The TUC has urged the government to use productivity gains from the greater use of robots and artificial intelligence to reverse planned changes to the state pension age. Before its annual congress in Brighton, the TUC said higher levels of productivity thanks to technological innovation ought to bring greater benefits for working people. It said recent progress had mainly benefited business owners, rather than being shared across the workforce through better wages and working conditions. Analysis from the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests GDP could receive a 10% boost from productivity gains linked to artificial intelligence by 2030, helping to bolster the British economy as it seeks to escape a period of weak output growth. That could relieve the pressure on workers to stay in employment into their late 60s, according to the TUC.

David Nordfors is the co-chair and co-founder of the i4j Innovation for Jobs Summit together with Vint Cerf. There is a common misunderstanding about the coming automated economy that may destroy us all. Most people in business and finance (and most people, frankly) think that the new economy (of artificial intelligence and autonomous machines) is like the old economy: satisfying customers' needs for products and services. The real heart of the new economy will be about helping people need each other more. To build a new economy (and a decent, functional society), innovation must help us need each other more and in better ways… to bind us to each other.