In the end, it wasn’t virtual reality, and neither was autonomous driving. AI has become the big technological revolution of this decadeand everything seems to indicate that its importance at the international level will only grow. It’s strange because what started as a strange and risky adventure that only four cats dared to bet on ended up exploding in a simply impressive way and has huge potential.

On this occasion, I don’t want to talk about all the good that AI can do for us, I want to focus on the negative, that is, the bad things that could result from its growth and widespread adoption. According to the International Monetary Fund approximately 60% of jobs in advanced economies will be affectedone way or another, because of the pressure of this technology.

To put this into context and give you a better understanding of what it might mean, I’ll give you a specific example. During the third quarter of 2023, we had an active population of more than 21 million people in Spain. If the information provided by the International Monetary Fund with us is confirmed The jobs of more than 12.6 million people would be at risk. If we were to count it internationally, the number would be terrifying and we would probably exceed 300 million affected people.

In developing countries, the impact will be lower, at least in theory, but the percentage will still be high, because in theory AI affected 40% of their jobs, while in low-income countries the figure would be around 30%. The global average of jobs highly affected by artificial intelligence is close to 40%, as we can see in the attached graph, which includes all the values ​​reported by the International Monetary Fund.

This is bad news because the impact of this caliber it would create huge inequality, and because it would also affect highly skilled jobs that could end up being completely automated. It goes without saying that if hundreds of millions of people were to be left without work and in a vulnerable situation, this could cause great social tension with completely unpredictable consequences.

We’re already seeing more than dubious practices just to train AI models, and it’s very likely that these malpractices will become more common as models grow in complexity and potential occurrences. That goes without saying It is essential to start taking the issue of artificial intelligence and its regulation more seriously, not only for its ability to transform the world as we know it, but also for the impact it is already having on the lives and opportunities of many people, small professionals and businesses.