The governor of the Bank of England has said that AI could displace jobs in a similar way seen during the industrial revolution.
Speaking to the BBC, Andrew Bailey said that fear about technology taking over worker jobs has been around at many times during history.
“Over time we can now look back and see that it didn’t create mass unemployment, but it did displace people from jobs,” he said. “My guess would be it is most likely that AI will have a similar effect.”
Bailey went on to say that the earliest recorded incidence he knew about was Queen Elizabeth I, who worried about the impact of a knitting machine on her subjects.
Bailey said that the UK needs to be prepared for the future.
“We have training, education, skills in place and we need to positively encourage and foster that so people can move into jobs that use AI,” he continued.
Bailey said that AI could impact entry level jobs where people “learn the trade”, adding that firms need to have an eye on the pipeline that enables people to rise up to senior level jobs.
Bailey said it is likely that AI will be the next source of productivity growth and “substantial” in the short-term.
“Over history you get waves of productivity growth that are related to big technological innovations,” he told the BBC. “In the period prior to 15 years ago we had the internet, we had ICT and that was contributing to productivity growth.”
Responding to concerns about the possible AI bubble in the US stock market, Bailey said that the Mag 7 companies, which include Nvidia, Tesla and Amazon, generate cash flow.
He said that while comparisons could be made with the dotcom bubble seen at the turn of the century, the stock markets are putting a value on the future stream of earning of these companies and that they “could still get it wrong.”
