AI productivity gains could mask social consequences lasting generations, says AI expert | ABC NEWS

The co-director of the Human Technology Institute and professor of responsible technology at UTS, Edward Santow, says Australians are among the least trusting in the world when it comes to artificial intelligence. Professor Santow says while Australians are concerned about the prospect of job losses, he believes they're more fearful of automated systems going wrong. He cites Robodebt as a prominent example. Professor Santow spoke to The Business after attending a meeting in Sydney with OpenAI's chief economist, Ronnie Chatterji. Dr Chatterji is in Australia to urge a quicker and faster take up of AI, emphasising the benefits could boost the Australian economy by $115 billion by 2030. But Professor Santow says while AI does offer opportunity, there needs to be an honest conversation with Australians about the risks.

Professor Santow says "generally when we see an increase in productivity, that's good for the economy and it's good for our community, but it's not always true ... You can have very significant gain in productivity simply by wiping out a whole bunch of jobs and automating those jobs out of existence.
"Now that may look good in terms of the productivity statistics, but of course the net public benefit just won't be there. It will be a massive social downside that we'll all have to cope with for potentially generations. So that's where we have to be really careful. Productivity is a great measure, but we need to aim for the sort of good productivity where we take workers on the journey, and we make sure that people aren't harmed along the way."
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