The tension between technology and work is at least as old as the economics profession itself. A question some people are asking now is: if computers run by artificial intelligence can do the job of humans, will work disappear someday? Two economists are proposing a couple different scenarios in a new paper that is part science fiction and part mathematical models. In one scenario, lower-paid workers who are not highly valued by society – say, McDonald's hamburger flippers – are more readily replaced by computers than a scientist searching for a cure for Alzheimer's disease. This will drive down wages for a larger and larger segment of the lower-paid labor force.

On February 26, 1928, a headline in the New York Times announced, "MARCH OF THE MACHINE MAKES IDLE HANDS," with the subhead: "Prevalence of Unemployment With Greatly Increased Industrial Output Points to the Influence of Labor-Saving Devices as an Underlying Cause." What these alarming words referred to was the abundance of goods being produced in the roaring plants, mills and farm fields of 1920s America. According to a variety of statistics cited and charted by the Times, what Americans could now make was beginning to outstrip what they could consume, to the point of diminishing employment. "More and more the finger of suspicion points to the machine," the Times reporter, Evan Clark, claimed. "It begins to look as if machines had come into conflict with men--as if the onward march of machines into every corner of our industrial life had driven men out of the factory and into the ranks of the unemployed."

Lawmakers in Hawaii have voted to explore the idea of a universal basic income to guarantee wages to servers, cooks and cleaners whose jobs may be replaced by machines. The decision was made after research found the majority of tourism jobs will be replaced by robots. As technological innovations displace people's jobs, retraining for many affected workers may be impossible. An official in San Francisco also wants to implement a statewide'tax' on robots that automate jobs and put people out of work. The idea of compensating workers has gained support in progressive areas of the country, including Hawaii and San Francisco. A report last year from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that 9 per cent of jobs in the United States - or about 13 million - could be automated.

Is a guaranteed paycheck from the government, with no strings attached, the answer to the relentless rise of automation? The concept might sound far-fetched, but a so-called universal basic income (UBI), is currently one of the most hotly debated policy topics being floated as a means to address income inequality and the disruption that technology poses to the workforce. UBI is being tested in Finland and other international markets, but has received decidedly mixed reactions. Meanwhile, developments in robotics and artificial intelligence have grave implications for the labor force. A report issued this week from consulting firm PwC found that more than a third of U.S. jobs were at risk from automation, upping the ante for policy makers to cushion the blow to workers. Advocates for UBI argue that a guaranteed paycheck could serve as a way to fight poverty and uncertainty in an evolving U.S. economy, and encourage workers to take more risks in the job market if they had some extra money as a cushion.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence could be catastrophic for humanity who are set to become a cyborg race which will have to grapple with 15 percent of the global workforce being without a job. The creative genius added a "universal income" would have to be introduced for the global population because robots will do everything. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the entrepreneur also told the 4,000-strong conference he saw space flights to the far reaches of the solar system being as common as a plane ride in 50 years. And self-driven cars were just 10 years away from usurping human driven vehicles completely. The business magnate, who was being interviewed by Mohammad Abdulla Alergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future for the UAE, told the slightly perplexed crowd: "One of the most troubling questions is artificial intelligence. I don't mean narrow AI – deep artificial intelligence, where you can have AI which is much smarter than the smartest human on earth. This is a dangerous situation."

A group of researchers at California?s Stanford University say they've created a computer-based artificial intelligence algorithm that can identify skin cancer as accurately as a doctor. Tech billionaire Elon Musk shared his insights about the future at an event in Dubai. ELON Musk believes artificial intelligence could be catastrophic for humanity. He thinks we are set to become a cyborg race, which will have to grapple with 15 per cent of the global work force being without a job, reports The Sun. The creative genius added a'universal income' would have to be introduced for the global population because robots will do everything.

TECH billionaire Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence could be catastrophic for humanity who are set to become a cyborg race which will have to grapple with 15 per cent of the global work force being without a job. The creative genius added a'universal income' would have to be introduced for the global population because robots will do everything. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the entrepreneur also told the 4000 strong conference he saw space flights to the far reaches of the solar system being as common as a plane ride in 50 years. And self-driven cars were just 10 years away from usurping human driven vehicles completely. The business magnate, who was being interviewed by Mohammad Abdulla Alergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future for the UAE, told the slightly perplexed crowd: "One of the most troubling questions is artificial intelligence. I don't mean narrow A.I – deep artificial intelligence, where you can have AI which is much smarter than the smartest human on earth. This is a dangerous situation."

The year 2016 was big for AI or Artificial Intelligence in the public consciousness. It seemed like people were talking about it everywhere, so surely there's no need to discuss it more? The thing is, though, many of the most intelligent people in the world consider the potential creation of true AI to be the most revolutionary development in human history, and they've been extremely vocal about both its promise and its perils. So as we start 2017, (a year that some are calling the tipping point for AI) maybe it's time for the rest of us to start thinking a little harder about it too? Let's start by clarifying some things -- AI already exists in the world, but these are the very narrow, task-based systems that live in most of our phones, our maps, or quite recently, our translation apps, and are collectively referred to as narrow AI (or ANI).

Music is about feeling and robots cannot feel. Nevertheless, scientists at the University of Toronto programmed an AI to write a Christmas song, and while Boing Boing deems this "not bad" and "a triumph," it comes off as hauntingly stoic and vaguely threatening. Christmas trees are not filled with flowers. We don't say "I swear it's Christmas Eve." The best Christmas present in a world is not a blessing, it's an actual goddamn present.

Musk has been vocal in his warnings about the potential downside of the rise of the robots. He has invested millions in OpenAI, a project to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits mankind, rather than destroys it, and last week he said that it was only a matter of time before AI was used to take down the internet. "There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation," Musk told CNBC. "I am not sure what else one would do. I think that is what would happen."