Automation in the workplace could disproportionately affect women

As AI and machine learning transform industries by automating much of the work currently done by humans, women's careers will be disproportionately affected. That's according to a McKinsey Global Institute report published earlier this year ("The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation"), which found that women predominate in occupations that'll be adversely impacted. About 40% of jobs where men make up the majority in the 10 economies (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., the U.S., China, India, Mexico, and South America) contributing over 60% of GDP collectively could be displaced by automation in our 2030, compared with the 52% of women-dominated jobs with high automation potential. Mekala Krishnan, a senior fellow at McKinsey's Boston-based business and economics research arm and a member of the board of the Global Fund for Women, spoke about the research (which she coauthored) at MIT Technology Review's EmTech MIT conference at the MIT Media Lab. Krishnan pointed out that monotonous or repetitive tasks are ripe for automation.