have lost millions of American jobs in the pandemic and robots and artificial intelligence replace faster than ever

For 23 years, Larry Collins worked in a booth at the Carquinez Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area, collects tolls. The price changed over time from a few dollars to $6, but remained the foundation of the work itself: Collins would make changes, answer questions, give directions and greet commuters. “Sometimes you’re the first person that people see in the morning,” he says, “and that human interaction can trigger a lot of fun.” Collins But one day in mid-March, as confirmed cases of crown height were fast, supervisor Collins’ called and told him not to come to work the next day. The number sites include the health of the driver and to protect them from tax collectors. In the future, drivers would automatically pay bridge tolls FasTrak tag attached to the windshield or get the address for the plaque linked invoices. Work Collins’ had gone there, as are the jobs of about 185 other publicans on bridges in Northern California, which are replaced by technology. Machines have made obsolete jobs for centuries. The spinning replaced Weber, displaced elevator buttons operators and Internet travel agencies went out of business. One study estimates that there were about 400,000 jobs for the automation of the 1990 US factories lost in 2007. But accelerates to replace the unity between people and machines, such as infections companies avoid combat workplace COVID of-19 and maintains low operating costs, the United States has paid about 40 million jobs, at the height of the pandemic, and while some have returned, some will never return. A group of economists believe that 42% of jobs lost is gone forever. This exchange of people with machines is more speed in the coming months to gather the companies move from survival mode to figure out how to operate while dragging the pandemic. Robots may well replace 2 million more workers by 2025 just to produce, according to a recent study by economists at MIT and Boston University. “This pandemic has created a very strong incentive to automate the work of people,” says Daniel Susskind, a fellow in economics at Balliol College, Oxford University, and the author of a world without work: Technology, Automation and how we should React . “The machines are not sick, they do not need to isolate to protect their peers, they do not need to take time off from work.” As with so much of this new wave of the pandemic is most difficult automation for people of color as Collins, Black and low-wage workers. Many blacks and Latin Americans are cashiers, catering staff and customer service representatives who are threatened by the automation of 15 jobs most, according to McKinsey. Even before the pandemic has estimated the global consulting firm that automation 132,000 illegal workers in the United States by 2030, the use of robots in response to the crown was fast could move. They were suddenly take plans of airport cleaning and folk temperatures. Hospitals and universities used to Sally, with a salad-making robot tech companies Chowbotics created to replace the dining hall employees; Shopping malls and stadiums Knight security guard Scope robots bought properties empty patrol; Company turned to in-demand production supplier for industrial robots Yaskawa America Supplies such as hospital beds and cotton swabs to increase production. Company call center closed using human customer service agents and transformed to create chatbots of technology companies or in person live in Watson led AI platform. “I really think this is a new normal speed until the pandemic, what would happen anyway,” said Rob Thomas, senior vice president of cloud and the IBM platform data sets Watson. It started about 100 new customers, from March to June with software. can, in theory, automation and artificial intelligence should people from dangerous or boring tasks freeing, allowing them to more intellectually stimulating tasks are performed, making businesses more productive and increase employee wages. And in the past, the technology has been used piecemeal staff time to make the transition to new roles. Those who lost their jobs could perhaps try to find retraining, severance pay or unemployment benefits of working in another industry. This time, the change abruptly as the employer had been concerned about COVID-19 or under sudden freezing orders hastened to replace workers with machines or software. There was no time to exercise. Companies concerned about their workers to cut the bottom line, instead of losing, and these workers were to leave themselves to find ways to master new skills. They found a few options. In the past the US has responded to the technological transformation of educational investment. If the automated system dramatically changed the farm work in the late 1800s and 1900s he has expanded members access to public schools. Access to college, developed after World War II with the GI Bill, which sent 1944-1956, 7.8 million veterans in school but since the US investment in education are being stall to pay worker exposure for them to ask. And the idea of ​​education in the