With the in-depth development of artificial intelligence, the space for human independent labor will be compressed, the human-machine relationship will be reconstructed, and "human-machine cooperation" and "human-machine collaboration" will become the new normal of labor and employment. In order to actively respond to the challenges brought by artificial intelligence to labor and employment, and promote high-quality and full employment, the author puts forward the following suggestions.
01
Economic benefits and technology choices
The development and progress of technology are dynamic, continuous and irreversible, and the paths of technological progress are different, and the paths of economic growth are also different. At the same time, the impact of technology on economic benefits and employment effects is different at each time node of the development path, which provides the possibility for solving the conflicts and contradictions between artificial intelligence technology and labor employment: control the direction of technology investment based on the consideration of economic benefits, scientifically grasp the exogenity of artificial intelligence technology, choose the technological progress path suitable for domestic economic development, weaken the employment substitution effect of artificial intelligence, and intercept technical unemployment, so as to give full play to the employment absorption effect of artificial intelligence. Achieve the dual goals of economic growth and technological development and progress.
1. Grasp the exogenous nature of emerging technologies and optimize the path of technology development
The impact of technological progress on the economy has always been a key issue of economic growth, and the current economic development is increasingly technology-driven, presenting a "technology-economic" growth paradigm. "Every technological revolution is the explosive growth of new products, new industries and new infrastructure, which gradually gives rise to a new "techno-economic" paradigm, which guides entrepreneurs, managers, innovators, investors and consumers in their individual decisions and their interactions during the diffusion of technology", technological progress not only gives birth to a number of emerging industries, but also penetrates into traditional industries, thereby promoting the transformation and upgrading of emerging technology applications, industrial scale, and organizational methods.
The role of technological development in economic growth should not be underestimated, and it is necessary to profoundly grasp its exogenous characteristics and optimize the path of technological development.
On the one hand, as a developing country, China has a large space for technology choices, and can choose and integrate existing adaptive emerging technologies based on the actual development of its own economy.
On the other hand, it is necessary to give full play to the institutional advantages of the mainland in concentrating its efforts on major affairs, appropriately control the path of technological progress through the state's macroeconomic regulation and control, and comprehensively consider fiscal policy and monetary policy, industrial policy and regional policy, talent policy and science and technology policy in combination with labor market policy, and appropriately manage the path of technological development.
2. Expand the reproduction of emerging industries and strengthen the effect of employment absorption
Artificial intelligence technology has a considerable absorption effect on employment, especially in the field of emerging industries, technological progress by reducing the production cost of enterprises to increase profits, in promoting the expansion of production scale, the rise of emerging industries while driving the development of other industries, so as to effectively drive employment growth, "in the new production collaboration, the need for technology development, operation, maintenance and other personnel to support the operation of new technologies, create new jobs, and in the process of new technology application and expansion, it will have a spillover effect on the linkage of upstream and downstream industries, thereby creating more jobs". Based on this, the reproduction of emerging industries should be expanded to strengthen their employment absorption effect and drive more workers to work.
On the one hand, the new energy industry should be encouraged to become bigger and stronger. Although the mainland's new energy industry started late but developed rapidly, it has the market advantage and low-cost advantage of developing new energy, and should promote the expansion and reproduction of the new energy industry from the perspective of market demand and technology research and development.
On the other hand, it is necessary to support the Internet industry to become better and stronger, and the emerging industries, including the Internet equipment manufacturing industry, the service industry, and the telecommunications industry, should give full play to their economic benefits of expanding domestic demand, adjusting the structure, and maintaining growth, and use information technology to promote the development of industrialization, so as to improve the quality and efficiency of the mainland's national economic growth.
02
Skills Training and Workforce Transformation
According to the Future of Jobs 2023 report released by the World Economic Forum, the core skills needed by workers today are analytical thinking, cognitive skills (creative thinking) and self-efficacy skills (resilience, flexibility and agility), with cognitive skills growing at the fastest rate, reflecting the growing importance of workers in solving complex problems in the workplace. The development of emerging technologies has put forward higher requirements for workers' skills, which requires the formulation of reasonable labor skills improvement plans, the clarification of labor transformation priorities and action strategies, and the implementation of transformation strategies that go hand in hand with automation and skills training.
