AI-Cafe presents: AI and the Future of Work

Throughout the years, automation has been expanding and improving, with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics expected to impact almost all types of work, even those that are knowledge-based or those that require curiosity and creativity. As a result, speculations about the ‘end of work’ are at the forefront of the public discourse. Media headlines portend that a robot apocalypse will ‘steal’, ‘kill’ or ‘destroy’ jobs, that AI and robots are ‘coming’ for our jobs and those of our children, that AI might be a ‘jobs killer’, that our AI bosses will make us work hard, and so on. 

Despite its increasing (and often sensationalist) presence in popular and academic literature, though, automation as such is not a recent phenomenon. This session will offer an overview of the debate surrounding AI-driven automation and the future of work. What, if anything, makes this wave of intelligent automation different? How likely is it that human work becomes obsolete? Most importantly, is this a welcome scenario and why?