We Need More Artificial Intelligence and More Automation. Quickly.

There has been much written about the negative impact that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) may have on labor markets. Considering that in the not too distant future, there will be robots on assembly lines, computers driving cars, buses and trucks and more computer-assisted learning, millions of high paying jobs will be eliminated. Some argue this could cause massive unemployment.

There will be no more truck drivers or bus drivers or even Uber drivers and no more assembly line factory workers. Even in some professional fields like teaching or engineering, we may need fewer workers to get the same amount of output.

While many are viewing automation negatively, it is really an extremely positive event that will likely catapult the U.S. economy. There will be some structural unemployment problems in the short term, but our policy should be to encourage this transformation.

Without automation and AI, the U.S. would experience a growth-stifling labor shortage. That’s a result of a few things: the massive number of baby boomers that are retiring and leaving the workforce, the Gen-Xers and the millennials that have very low birth rates and the workers who are virtually unemployable in this and the future economy.