Labour and Artificial Intelligence: Visions of despair, hope, and liberation

In the United States, job demographic data from censuses since the 1900s reveal a startling fact. Despite the two post-Industrial revolutions of electricity and computers, the occupations with the largest employment numbers are still jobs for drivers, retail, cashiers, secretaries, janitors etc, i.e. old professions needing simple skills and mostly repetitive work. This lack of transition to "newer" jobs is a global phenomenon, especially in the global south. India, for example, has half of the working population doing agriculture. One must grasp the significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this context.