A new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that artificial intelligence can already replace 11.7% of the United States labour market.
MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s new Iceberg Index also found that AI in the labour market would save up to US$1.2 trillion in wages across finance, health care and professional services.
The Iceberg Index simulates how 151 million U.S. workers interact across the country and how they are impacted by AI.
The index was announced earlier this year and offers a forward-looking view of how AI might shift the US$9.4 trillion American labour market.
The index can offer a detailed map of where disruption is forming down to the zip code.
“Basically, we are creating a digital twin for the U.S. labour market,” Prasanna Balaprakash, ORNL director and co-leader of the research, told CNBC.
The index treats the 151 million workers as individual agents, each tagged with different skills, occupations, tasks and locations.
The researchers have found that layoffs and role shifts in tech, computing and information technology account for just 2.2% of total wage exposure or about US$211 billion of the US$1.2 trillion total wage exposure.
While the index is not a prediction about exactly when or where jobs will be lost, it can give a skill-centred snapshot of what today’s AI systems can already do, according to researchers.
Three states, Tennessee, North Carolina and Utah, are already planning on using the model for workforce policy planning.
Tennessee have even gone as far as to incorporate the Iceberg Index findings into its official AI Workforce Action Plan released this month.