United States is still concentrated in college for young employees instead of upgrading. The country spends 0.1% of GDP to help workers navigate change jobs, less than half of what he went through 30 years ago. “The current automation problem is not so much the robot apocalypse,” says Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It ‘like normal people who need to get retraining, and can not really get into one, effective way based on data accessible well-informed.” This means that tens of thousands of Americans who work during the loss of a pandemic may last for years or unemployed when Collins’ forever. Even if you have access to redevelopment funding through its union contract, “Am I doing too old to think about another job,” said Collins, 63 and plan is under early retirement. “I just want to go back to what I was doing.” Check into a hotel and now a mechanical butler designed by robotics company Savioke could roll down the hall to provide tooth brushes and towels. To Meet ( “No tip required” Savioke notes on their website.) Robots were provided during the pandemic guests in their rooms with the keys just disinfected. A masonry robot is more than 3,000 stones in an eight-hour kid moving up to 10 times what a person can do. Robot seeds and crops, the separated breast bones and carcasses in slaughterhouses, food packing pallets can plant in processing plants. This does not mean that they are taking all the jobs. For centuries, people have worried about the Weber mill workers that advances in technology would create a world without work, and that has never proven to be true. ATM, the number of bank employees do not lose weight right away, for example. They actually led to more places to work money as consumers, attracted by the convenience of ATMs, banks have often started visiting. The branches and put Sager open tasks to deal with, that are beyond the capabilities of ATM banks. Without technological progress, would the American workforce on farms are slaving away much of that 31% of US jobs in 1910 and now accounted for less than 1%. But in the past, as a new automation companies eliminated jobs to meet their needs created. Producers were able to find out the most is use of machinery to get ahead, for example, the necessary employees, merchandise and marketing to send more customers. Now that automation, companies can not do more with fewer people, successful companies do not need many workers. The most important company in the US in 1964, AT & T has had 758.611 employees; the company’s most valuable today, Apple has about 137,000 employees. Although large companies today make billions of dollars is that the share of income with fewer people and more of their profit goes to shareholders. “Look at the business model of Google, Facebook, Netflix. They are not to provide the business with new tasks, for the people,” says Daron Acemoglu, the MIT economist, automation and employment studied. to automate the US government encourages companies, he says, giving tax breaks for the purchase of equipment and software. A company that pays a worker $100 $30 pays in taxes, but a business that pays about $100 on equipment $3 tax exits, he notes. The 2017 tax cuts and taxes on purchases Jobs Act have decreased so much that “can actually make money to buy equipment,” says Acemoglu. In addition, the more artificial intelligence is more proficient in jobs that were once the responsibility of the people, which is more difficult to stay there for the people on the machines. JPMorgan says it is now complete in AI occurs commercial loan agreements in seconds what takes time 360,000 hours the lawyer for over a year to complete. plunge in May amid advertising revenue, Microsoft has put dozens of journalists from MSN and Microsoft Messenger service, leaving them with AI replaced, the scanning process and content. Radio group Clear Channel Communications has fired dozens of DJs to take advantage of its investments in technology and artificial intelligence. I had help transcribing interviews for this story Otter.ai, a transcription service AI-based. A few years ago, I could get the same $1 per minute to do for people who paid. These advances make AI an easy choice for companies while scrambling to deal with the pandemic. Municipalities, which had to close the recycling plant where they work in cramped conditions people have to order KI-assisted robot through tons of plastic, paper and glass. AMP Robotics, the company that makes these robots, says inquiries from potential customers in at least five times from March to June. Last year, 35 recycling plants used Robotics AMP AMP says spokesman Chris Wirth; until the end of 2020 nearly 100 ° RDS Virginia, a recycling company in Virginia, purchased four AMP robot in 2019 for their own credit Roanoke so that on assembly lines carrying the paper and plastic flows to ensure they were free of the materials transferred. The robot was able to work all day, no bathroom breaks, and safety training is not necessary, says Joe Benedetto, president of the company. When the quality control of the robot takes crown hit as people were being peeled assembly lines and some tasks that have kept each other