China's workers losing jobs due to rapid AI rollout

New Delhi, July 2 (AHN) The deployment of AI in China is progressing at a much faster pace, triggering concerns of more job losses in an uncertain labour market, a media report said.

Taxi drivers in Wuhan were rendered jobless as driverless cabs were rolled out in the city. There was some relief, and drivers got back their jobs when some of these cabs suddenly stalled, causing traffic jams on the roads and the fleet was withdrawn for investigation, highlights the report by journalist Amy Hawkins in the Guardian newspaper.

Recent incidents of white-collar workers being replaced by AI have also added to the fears of large-scale unemployment resulting from the use of this new technology.

Addressing Shanghai’s World AI Conference in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that AI should be “an important driver for shared prosperity and common security”.

However, the report noted that the "goal is being pursued amid an increasingly fragile labour market".

"As well as suffering from high levels of unemployment, China has seen tens of millions of workers drop out of formal employment into the gig economy. According to one thinktank, the number of people in flexible employment will rise to 320 million this year, up from 160 million in 2019. That is about 44 pc of China’s workforce," it said.

Across the country, as industries such as real estate and education have gone into a recession, workers have turned to ride-hailing apps to make ends meet. But now the rollout of robotaxis, one of the most popular applications of AI that is already in use in China, is threatening their livelihoods, the report pointed out.

Recent court rulings have awarded compensation to white-collar workers laid off by their firms to be replaced by AI. But many workers fear that the rollout of AI will leave fewer jobs in the market for them to get employment.

The report also highlights the experience of cinematographer Tian Zemin, who has been working in the film industry in Beijing for close to 20 years and has lost his job to AI.

“I spent six gruelling years working my way up to become a cinematographer, only to be replaced by a piece of software,” the report cites him as saying in a social media post about AI.

Many analysts believe that China, where the government exerts significant control over the private sector, will be better placed than the US to contain the fallout from AI-related job losses. Beijing could, for example, instruct companies to comply with hiring quotas.

However, the dilemma is that these protections may not come in time to save jobs that are currently being lost, the report added.