HUMAN Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said based on the 2020 World Economic Forum report, in order to remain employed in the next two years, 50% of workers will need to be retrained.
He added that as many as 4.5 million Malaysians will likely lose their jobs by 2030 if they do not improve their skills or attend reskilling and upskilling programmes with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
He further cited the 2020 World Economic Forum and warned that “AI could cause a recession in the job market as it is already being used to automate tasks in various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare and customer service”.
The introduction of AI is a game changer. It has umpteen benefits if used in day-to-day activities by making work easier and faster.
But the significant drawback is that it will also cause massive permanent unemployment.
This permanent unemployment can precipitate social unrest and a dramatic rise in crime rates.
So the biggest challenge would be to implement it in such a way that it doesn’t enhance unemployment.
So how do we deal with the burden of massive unemployment?
AI has no emotions. As of today, it cannot perform tasks requiring creative and social intelligence.
Therefore low-skilled workers have to upgrade their skills at social and creative levels.
As AI surges forward, low-skill workers will need to learn new tasks requiring creative and social intelligence that are foreign to the computer.
AI can replace dangerous and repetitive work thereby freeing human workers to do other tasks which require the ability for creative thinking, which is likely to be more fulfilling.
Some uses of AI are unique and unlikely to impact human jobs.
The greatest job losses will be in health care, energy and financial services, with developing countries expected to take the biggest blow.
However, on the other hand, the necessity for data analysts and specialised jobs will most likely increase.
Jobs in IT, engineering and software development will likely blossom significantly as these professionals will be pivotal in developing, updating and maintaining the AI technologies of the future.
Robots will work for free. And they can work around the clock, seven days a week.
The wealthier segment of society could come forward with an upfront monetary outlay to develop and build worker robots, as well as the costs associated with maintaining them.
These costs of development and deployment could ultimately be set off against the astronomical profits and benefits.
These benefits could be shared across all economic levels of society, and reduce crime rates and unrest in the interest of societal stability.
As such, the government can mandate a basic income for all unemployed citizens victimised by AI.
As a precedent to this principle of symbiosis, the popular movements in the 19th century saw the masses demand better educational and healthier living conditions in exchange with the wealthy, who eventually agreed to it as it was mutually beneficial.
Whether we like it or not there will be some rough times ahead for sure that will require strong political will and compromise to formulate solutions to this emerging “Frankenstein”.
AI has come here to stay and the sooner we adapt ourselves to it the better for us.
Dr A Soorian
Petaling Jaya
