Speaking at the FT Weekend Festival in September, Yuval Noah Harari, the historian and philosopher, said: “It’s the first time in history that nobody has any clue about the most basic features of human society in five to 10 years . . . What jobs will people have?”
There have always, as Harari said, been unforeseen wars and revolutions. We can add that there have also often been uncertainties about what work would look like. But the speed of adoption of artificial intelligence is creating a frenzy of feared disruption. “It’s very clear that AI is going to change every job,” Doug McMillon, chief executive of US retailer Walmart, told the Wall Street Journal in September. “Maybe there’s a job in the world that won’t change, but I haven’t thought of it.”
McMillon said this meant Walmart’s headcount would remain flat over the next three years, even as the retailer grew, but others have talked of extensive job losses. Jim Farley, chief executive at US carmaker Ford, has said that AI will replace “literally half of all white-collar workers in the US”.