Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones has blamed Britain’s youth unemployment problem on AI and claimed that the technology could destroy the economy in the future. Did he get that comms strategy from his friend Peter Mandelson?
Speaking at the CBI Business Members dinner last night, Jones described himself as the “Chief Operating Officer in government,” adding: “I have 28 different businesses with 28 different bosses.” He complained that this was difficult…
Speaking about the “tragedy” of over one million young people not in education, training, or work, Jones said technology companies need to do more than automate:
“I reflect just anecdotally from my own experience as a trainee solicitor, most of the work I did as a training solicitor I am convinced can be done much better by AI now than I did when I was starting – but my law firm invested in me because of my potential in the future… if those jobs don’t exist in the same number for the number of young people we have coming through the system, we don’t have an unemployment problem, but we have a future capacity problem, because young people are not getting those opportunities to learn and to develop a little understanding.”
Jones did not appear to see the irony of his government dramatically raising the cost of employing young people. He said companies would have to change their practices:
“One of my big questions for technology companies… is on the one hand, I can see the benefits of automating simpler tasks, reducing costs, increasing profit volumes, improving outcomes to your customers, but how do we, in those circumstances, make sure that we’re still giving human beings the opportunity to set themselves up in the form of the future, because if we get that wrong, my worry is that you see wealth coming through technology more than it comes through workers in the labour market, and we will not be able to afford to pay out of work benefits if we don’t have enough people to work paying taxes.
Now that’s not a problem right now, but I can see how it can become a problem in the decade ahead, and as we’re developing these technologies and implementing them. We have to do more together to make sure that we understand public policy opportunities and risks, and work together to make sure that we’re developing proper answers now and not having to deal with the crisis that they’re involved in the years ahead.”
Jones crystallised the concern of leftist policymakers that AI will become too valuable while also claiming that with additional investment from companies, humans have untapped value. Market understanding is thin here…
In his comments he added: “The thing that frustrates me and the public is when we announce that we’re doing something and then it doesn’t happen.” It’s probably better that way…
Jones also hit out at Wes Streeting and the growing Labour campaign to rejoin the EU: “We shouldn’t take the lazy answer to say, well, we should just be joining the EU… because I do actually think we would lose some competitive advantage if we did so. So where it’s in our interest to align, we should do so, that’s what the government is doing, but we should also be clear about where it’s in our interest not to apply and reserve the right to do that, and I think you’ve got to get this interval right between understanding where you are and balancing what you would sell out, what your strengths are in economy, including on research, university expertise, labour market expertise, and also our regulatory advantage.” Good luck convincing Andy…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”