AI-powered Robots Could Mean Job Losses On Farms And In Construction

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There have been warnings for decades that robots could replace people working in manufacturing and agriculture. More recently, concerns have grown that artificial intelligence (AI) could do the same with some white-collar jobs.

The use of robots has been growing, with 3.9 million of them ⁘operational⁘ in manufacturing around the world - 151 per 10,000 employees, double what it was 6 years ago - according to the International Federation of Robotics.

The number could keep rising if enough AI-powered ⁘humanoid⁘ robots are produced, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley, which speculated that ⁘converging trends⁘ could see large language model and ChatGPT-style generative AI installed in ⁘people-shaped⁘ robots.

⁘As the growth of the working-age population in advanced economies continues to decline, humanoids may prove to be a requirement for industries that are already facing difficulty attracting enough workers to remain productive,⁘ said Adam Jonas, head of global autos and shared mobility research at Morgan Stanley.

The investment bank estimates that the US could have over 60 million working humanoid robots by mid-century - a deployment that could ⁘potentially⁘ affect 75% of occupations and 40% of employees.

Proponents of robots say they could alleviate labour shortages in wealthy countries, which has facilitated migration from poorer regions, in part to try counter the economic impact of shrinking and ageing populations. ⁘Immigration can offset demographic declines,⁘ according to Seth Carpenter, Morgan Stanley's chief economist.

Meanwhile, the recent rapid spread of increasingly sophisticated AI has led to warnings that it could prove not only a threat to jobs, with some of the industry's leading figures last year warning of a ⁘risk of extinction⁘ posed by the bots.

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