Artificial intelligence, not just job destruction

The term 'robot' is based on a Czech lexeme meaning 'slave', perhaps because robots take the place of slaves. The term 'slave' in turn derives from 'Slav', the language family to which Czech belongs, since the slave trade was concentrated among the Slavs from the early Middle Ages onwards.

But the wave of redundancies that has affected several industries in the US is not a consequence of the use of robots, which is the physical manifestation of artificial intelligence, but of computers linked to generative artificial intelligence. Let us see what is happening.

With generative artificial intelligence solutions, companies can increase their productivity. Some have already increased it by double digits in no more than six months. These companies can therefore afford to reduce the price of their goods or services, gaining market share over their competitors. We are therefore not talking about companies that lay off because their profits are falling, but about companies with growing results that lay off because technology allows them to do more with less. Blackrock, Cisco, Google, Meta, Paypal, T Mobile and IBM, for example, have recently announced staff reductions of between 2% and 13%.

This is probably only the beginning and in the coming quarters this phenomenon will affect many more companies in all sectors. According to three academic studies that have analysed the phenomenon to date, between 10% and 20% of jobs are at risk with the spread of generative artificial intelligence.

This does not mean that unemployment will increase proportionally, as many new jobs will also be created. One aspect that makes this technological revolution different is that most of the redundancies will be concentrated among university students and not, as in the past, replacing factory work. Moreover, this time it is young people's jobs that are at risk of being automated, which will increase the already intense intergenerational inequality.