MAYBE robots won鈥檛 take all our jobs after all. The risk of jobs being handed over to artificial intelligence is a lot lower than previously forecast, according to an OECD report.
In 2013, an influential University of Oxford study warned that nearly half of all US jobs and 35 per cent of UK ones were at 鈥渉igh risk鈥� of automation over the next 20 years. The new OECD report says it is more like 10 per cent of jobs in the US and 12 per cent of those in the UK that are under threat.
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According to the OECD, previous forecasts were exaggerated because they clumped together jobs with the same title without considering differences in the roles.
The report also says it found no evidence that jobs requiring high levels of education and skill were already being affected by AI. However, entry-level posts and lower-skilled jobs, such as those involving cleaning, agricultural labouring and food preparation, face significant risk of automation.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淒on鈥檛 fear your robot overlords鈥�
