If a robot's eating your job, it's probably eating your life expectancy too

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If a robot's eating your job, it's probably eating your life expectancy too

By Anna Patty

Inequality between people in highly-paid professions and those whose skills are being displaced by robots is not only growing, it's now shortening life expectancy.

Beth Noveck, Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, acknowledges it is the "best of times and worst of times" for different classes of workers.

Beth Noveck, Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.

Beth Noveck, Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.

"The general trend is life is going better for most people than it was 100 years ago, so life expectancy is up and poverty is decreasing," says Noveck.

"But, it is not the full picture in that in many places, life expectancy for the poor, at least in the United States, has not increased, it has actually gone backwards. For white women without a high school diploma in the United States, it has fallen by five years."

Similarly, India may be a success story of decreasing poverty levels and a guaranteed minimum wage "but at the same time you still have 38 per cent of children malnourished". Meanwhile, the number of billionaires in India has dramatically increased in recent years, in many cases propelled by IT.

"On the whole, the arc of history is bending towards improvement, but for certain populations within a given place, you are going to have wild divergences," Noveck says.

"I think the issue that we have to worry about is the destabilising effect of social inequality. We are going to see benefits for some and harm for others.

"Many people, because of IT and automation and new technology are going to do very well and are going to get richer. But we are also going to see a lot of people either stagnate, remain poor or get poorer."

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People working with big data and technology are among those most optimistic about their jobs in the future. They are in demand and unlikely to have to start all over again in their careers.

Those facing the prospect of displacement, the need for constant reskilling and dropping back to the bottom rung of the ladder, are not as excited about change.

Noveck commented on the growth in inequality ahead of her visit to Australia to address the Maurice Blackburn Lawyers Future of Work Forum 2018 in Melbourne. Fairfax Media is a partner of the event.

One of the federal government's top advisers, David Gruen, the deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister also recently warned that economically marginalised communities must be taken seriously or Australia will face a political backlash that threatens the established economic order.

Treasury secretary John Fraser has also said the market was failing to come up with solutions to inequality and that government must be prepared to deliver policy solutions.

To avoid paralysing and destabilising inequality, Noveck argues reform is needed in how laws and policies are made.

She says while technology creates disruption, it also promises greater flexibility and the potential for more meaningful and safer jobs.

"There is a technology optimist position and technology pessimist position," says Noveck.

"Nobody knows the future and it might mean a lot of job loss.

"What we know is that with all these new technologies be it artificial intelligence or automation ... they are changing so fast... that we have to change the way that we think about regulating them and making policies."

The kind of regulations and policies needed will both promote innovation and protect workers. This will only happen "if we are more data driven and more conversational in the way that we work".

Noveck says the response to uncertainty needs to be driven by more granular data that shows whose jobs are being lost and in what sectors.

"We have the big data tools that can allow us to gain an understanding ... exactly where the impact will be felt," she says.

"The big challenge is where we are not involving workers in the conversations about what they actually want."

Noveck cites UK research that found when workers are engaged in a discussion about whether to choose a flexible contracting arrangement or a full employment, many choose the more flexible arrangement when it was accompanied with employment protections.

"Regulations and policies that both promote innovation while protecting workers is only going to happen if we are more data driven and more conversational in the way that we work," she says.

Joblessness is only part of the problem. The loss of democratic values and democratic institutions is perhaps an even bigger problem that results with this kind of economic inequality and social instability, says Noveck.

When it comes to talking about jobs of the future the only thing clear is a lack of certainty about how the challenges created by disruptive technology will be met.

Her job has been to look at ways to use technology to govern better.

She is optimistic about the jobs future because humans have always evolved and adjusted to advances in technology, as they did after the industrial revolution. She says technology can improve workplace safety and used well, can help humans reinvent the "rules used around the tools".

She says technology tools can ultimately improve the lives of workers and the internet can help people whose jobs have been displaced identify new opportunities.

"We have the ability to use many of these same tools to empower us to become part of the decision making, to be part of the conversation in a way that has never before been possible. So I am optimistic for that reason," Noveck says.

"I've looked at these issues of how we [can] use these same tools that we are worried about putting people out of work in manufacturing and how we [can] use them to actually benefit workers in terms of enabling them to actually engage in the political process."

Noveck has driven the push to get governments around the world to put more robust government data including on workplace injuries online to help improve workplace safety standards.

She has served in the White House under the Obama administration as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative. She was also a senior advisor for Open Government to UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Harvard University and Yale Law School graduate is also on a large number of advisory boards on democracy, science and mathematics. She is a member of the Inter-American Development Bank President’s Commission on Transparency and Corruption and of the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy for the World Economic Forum.

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