OTTAWA — Worried artificial intelligence is coming for your job? So is the federal government — enough, at least, to set aside $50 million for skills retraining for workers.
While jokes about robots coming to take jobs predate the emergence of generative AI systems in late 2022, the widespread availability of systems like ChatGPT made those fears real for many, even as workers across industries began integrating the technology into their workday. In an interview earlier this year, Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said unions representing actors and directors have been very worried about how their likenesses or their work could be used by AI systems. But the "reality is that we have to look at the implication of AI in all jobs," she said.
AI is an issue "across sectors, but certainly clerical and customer service jobs are more vulnerable," Hugh Pouliot, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said in an email. He noted only four per cent of Canadian businesses are using any kind of artificial intelligence or machine learning. "And so we're really not there yet for these frontier models and frontier technologies" to be making an impact.
Finance Canada also did not respond to questions about what new skills the workers would be learning. Blit said the money is a good first step but won’t be "close to enough" when it comes to the scale of the coming transformation, which will be comparable to globalization or the adoption of computers.
"Otherwise, society will end up subsidizing tech businesses and other companies as they increase profit without giving back enough for technology to benefit us all."NEW YORK — He seems "selfish and self-serving,” said one woman. The way he carries himself in public "leaves something to be desired," said another. His “negative rhetoric and bias," said another man, is what is “most harmful.