An Evaluation of the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Socio-Economic Human Rights: A Discourse on Automation and Job Loss

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already here, and is speedily transforming industries. This paper examines the impact of AI on the socio-political rights of the people globally, particularly in the area of job loss. Automation is not a new concept. It can be traced to the introduction of machines into industries back in the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions. However, the automation introduced by artificial intelligence is of a higher level. Artificial Intelligence is taking risks for humans in the manufacturing industry, mining industry, and even in the Military. It is versatile, that is, it is capable of being used in every sector of the world, and with the rate of technological unemployment, (caused by automation), the significance of Artificial Intelligence has become subject to controversy. This research adopts a desk based doctrinal research methodology to examine the issue of socio-economic human rights in era of automation. This research discovers that AI will create jobs, but an analysis of research studies on job loss due to automation reveals the large margin between jobs created by AI and jobs lost due to AI, thus posing threats to socio-economic human rights. It also discovers that the jobs created by AI require only persons with technical skills and knowledge for employment in the nearest future. AI will cause deskilling and falling wages. This research work recommends that legislations must be put in place to ensure that the use of AI technologies are controlled in order to give the government enough time to balance the inequality created by AI technologies. Technical skills acquisition and robot tax can be adopted by nations to enable them cope with the speed of AI.