OracleVoice: Why AI Isn't The Robot Apocalypse For Jobs

New technologies actually end up creating different, higher-paying jobs than the ones they replace, according to new research. Fears of "technological unemployment," a term coined by renowned economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930, and recently popularized by MIT Sloan professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, are rampant. The worry is that computer-driven automation will take over repetitive tasks across a swath of industries, from retail and financial services to manufacturing and, maybe sooner than we realize, taxicabs and trucking. It turns out, however, that new technologies--most notably AI--aren't harbingers of the so-called robot apocalypse. "Throughout history, automation commonly creates more, and better-paying, jobs than it destroys," writes The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip. "The reason: Companies don't use automation simply to produce the same thing more cheaply. Instead, they find ways to offer entirely new, improved products. As customers flock to these new offerings, companies have to hire more people."