The life peer, who was hired by the Prime Minister last year, said that “at the moment, we’re not seeing big productivity gains as a result of AI”.
“We don’t really see it in the productivity statistics, and I agree with you, we don’t even see it in the labour market statistics,” she said, adding that only a small percentage of jobs could be fully automated.
Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has warned that “whole classes of jobs” will go away, although he has recently said that AI has not taken as many roles as he once feared.
Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, has said that half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be wiped out within five years.
Lady Shafik also dismissed the prospects for a universal basic income (UBI) that could replace income in the event of widespread job losses.
She said: “I’m deeply sceptical about proposals to have [UBI] because there won’t be any work left, and we’re all going to stay at home and get a check from the tech bros to spend more time on our screens.
“Work has value in terms of giving people a sense of purpose and contributing to society.”
Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, warned last week that an AI wipeout could collapse the welfare state.
He said: “We will not be able to afford to pay out of work benefits if we don’t have enough people in work paying taxes.”
Lady Shafik had been forced to resign as the president of Columbia University because of her handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. She previously served as the deputy governor of the Bank of England.
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