1. Deepen the degree of human-machine collaboration and realize the two-way empowerment of man and machine
In fact, the relationship between humans and machines is not a zero-sum game, but can be developed in tandem based on their respective comparative advantages. The form of labor "changes from the form of separation of scientific and technological labor and production labor to the form of combining scientific and technological labor and production labor", workers can exert their creative talents in the production process and engage in "unstructured" work, while machines can engage in "structural" work based on their own data processing capabilities, and achieve integrated and symbiotic development through "human-machine cooperation" to achieve the development goal of "two-way empowerment". Workers can "train" their thinking ability by analyzing the operation logic of artificial intelligence, so that it can develop in a beneficial and controllable direction, and make up for the shortcomings of artificial intelligence at the thinking level. As an extension of human mental and physical strength, artificial intelligence can assist workers in processing data and information, making judgments and decisions, and predicting future trends.
In addition to the complementary characteristics, human-machine collaboration also has a certain creative effect and spillover effect, with the deepening of the degree of human-machine collaboration, it will expand the boundaries of their respective capabilities and generate a large number of new jobs. When humans and machines cooperate, workers can use the machine's ability to iterate quickly and agilely, which can enhance the accuracy and reliability of work research.
In order to further deepen the degree of human-machine collaboration and realize human-machine integration to promote high-quality economic development, first, we must correctly understand the essence of artificial intelligence, that is, as a supplement, extension and enhancement of human intelligence, artificial intelligence is an imitation of human intelligence, and its ultimate goal is to liberate human beings from heavy and boring work;
Second, it is necessary to establish a close communication and coordination mechanism, that is, two-way communication between humans and machines, which can realize human-computer interactive dialogue through natural language processing technology to promote effective communication between the two sides;
Third, we should build a long-term mechanism of continuous learning and improvement, human-machine collaboration is a process of continuous progress and development, we should pay attention to the experience summary of human-machine cooperation, and continuously optimize the cooperation mode through continuous learning to improve the efficiency and quality of human-machine collaboration.
2. Strengthen skills training and weaken the effect of employment substitution
With the development of the industry to intelligence and networking, and the continuous innovation and extension of the emerging industrial chain, the employment transformation of workers has become the general trend. In the short term, the employment substitution effect of AI is significant, and when the job creation in emerging industrial sectors has not yet been highlighted and the labor market is still in a tight equilibrium, it may lead to the problem of skilled unemployment, and the labor market must make timely adaptation adjustments, pay enough attention to traditional workers who may be impacted, and weaken the employment substitution effect of AI by strengthening the skills training of workers.
First, it is necessary to expand career development channels for traditional workers through the establishment of a demand-oriented diversified training and cooperation mechanism. Based on the government, enterprises and training institutions, develop a flexible, open and sustainable training mechanism, so that workers can receive training on artificial intelligence technology and knowledge to meet the needs of new positions.
Second, we must build a multi-level talent training system to attract resources from all parties to invest in the skills training of workers. With the help of the advantages of the platform, it will play its radiation role, connect with the employment and skill service training services provided by Internet platforms, enterprises, industrial parks, etc., give full play to the main role of enterprises, and achieve sustainable growth in the later stage by intervening in teaching in advance.
Third, we must strengthen the precise investment of skills training funds. Actively explore the financing mechanism for workers' skills training, increase financial support for the combination of vocational skills training and intelligent technology, set up special funds for vocational skills, and increase investment in key areas of special skills within a certain period of time.
03
Macro guidance and policy regulation
In the face of the employment problem in the context of artificial intelligence, public ownership is undoubtedly the fundamental way out and countermeasure to solve the problem, because "the basis of private ownership is the relative limitation of the development of productive forces, the scarcity of material wealth and the exclusive possession of material wealth", and sharing is the essential feature of artificial intelligence technology. Therefore, in terms of macroeconomic guidance, we should always adhere to the "two unswerving" principles and give full play to the role of the public and non-public economies in promoting employment.