at a safe distance. Benedict breathe easier knowing that the robot will meet wage, there is no need to increase the minimum wage. He’s already thinking about where else can dispose freely. “There are a few reasons why I prefer cars,” says Benedict. “For one thing, as long as you maintain, is there to work every day.” Companies that provide automation and artificial intelligence has said the technology allows them to create new jobs. But the number of new jobs is often lost very small compared to the number of jobs. Software developed live person conversation, a company could allow it to become a call center to 1,000 people and run it with 100 more people chatbots says CEO Rob LoCascio. A bot can answer up to 10,000 queries per hour, LoCascio says; an efficient call center representative can answer six. LivePerson a fourfold increase of the demand in March was closed as a call center company, says LoCascio. “What happened was, the contact center employees are back at home, and many of them can not work from home,” he says. Some companies are embracing automation surprising. Bride of David, marriage sells dresses and other formal wear in about 300 stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom, make a chatbot named Zoey by LivePerson last year. If the wedding Davids pandemic forced to close their shops, helped customer demands Zoey manage the company’s call center says inundate Holly Carroll, vice president of customer service and contact centers. Without offering, “we would have been dead in the water,” says Carroll. David Bride now spend 35% less on call centers and can handle three times more messages on voice chatbot or email on can. (Zoey can be cheaper than a man to be, but is not foolproof. Via text Zoey promised me a virtual designers to join, but I never heard of him or the company.) Many organizations probably technology seem cuts budget and addressed the need to reduce staff. “I do not see the back of the work force that we were going COVID” says Brian Pokorny, director of information technology for Otsego County in upstate New York, 10% do so his staff for cutting PANDEMIC- related issues budget. “So we need to tighten things like AI research of government services and to make us more efficient.” Pokorny used a free Watson trial version of IBM server in the early stages of the pandemic, and a web chat AI-powered set-up questions from the audience respond that the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the county seat, had reopened. (He had, as of June 26, with limited capacity.) To pay Well Watson can answer 75% of questions people ask, and Otsego County has begun for the service, which Pokorny says cost “pennies” per call. Although the county now AI used for online chat, he is planning an assistant Watson implement virtual, unable to answer calls. About 36 states have chatbots to answer questions on government pandemic and services available, according to the National Association of State Chief Information Officers used. IBM and say LivePerson do with the creation of AI, they are people who issue the most challenging tasks. The companies, the agreement with LivePerson more “bot-builder”, the AI ​​has to teach to help answer these questions, and see the call center agents their increase of approximately 15% salary when Provides Builder says LoCascio . “We can watch as it comes to these huge job loss to be, or we can see things that people in places and locations around the world different is moving to improve their lives get,” says LoCascio . But companies will need much less Bot Builder as call center agents, and mobility is not always an option, especially for workers without a high school diploma or their employer does not offer retraining. nonunion workers are particularly vulnerable. Larry Collins and his colleagues, represented by SEIU Local 1000, were lucky: They are beings their full salaries for the near future, in exchange for recording 32 hours a week online courses in computer skills, accounting, entrepreneurship and other areas paid. (Some may even get their new job, even if only temporarily, as the government updates its systems.) But only 11.6% of American workers came from an association in 2019. Yvonne R. Walker, the president of the union that represents, say they do not receive the majority of non-unionized workers on this type of support. “The companies out there do not provide employee training and skills development-they do not see it as a good investment,” says Walker. “When workers have a union thinking of these things, the workers are left behind” In Sweden, employers pay into private funds that retrained for support workers; The Future Skills program Singapore citizens reimbursed up to $500 of Singapore (about $362 in US currency) for the approved redevelopment. But, lost or otherwise sent abroad in the United States, most robust retraining programs for workers whose jobs because of trade issues. Some states have started promising for adult students who are trying to pay the tuition fees, upgrading community; the Tennessee reconnection program pays for more than 25 years without graduation certificates to obtain associate degrees and technical