Positioning the UK at the cutting edge of the artificial intelligence and data revolution, clean growth, and driverless cars, and developing the technology needed to support an ageing society.
These big ambitions are rightly imbued with the excitement and promise of technological advance. They look forward to a ‘smart’, connected, defiantly digital world.
The Industrial Strategy also builds people in as one of its foundations.
It's about improving people’s skills, helping them access good jobs, supporting whole-life wellbeing and delivering more opportunities.
Anti-AI narrative needs challenging
To many people though, the Industrial Strategy brings with it grave concerns about not only their own jobs and careers, but of their children too.
To many, the skills apparently needed to deliver on the government’s vision seem unfathomable. Advanced coding, engineering, robotics – all highly technical, all requiring expert and ongoing training as technology continues to develop at a feverish pace.
These concerns are valid, and they are understandable, fed by a dystopian public narrative across media that gloomily prophesises robot takeover and human decline.
This narrative should be challenged, and the implications better understood.
The need for human skills
Research by the London School of Economics (LSE) shows that as automation and AI changes the jobs market, 'human' skills are going to be more necessary than ever.
Decision-making, leadership, data analysis, creativity, empathy – areas where AI simply cannot compete.
This conclusion came through clearly in my own work for the European Commission, which underlines the importance of taking seriously the need for soft skills in the labour market, and policies which can deliver these skills.
LSE’s researchers are also grappling with how the government, businesses and communities should best prepare people of all ages for the future of work.
From incorporating resilience training and inter-disciplinary thinking into the Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education curriculum, to building skills training into communities, and demystifying AI, there are multiple policy strands that the government must consider to build skills and tackle misconceptions about the future of work.
Skills and education
It is well accepted that soft skills are more malleable over the life course as compared to hard skills. My recent work with Professor Alistair McGuire suggests that soft skills can certainly be changed within a secondary school setting.
(Read a transcript of the video.)
This conclusion was drawn when we evaluated Healthy Minds, an evidenced-based 4-year programme for secondary school students designed by Lord Richard Layard and colleagues in 2011.
Given the speed of technological change, the time is right to consider incorporating structured education on soft skills into schooling at all levels.
This will support much-welcome focus on good mental health, and ensure that the next generation of workers are skill-ready for the labour market, with the resilience to adapt to change, in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution.
Understanding the impact of change
It is understandable that people are concerned about the future, and robust evidence is needed to understand the affects AI could have on people.
LSE research has looked at the winners and losers from automation in the job market in terms of job security and earned income, speaking directly to policies regarding the stock of skills.
Findings suggest a need to move away from focusing on how the average person is affected, towards evaluating across demographics and other key identifiers.
For example, my research for the Low Pay Commission illustrates that while minimum wages increases in the UK have had only a modest effect in eroding automatable job opportunities for low skilled workers over the last three decades, effects for older workers have been far more substantial.
Protecting older workers
My research found larger effects, both on average and for older workers, in the US (jointly with David Neumark) where employment protection for low skilled workers is lower.
Overall, this body of work suggests that low-skilled individuals who rely on automatable work are vulnerable to their job disappearing quicker because of minimum wage increases.
This unintended consequence needs to be monitored and mitigated against. It is likely that older, low-skilled workers could be the biggest losers in such transitions, if they do not get as many opportunities to retrain and learn new skills.
It is also possible that we will end up with fewer jobs as automation continues, and serious consideration needs to be given to what this means and how we plan for the future.
While jobs that have been lost in the past have been replaced, we should not be complacent about the future.
Replacement becomes less likely as machines continue to learn and minimum wages put pressure on companies already operating in highly competitive environments to substitute workers for technologies.
Policy making for the future
So, there is a key role for policy in the ongoing monitoring of these trends and to consider how the rents earned by machines should be captured and redistributed within society if technology adoption accelerates to a point where too many jobs have disappeared.
Politicians and policy makers are right to focus on people as being at the heart of the Industrial Strategy.
Human skills will always be needed, and robust social science evidence must continue to play a key role in policy development if the UK is to remain at the cutting edge of technological advancement while rightly prioritising healthy and productive lives.
2 comments
Comment by Jeffrey Martin Keen posted on
This is the core challenge... This is why human interaction is so vital and has to be carefully understood. Without the process of human interaction the census of human skill will deteriorate and Artificial Intelligence will be useless. We need as much human interaction on a multifaceted platform to reiterate the very foundation in which the system will provide. It's a very intuitive and intelligent platform designed specifically for the user or individual on a personal level. To diligently provide ample resources and answers abroad the spectrum. To alleviate stress and confusion. To enhance a person's experience and to be their guide. The Guardians of Technology is my Company in which I'm trying to get off the ground and the Guardian is the Artificial Intelligence platform in which I am trying to create. It's also the firewall that will protect everything and everyone and deliver confidence of Intelligence and Security to ensure Safety and competence on many levels. To ensure your Quality of LIFE and everything it entails. Machine learning, Deep Learning, and IOT (Internet of Things) is an intuitive and intellectual platform that serves every person across the grid and gives them ample recourses that makes everyday the best experience. Whether your driving to work, or the transportation of children going to school and other curriculums, or taking a vacation, or business logistics and economical imports and exports, surveying and calculating business infrastructure, government authorities, hospital fascilities, smart homes, smart cars, smart phones, satellite positioning systems, weather and climate conditions, emergency and service protocols, education and schools and Universities, Autonomation and person to person capabilities as well as car 2 car technologies, multilingual translations, multimedia interfaces, as well as customizable functionalities to enhance personal behaviour and better understanding for personal users that Artificial Intelligence will relate to, correspondence to allow awareness of health conditions like blood pressure and heart rate as well as recognizing stress patterns and have awareness before stroke or heart attacks occur. The sole purpose is to alleviate any fear and give you the satisfaction and peace of mind you deserve so you can accomplish enjoying life every day. We need as much human interaction and skills to sustain the growth of this new era. We need to educate people and take away the fears of this new concept and ensure them they will be safer. The goal is to eliminate the human error factor and reconstitute the foundation that they are in good hands. Safety, Security, Sustainability, Trust, and Reliability will guarantee the users Quality of LIFE. It is our sole design and purpose to illustrate and demonstrate and to elevate and overcompensate any challenges a person will face and pave the way to make their lives more important. Innovation and creativity are essential for this to operate safely and efficiently. Thank you.
Yours Truly,
Jeffrey Martin Keen
Comment by Peter Dorrington posted on
Thank you for an insightful and thought-provoking article.
I was particularly interested in your comments about the potential risk to older workers, especially if we think that with age comes wisdom - especially problem-solving ('been there, done that') and emotional Intelligence ('I've walked in your shoes'). As an ageing society, should we not focus on how best to make the benefits of technology accessible to those that have the experiences to share?