President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said governments across the world should address the pressing issue of how the emergence of artificial intelligence is dampening jobs demand for fresh graduates.
“There is a particular problem that we have to address very soon... and that is that, the first rung in employment, your first job upon graduation, is now seeing less demand,” Shanmugaratnam told IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok on Monday.
“The evidence is already very clear, it’s clearest in the most AI-exposed sectors.”
He said the world should also avoid a situation where a “new divergence” forms between developing and advanced economies due to disruptions from AI.
Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said AI amounted to a “slow-moving tsunami” that would have profound consequences for jobs, growth, education and even how governments generate revenue through taxation, given the expected shift from labor to capital.
The IMF estimates that AI could lead to 40% of jobs being augmented, downgraded or eliminated, over time, she said. An initial study showed that 10% of jobs in the US already required AI skills. While routine, repetitive jobs were shrinking, low-paying jobs were increasing in two lower-paying sectors, construction and data centers. REUTERS
