ABSTRACT
Before the 21st century, more technology meant more and better jobs, and as a result, a more prosperous society. A new technology could create a short-term unemployment crisis, but this problem never became a structural challenge. However, the new and AI-based technology seems different. It is not only threatening “routine” and algorithmically definable jobs but also impacting jobs that were once considered to be very safe. The unfortunate part is that more education and skills are unlikely to help much. AI could also lead to not just unemployment but underemployment too. AI is a disruptive technology and it would be premature to brush it off and to believe that it is business as usual. For example, manufacturing is shifting back to developed countries because of the lower cost of manufacturing in AI-driven facilities. AI is quietly leading to major shifts in the world economic structure.
