With AI in the driving seat, China moves to rein in job displacement risks

After testing Tesla’s driver assistance system FSD earlier this month, Chinese economist Ren Zeping exclaimed that autonomous driving’s large-scale real-world implementation was progressing much faster than he thought.

Though driverless taxis are so far only being tested in designated areas in Chinese cities, he prophesied that autonomous driving would soon become widespread.

“Autonomous driving will erupt in the next couple of years. Large models enable a unified driving paradigm, letting tens of millions of vehicles reach or exceed ‘old pro’ driver levels – and become significantly safer,” Ren wrote in a social media article on Wednesday.

The optimistic prediction of artificial intelligence (AI) use across Chinese industries, following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s claim that FSD would be approved in China as early as “next month”, could mean a threat, however, to the livelihood of numerous Chinese workers such as taxi and car-hailing drivers.

Acknowledging a visible substitution effect on jobs from the development of AI, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced on Tuesday it was working on a policy directive aimed at easing the worries the technology has created among the workforce.

At a press conference, the ministry said it will issue a document addressing the impact of AI on employment later this year. Though no details were released, the document would represent China’s first systematic response at the central government level to the matter as it advances the technology as a core growth driver.

South China Morning Post