Fifteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

Technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) promise to transform the future of work, with wide-ranging effects on employment, wages, and income distribution. In the face of dystopian forecasts of robots replacing workers, we have an opportunity to consider how AI and intelligent tools can enhance and augment human labor rather than replace it. Emerging technologies can be applied to make the workforce more inclusive, helping to bring new populations into the workforce or assist workers to maintain meaningful employment as they age. We explore the pace and extent of the effects of AI on the workforce with a particular focus on its adoption for innovations serving the aging and individuals with disabilities where we investigate application of AI in training and workforce development; job discovery, selection, and access; and enhancing and augmenting human labor. In order to better ensure the development and deployment of AI in the workforce is more inclusive, especially for older populations and those with disabilities, we conclude with private and public sector policy recommendations that seek to support development of educational and workforce training models, inclusive design and reasonable accommodation considerations in the workplace, and development of economic and social safety nets for those caught in the crosscurrent of automation.