International Monetary Fund: Artificial Intelligence will hit the labor market “like a tsunami”

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the advancement of artificial intelligence will hit the global labor market “like a tsunami.”

Within the next two years, AI technology will affect 60% of jobs in advanced economies and 40% globally. He said Kristalina Georgieva from the podium in Zurich.

“We have too little time to prepare the world, to prepare companies,” he told the Swedish Institute for International Studies, part of the University of Zurich.

“This can lead to a significant increase in productivity if we manage it properly, but it can also lead to more misinformation and, of course, more inequality in our society.”

The risk is greater in professions that require high skills

According to Georgieva, the global economy has become more vulnerable to crises in recent years, as evidenced by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

However, the head of the International Monetary Fund emphasized that we are not in a global recession.

Concerns about the labor market have increased with the emergence of artificial intelligence systems that write texts and produce images and videos according to user instructions.

Others expect the most menial professions to disappear as productivity increases, and others see a great danger to a large segment of workers.

Estimates of the consequences vary, but Georgieva’s predictions are generally in line with a recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which says one in four jobs in Greece are threatened by artificial intelligence.

The risk is estimated to be greater in highly skilled professions, such as managers and engineers, according to the OECD.

On the other hand, cleaners and manual workers are two categories that, according to the report, are not under threat, at least at the present time.