The 2022 Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "deepen the reform of state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises and improve the core competitiveness of state-owned enterprises", and ensure that state-owned enterprises achieve good results in promoting social employment by making them bigger, stronger and better; In July 2023, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy" pointed out that it is necessary to increase policy support for the private economy, "strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment, and give full play to the role of platform enterprises in expanding employment".
In order to better cope with the impact of the development of artificial intelligence on labor employment, we should focus on two key points in terms of policy regulation: talent training system and social security system.
1. Popularize artificial intelligence technology education and optimize the talent training system
It should be admitted that in the context of the era of artificial intelligence, there will inevitably be a risk of technical unemployment in the short term, and in order to meet the development needs of the artificial intelligence industry, it is necessary to improve the level and quality of education.
First, it is necessary to set up relevant courses in higher education, vocational education and even primary and secondary education according to local conditions, so as to popularize the knowledge and technology of artificial intelligence, so as to improve the technical literacy of artificial intelligence of future workers;
Second, we must adhere to the problem-oriented, focus on the basic fields, key technologies and core applications urgently needed by the country, and "aim at some key fields such as theory, algorithms, platforms, and chips, and build an 'artificial intelligence +' compound talent training system";
Third, we should actively explore the talent training model that integrates interdisciplinary disciplines such as natural sciences and social sciences, build an education mechanism based on artificial intelligence, and provide new knowledge and new skills needed in the era of artificial intelligence in a timely and effective manner.
In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen the discipline construction of artificial intelligence in colleges and universities, increase discipline funding in a timely manner, strengthen the teaching force, establish a permanent mechanism for teacher exchanges and student practice between schools and enterprises, accurately connect the learning of artificial intelligence-related courses and short-term skill job demand training, and do a good job in the early reserve of intelligent talents, so as to better cope with the transformation and upgrading of traditional formats.
2. Implement measures to reduce the impact of technology and improve the social security system
The scale of artificial intelligence development and application cannot be measured in a certain period of time, and the length of the cycle of impact on employment is still uncertain, and there is an intertemporal effect on labor employment: artificial intelligence has a certain employment absorption effect, and in the long run, with the maturity and scale of artificial intelligence development, it will lead to the emergence of new jobs, but the employment absorption effect in the short term is not certain, that is, there is an asymmetric time effect between the outbreak of emerging industries and the employment absorption of workers. There is a need for "social waiting" before the outbreak of emerging industries to absorb workers, and the employment of workers during this period shows obvious instability.
Therefore, it is necessary to implement positive measures to protect the rights and interests of workers and alleviate their employment problems by improving the social security system.
First, with the help of the big data technology platform system, a national dynamic database of employment information should be established, focusing on monitoring the labor groups that have been greatly affected by artificial intelligence technology, regularly releasing relevant employment status information, and implementing targeted employment assistance;
Second, it is necessary to build a safety line of social security and wage insurance, and ensure the basic survival of the unemployed or those who are about to become unemployed during the intertemporal effect cycle by establishing and improving the minimum wage system, unemployment insurance and relief and other related institutional systems;
Third, it is necessary to improve the laws and regulations on flexible employment, "differentiate the regulation of different types of employment methods from the legislative level, and strengthen the legal supervision of flexible employment methods", (6) protect the rights and interests of flexible workers in social security and social welfare, so as to avoid social risks and the gap between the rich and the poor caused by skilled unemployment.
Throughout the history of human development, technological progress has provided many possibilities for the realization of ideal goals. In capitalist society, the large-scale application of the automated machine system is its typical feature, and the convenience brought by technological progress is only a derivative of capital's pursuit of profit, and the contradiction between labor employment and technological development is unavoidable.
In the face of the globalization, digitalization and intelligence of economic development, the mainland also needs to respond to the conflict of technological unemployment caused by the innovation of contemporary fixed capital, and propose solutions that are in line with national conditions. In the process of deepening the integration of artificial intelligence and industrial development, we should reduce the large-scale unemployment caused by technological progress, so as to build an economic ecosystem with coordinated development between technological progress and labor employment.
Authors: Zhang Xu, Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yu Mengmeng, School of Marxism, Chinese University, Guo Yimeng, Department of Economics, Party School of Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. Source: Journal of Yantai University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) No. 4, 2024