Half of jobs in Britain under threat from robots

NEARLY half of British jobs are at risk of being taken over by robots, a think-tank has warned.

Technological advances mean 44 per cent of current roles could be automated, with those in catering, retail and agriculture under the greatest threat.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) rejected the idea of a ‘post human’ economy, saying most people will find work in newly-created jobs where humans still outperform robots. But it warned in a report that those on lower incomes could see their wages fall.

The Daily Mail reported last Friday on developments in artificial intelligence that will reshape our lives, revealing how a robot taught itself to play chess better than any human has ever done.

The IPPR research estimated that jobs generating wages of £290billion a year – representing a third of all wages and earnings from labour in the UK economy – have the potential to be automated.

Rather than creating mass unemployment, the report predicted that people would slowly be shifted into new fields of work over the course of decades. It said: ‘Work will be transformed by automation, not eliminated. Automation could increase the demand for work in creative, cognitive, planning, decision-making, managerial and caring roles, where humans still outperform machines.’

The researchers said increasing automation could boost productivity and bring a future of ‘economic plenty’.

But if badly managed by government, there was a danger the benefits would be concentrated in the hands of investors and small numbers of highly-skilled workers while the rest lost out.

The report called for a new regulator to monitor the ethical use of robotics and artificial intelligence.

‘Shifted into new fields of work’