Fear that AI may take away jobs from young people seems misguided, writes Viet Vu. Jobs in Canada’s technology sector have been in decline since 2021.Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Viet Vu is the manager of economic research at the Dais, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University. Jake Hirsch-Allen is the director of partnership at the Dais.

“93% of investors say AI will destroy jobs, governments not prepared.” That sounds like a headline pulled from the pages of last week’s news, but Forbes published those words in 2016. Similar headlines appeared in the 1980s: “A robot is after your job.” The 1960s: “Counterrevolution to automation is feared.” The 1950s: “Uncle Sam finds uses for automation, Congress has it under investigation.” The 1940s: “Do machines displace men in the long run.” The 1930s: “Machines as ministers to men.” And the 1920s: “The machine age and its effects on the literary arts.”

It is not surprising, then, that this debate – which has captured attention for more than a century – has re-emerged with the advent of new automating technologies. Yet again, we’re told that this “time is different.”

In fairness, the specific target of the fear has shifted. In the 1990s, the conversation focused primarily on industrial sectors........

© The Globe and Mail