I don't see where the assertion made in the abstract, that current labor demand stagnation and wealth inequality is due to AI, is evidenced in the body of the paper. And I'd find it very surprising if it were true.
Anecdotally, I'd also argue against the thrust of the paper. New roles are being created as a consequence of AI. One could argue that a significant proportion of data science is a direct consequence, for example.
That's not to say that it won't be problematic. It's not at all obvious that the occupants of jobs that will likely disappear through AI automation (call centres and drivers in the immediate future) are the people that will be employed in the new fields. However, this strikes me as a version of the "Detroit problem" rather than something new.
This paper fails to separate out the effect of disemployment effects caused by offshoring, muted demand and robots.
I've seen this in a few other papers on this topic too (e.g. Ball state university, 2017)
I'm also a bit suspicious of their rationale for not looking at German data (German adoption of automation isn't much different, but the disemployment levels are wildly different).
I saw that and that would be fair if they were saying that automation was a principle driver (which seems reasonable). It would also gel well with saying that more focus on automation will just make things worse.
It's the statement that AI is causing the current issues that I find unsubstantiated. Unless they're including current manufacturing robotics as AI which is quite a stretch.
Anecdotally, I'd also argue against the thrust of the paper. New roles are being created as a consequence of AI. One could argue that a significant proportion of data science is a direct consequence, for example.
That's not to say that it won't be problematic. It's not at all obvious that the occupants of jobs that will likely disappear through AI automation (call centres and drivers in the immediate future) are the people that will be employed in the new fields. However, this strikes me as a version of the "Detroit problem" rather than something new.