OpenAI: 14% of EU jobs face near-term automation risk from AI

Full text

European Union countries need to develop their own plans to address the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market, OpenAI’s chief economist said on Monday.

There is no “one size fits all answer for AI” across the bloc, Aaron Chatterji said, speaking at POLITICO’s AI and the future of work event .

European countries are trying to figure out how to grapple with the expected ripple effects of AI on jobs and employment.

Across the bloc, Germany, Greece and Italy have the most jobs with “high automation potential,” whereas Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands have the largest shares in occupations that may actually grow with AI, a new report by OpenAI released today said.

Just under half, or 47 percent, of employment in the EU will not face immediate change, the report said. About 14 percent of employment is in “relatively higher near-term automation potential,” and about 12 percent is in “occupations that may grow with AI as lower costs expand access or make more projects viable.”

The economic makeup of each EU country requires different policy approaches for each, the firm’s chief economist said in Brussels. “If you’re thinking about a country that’s heavily dependent on the service sector versus one that’s heavily dependent on the manufacturing sector, what AI means for them will be different.” Things like “national readiness plans and a focus on AI literacy … probably have to be customized for those particular characteristics,” Chatterji said.

Individual countries’ national readiness plan “should be thought of as a complement to the EU, not a substitute,” the economist said. Brussels institutions could “play a big role” in determining which retraining programs could work for parts of the labor force that may face extinction, he added.

“Actually figuring out what works will require some budget and some experimentation that’s often facilitated by government grants and support for evidence-based research alongside it, not just implementation of the program,” said Chatterji.