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Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, will warn that AI risks destroying huge numbers of jobs in the capital and “usher in a new era of mass unemployment” unless ministers take proactive measures.
London will be “at the sharpest edge of change”, given the number of white-collar jobs and the city’s dependence on finance, professional services and creative industries, Khan will say in a speech on Thursday evening.
The mayor will argue that “we have a moral, social and economic duty to act”, because, without intervention, old roles will disappear faster than new ones are created. Entry-level jobs will be the first to go, robbing young people of their vital first step on the career ladder, he will warn.
City Hall is launching a London task force on AI and the future of work, with expertise from industry and the government, to review the potential impact of technological change on the city’s jobs market. There will also be free AI training for Londoners.
Half of London workers expect AI to affect their jobs in some way in the next 12 months, according to City Hall polling.
During his annual Mansion House speech, Khan will say there are big potential benefits from the new technology. “AI could enable us to transform our public services, turbocharge productivity and tackle some of our most complex challenges.”
But the impact on the labour market will be “nothing short of colossal”, he will warn.
Ministers have a choice: “Seize the potential of AI and use it as a superpower for positive transformation and creation, or surrender to it and sit back and watch as it becomes a weapon of mass destruction of jobs.”
Economists and technologists disagree over AI’s impact on the labour market. Some AI chief executives such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have predicted the technology could lead to a jobs apocalypse in fields such as law, consulting and finance.
Amodei has also claimed that the technology has the potential to wipe out half of all entry-level jobs.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s Sam Altman has said AI could eliminate entire categories of jobs, such as customer service.
Citigroup has published research predicting that AI could automate 54 per cent of banking jobs, in particular back-office and data analysis roles.
However, some economists say warnings over AI’s impact on jobs are overblown. A study by researchers at Yale University Budget Lab and the Brookings Institution last year found that AI tools had yet to have a dramatic effect on the US labour market compared with previous new technologies. They also found little evidence so far that the tools were putting people out of work.
Speaking to the FT in January, OpenAI’s chief economist Aaron Chatterji argued that AI tools could free up time by making everyday household chores easier.
Khan will say that AI could help various challenges, varying from cancer care to climate change. “But used recklessly, it could usher in a new era of mass unemployment, accelerated inequality and an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power.”