Countering Unemployment Caused by Automation

1965, philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus, a staunch critic of artificial intelligence, boldly claimed that a machine would never beat a human at the game of chess. It would only be two years before the sceptical scholar was himself checkmated by an MIT-developed computer.

By 1997 machines were advanced enough to defeat one of the greatest chess minds of his time - Garry Kasparov. In 2015, our species' finest player of the very intuitive and "human" game of Go repeatedly conceded to Google's computer.

With the rapid technological advancement of recent years, computers are increasingly encroaching on domains that were previously considered exclusively human. The astonishing progress in such areas as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, 3D printing and genetics has enabled computers to perform the tasks of architects, medical doctors, music composers and even a 16th century Dutch master of painting.

It is easy to see why new technologies are increasingly viewed as a major threat to labour markets. Some estimates even claim that a staggering 80 per cent of jobs run the risk of being automated in the coming decades...

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