Â鶹ÒùÔº

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform work, Brock University experts are weighing in on AI's impact on human employees and the companies employing them.

"Generative AI will automate entry-level jobs in customer service, which will disproportionately affect the young and the undereducated," says Associate Professor of Digital Media Aaron Mauro. "The resulting job losses in a range of sectors (such as communications, education, journalism, driving—which is huge—and software developers) will have increasingly destructive impacts on society."

Amazon, for instance, has been heavily investing in generative AI, with its CEO recently saying the continued implementation of AI will lead to job losses.

AI is also being integrated into autonomous delivery vehicles. Magna International Inc. recently launched a pilot project deploying self-driving delivery robots in Toronto, signaling a future decrease in the need for human drivers.

Mauro says experts like computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton—often referred to as "the godfather of AI"—have indicated that knowledge economy work will be most easily automatable. Jobs that require "physical manipulation," on the other hand, may be more AI-proof.

"This will be a huge challenge to higher education," when it comes to training future generations, Mauro says.

Automation and technological innovation have already contributed to the redistribution of jobs at various times throughout history, such as during the Industrial Revolution or with the advent of computers and the internet.

Assistant Professor of Ethics Francois Cote-Vaillancourt says jobs lost to AI today, however, won't necessarily be replaced by new jobs in the same field or of the same quality.

"This is a fear that we did not necessarily have in the past where, yes, people were losing their jobs, but they could be reabsorbed," he says. "Now, it's not just 'less desirable employment," like work in a factory, that is being automated. It will include people answering phones, yes, but it will also include white collar positions in management, accounting and human resources—and these workers will not necessarily find other jobs."

Cote-Vaillancourt says current sociopolitical conditions are also such that the advancement of AI is more likely to contribute to a widening skills gap and expanded wealth inequalities.

"States have disengaged from regulating the economy, taxes on the wealthy have been continually lowered and there's less of a safety net for those who lose their job," he says. "I want to say that, in the long run, we're going to manage this just like any other technology, but on the other hand, I'm tempted to say that this couldn't have happened at a worse time."

Mauro identifies the "wildly successful Ontario Basic Income Pilot program as a way to ward off the social harms of widespread job losses and the ongoing affordability crisis."

"Of course, fairly taxing wealthy Canadians will be necessary to achieve social stability," he adds.

It is also critical, Cote-Vaillancourt says, to ensure companies are using AI in a way that respects the law and the rights of its human workforce.

But creating and enforcing guidelines around that won't be—and shouldn't be—left in the hands of the corporations themselves, he says.

"It's not the job of the corporation to prepare society for their own disruption—society must prepare for and push businesses to limit the disruption," he says.

There is a place, however, for governments to regulate and identify responsible use of AI technology, Cote-Vaillancourt says.

That could come in the form of ensuring that a company's AI use operates in adherence to existing laws around intellectual property and copyright or the promotion and proliferation of hate speech, for instance.

"It would be completely unrealistic—and have detrimental effects—to have national or international governmental bodies try to regulate how corporations use AI when we don't really know all that it's capable of yet. Governments should make sure we integrate AI into a fair work environment and society," he says.

"When you use AI to replace workers, you're also going to need to pay taxes at some point—you can't just concentrate enormous amounts of wealth without playing by the rules of a society."