University of Chicago professor says artificial intelligence will trigger massive disruptions in the labor market, and there's no social safety net to contain the consequences.

• A professor has warned of 'big mask' chaos in the job market as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent.

• There are even utopian predictors who claim that AI could affect millions of jobs.

• Eric Posner argues that there is no safety net that can curb the impact of AI.

University of Chicago professor Eric Posner argues that even under the best of circumstances, AI could disrupt the job market - there is no social safety net for workers who are at risk of permanent unemployment.

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, Posner noted that there is growing concern that the labor market will become more and more dependent on AI, with some researchers warning that large numbers of workers could be replaced by AI technology in the coming decades.2024 A study found that the jobs of 90% workers could be affected by artificial intelligence. A 2024 study found that 90% of workers' jobs could be affected by AI, and 9% of workers could be completely replaced by AI within the next 10 years.

Some tech critics say that these job losses could be supplemented by government assistance, such as some form of universal basic income.

However, such assistance will not solve a key problem with an AI-powered workforce: many people who have been employed may be emotionally damaged by the perception that they are not contributing to society, Posner warns.

"In a society that honors work and scorns the unemployed and unemployable," Posner writes, "the loss of self-esteem and a sense of meaning and usefulness is inevitable." Even if taxes or subsidies can keep jobs that are worth less than the AI alternatives, they are simply postponing the day of reckoning."

The "anti-work" movement has gained traction in recent years as Americans, especially Generation Z Americans, have shunned the exploitation of employers and the trials and tribulations of other generations' work experiences. But most working Americans seem to like their jobs: according to a 2023 Pew Research study, 511 TP3T of U.S. employees say they are 躰tremely satisfied with their jobs.

Posner points out that higher unemployment is also associated with increases in depression, alcoholism, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, even in studies that control for income.

He pointed to a study by the Cato Institute that found that the United States suffered a "China shock" at the turn of the century, when a flood of cheap imports from China caused some 2 million Americans to lose their jobs. Another study found that the impact led to an increase in the number of days of "poor mental health" in the United States.

"Even if humans are able to adapt to a life of leisure in the long term, the most optimistic forecasts of AI productivity predict a major disruption in the labor market in the short term, similar to the impact of the China shock," Posner said.

"This means massive - and for many, permanent - unemployment. There is not a loose enough social safety net to protect people from the mental health effects of this widespread disillusionment and alienation, and to protect society from political upheaval," he added.

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