diplomas. But a similar program in Michigan is in danger, to fight like states with budget problems, said Michelle Miller-Adams, a researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. House and Senate Democrats introduced a workforce $15 billion redevelopment bill in early May, but has not gained much traction with Republicans, who prefer to use the tax credits to encourage redevelopment. Federal funding that exist are restricted. Pell Grants, which help students with low incomes pay for education, certification non-EMT 170 hours are used for non-traditional programs, or as a training camp. get the local unemployment centers, federal funding, an average of $3,500 per person to spend on the redevelopment but short of money usually the beginning of a calendar year, because of limited resources, says Ayobami Olugbemiga, spokesman the National Skills coalition. Although federal funds were widespread, the wave of people who would be most needed can manage redevelopment as universities, Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Udacity, which offers online courses says programming, computer science, artificial intelligence, and even more. “One billion people their jobs over the next 10 years will lose because of artificial intelligence, and if nothing else, COVID has accelerated to about nine years,” says Dalporto. “If you try one billion people in the university system redevelopment, want to break the system of higher education.” Says Dalporto ring an alarm bell should be to review for the federal government, such as training funds. “We want clear where huge amounts of capital in very slowly, noncareer specific design of this model,” says Dalporto. “If you only have 10% of the rezoned, you could 3 million people in about six months to retrain.” online education Suppliers say they can provide skills upgrading and updating for hourly workers and for less money than traditional schools. Coursera offers semester courses offer for $39-79 $per month, which is required for a variety of jobs students with certifications, says CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. As soon as he landed a job, so they can pursue an online degree, he says. “This idea that you get professional skills first to get the job, then get your online degree while you work, I think for a lot of people will be more cost effective,” he says. In April, Coursera has launched a workforce of recovery initiative, which allows you to learn for free until the end of the year unemployed in some states and other countries, including Colombia and Singapore. online learning provider that can offer opportunities for relatively inexpensive retraining, because they have no guidance counselors, classrooms and other features of the brick and mortar schools. But it could be more involved to create these support systems for employers in the future. Dalporto, which supported the wave of automation while COVID-19 “our economic Pearl Harbor” calls that the government should offer offering a tax credit of $2,500 for the highest skilled workers for companies redevelopment . He also suggests that companies include severance pay $1,500 in credits redevelopment. Some of contact employers Guild Education to subsidize the higher qualification is working with employers. A program that can be launched in the company can pay a fee to have new posts Guild support work for workers laid off in the search. Employers see this as an opportunity to create loyalty among these former employees, says Rachel Carlson, CEO of Guild. “The employees of the reflexive consumers now say, for now, customer for life,” he says. With the economy 30 million jobs short work of what they had before the pandemic, although, workers and employers can not see much in training for jobs that do not stand for months or even years available. And every worker not interested in studying computer science, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. But those who have found a way to fields that are dying in the application to move the jobs are likely to do better. Some years ago Tristen Alexander was a representative of a call center for Georgia Power Company, when it took six months of online course of a professional certificate Google for purchase. A Google Scholarship covers the cost of Alexander, who did not graduate, and his wife and two children at about $38,000 per year. Alexander writes his certificate with him to help win a promotion and says he now earns over $70,000 a year. What’s more, the promotion gave him a sense of job security. “I just think there is a great need for everyone to learn techniques,” he says. Of course, Alexander knows that technology can significantly change his work in the years to ten, he is already planning his next move. By 2021 it takes the ability of computer systems to overcome weak evidence can be seen for hackers and to obtain a certificate in this practice, known as penetration testing. It will all but guarantee him a job, he says, working alongside the technology that changes the world. -With reporting by Alejandro de la Garza and Julia Zorthian / New York This 2020 edition of Time seems as August 17.
image copyright Cayce Clifford for TIME