Technological innovations in the field of artificial intelligence are making such enormously rapid progress it is often said that all production facilities will become unmanned and a large majority of clerical work will be taken over by AI. This has given rise to an extreme theory that either AI or robots will replace humans in many jobs, pushing the unemployment rate close to 50 percent.
Although the jobless rate reaching 50 percent may be an exaggeration, it appears all but certain that the rate of technological unemployment — loss of employment caused by technological progress — will reach 10 to 20 percent. This means that unless some steps are taken, the Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by AI, the "internet of things" and big data will lead the human race to a dystopia rather than to a utopia. What measures could be taken to lead us to an utopia instead?
Gross domestic product, the total value of income earned in a country over a given period of time, is distributed to capital and labor. At present, the percentage of GDP allocated to labor stands at around 60 percent. If factories become free of human labor and a majority of routine clerical work is taken over by AI, the labor share will likely dwindle to about 20 percent.
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