The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) could hold significant potential for the economies of Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area, which have lagged well behind in job gains in fast-growing metro areas and Right-to-Work states, says a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
“However, predictions of job growth resulting from AI are difficult,” says Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Pittsburgh think tank.
The Ph.D. economist says that, indeed, advancements in science and technology, including medicine and computer design, can be expected to occur rapidly with the expansion of AI.
“Needed construction jobs related to electricity-generating plants and power transmission will grow significantly, as will construction jobs needed to build AI facilities,” he says.
But, he notes, as every advancement in technology and invention has shown, there can be dislocations and employment declines for some sectors.
“For example, farming and manufacturing have seen advancements in production equipment and technology that greatly reduced employment either absolutely or relative to the total employment in the country,” Haulk recounts. “Yet, historically, other sectors have greatly expanded to absorb the working-age population.”
From a July rundown in the Khaleej Times of Dubai, pagers and beepers were replaced by smartphones, as have been fax machines.
Typewriters, a staple beginning in 1575, have been replaced by personal computers, including laptops and tablets, the Times notes. Telegrams, once a staple of “fast” and important communiques, were supplanted by instantaneous emails.
And the days of physical maps, on paper and oftentimes defying refolding, have been replaced by online maps, the Times recounts.
Indeed, with each above technological advance, old-form jobs vanished. But they were replaced by jobs that design, manufacture and service the newer technologies.
While improvements in technology have increased worker productivity substantially in many sectors, Haulk says there are certain service sectors in which productivity gains are slower.
As but one example, “Personal care services that require individual human contact will be less affected but will likely benefit from AI in some regard,” he says.
Now, there is a major caveat here:
“In short, AI will likely not increase employment very much directly,” Haulk concludes. “But it does have the possibility of having a large impact on sectors that will benefit from it.”