No! AI is not the Zombie Apocalypse people think it is.

The rapid layoffs in the tech sector have unleashed a wave of mass hysteria among the public with more and more “experts” shouting doom and claiming that AI is inevitable but is it really all that simple. Since the dawn of time the only thing that has been the constant friend and foe of the human civilisation, its closest confidant and also its abusive partner – CHANGE. 

A subtle yet perfect example of this constant friend and foe manifesting itself in the economy can be gauged from the job of a knocker up. The knocker up were members of the profession that existed in most societies albeit with different names, well into the Industrial Revolution. The job a knocker up was to simply wake people up so they could get to work on time. With alarm clocks becoming more and more reliable the job of a knocker-up was smacked into oblivion so much so that most people today have not even heard of the word. What is clearly evident is that while the jobs of several individuals were taken away by alarm clocks they did not doom the human civilisation.

Perhaps the most significant events in recent human history – The Industrial Revolution and the invention of computers were met with similar hysteria, so much so that several factions of the society turned to violent means to keep the machines at bay. The Luddites were a group of skilled weavers and craftsmen in Britain in the early 19th Century who opposed the use of cost saving machinery being put to use by mechanized manufacturers so much so that they would often resort to clandestine raids and destroy the machinery and the factories in their entirety. A similar example is the “burn the computers” movement of the 1980s wherein typesetters in several localities in U.S.A. were protesting that the computers shall take away their jobs. It is safe to say that both Industrial Revolution and Computers created more jobs than they pushed into oblivion. More people were later employed as composers than there were typesetters, similarly more people eventually employed in the factories than the handweavers that were pushed out of their jobs.

However, it is fair to say that any technological upheaval is a transition of epic proportions wherein there is large scale distribution of job opportunities from one section of society to the other. An average typesetter nearly 20 years into his career will find it difficult to jump to a different role such as an offset printer specialist or a Team Manager so late into their career. 

The solution to the massive upheaval lies in the flexibility and resilience of the human mind. It is inevitable that the introduction of AI will create multitude of job opportunities for creating, training, explaining and sustaining the new technologies It is important at the policy level to ensure that there is sufficient large scale Upskilling specifically targeted towards people and sections of society the careers of whom shall become obsolete with the introduction of new technologies. A good example of proactive policy making is the flexible AI upskilling fund pilot scheme launched by the UK Government wherein small and medium sized enterprises in the professional and business services sector are provided 50% funding of the cost incurred in providing AI skills training to their employees. However, initiatives like these require to be more broad based if the intended aim is to be achieved.

A National AI Unemployment and Upskilling Fund –

Sovereign states must look towards a holistic AI fund. Unlike traditional unemployment funds it shall incorporate AI as the underlying system. The aforementioned fund shall inherit a two pronged structure –

1. Unemployment Benefit – It shall provide basic minimum support to individuals who have lost their jobs due to introduction of AI to cover basic living expenses during the job search.

2. Upskilling Benefit – It shall provide financial support in partnership with the private sector to offer new structured courses and/or help in enrolling in already existing ones to help the individual gain requisite skills and re enter the job market.

It is imperative that the policy makers put on their thinking hats for nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come and all the empirical evidence currently points that AI’s time has indeed come.