Will Robots Take Your Job?: A Plea for Consensus

The trend that began with ATMs and do-it-yourself checkouts is moving at lightning speed. Everything from driving to teaching to the care of the elderly and, indeed, code-writing can now be done by smart machines. Conventional wisdom says there will be new jobs to replace those we lose – but is it so simple? And are we ready?

Technology writer and think-tank director Nigel Cameron argues it's naïve to believe we face a smooth transition. Whether or not there are new jobs, we face massive disruption as the jobs millions of us are doing get outsourced to machines. A twenty-first-century "rust belt" will rapidly corrode the labour market and affect literally hundreds of different kinds of jobs simultaneously.

Robots won't design our future – we will. Yet shockingly, political leaders and policymakers don't seem to have this in their line of sight. So how should we assess and prepare for the risks of this unknown future?