On my way to meet a friend in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago, I passed three self-driving Waymos gliding through traffic. These cars are everywhere now, moving as if they’ve been part of the landscape forever. When I arrived, the wonder of those futuristic cars gave way to a far more troubling glimpse of what lies ahead.
My friend told me that a huge call center in the Philippines — a center his venture capital firm had invested in — had just deployed A.I. agents capable of replacing 80 percent of its work force. The tone in his voice wasn’t triumphant. It was filled with deep discomfort. He knew that thousands of workers depended on those jobs to pay for food, rent and medicine. But they were disappearing overnight. Even worse, over the next few years this could happen across the entire Filipino call center industry, which directly makes up 7 percent to 10 percent of the nation’s G.D.P.
That conversation stayed with me. What’s happening in the Philippines is connected to what’s happening on the streets of San Francisco; Phoenix; Austin, Texas; Atlanta; and Los Angeles — the cities where driverless cars now operate.
I believe artificial intelligence will displace workers at a scale many people don’t yet realize. In less than a decade, Uber and Lyft shrank the taxi industry. Self-driving cars could replace human drivers — among the largest occupations for men in the United States — just as quickly. Once autonomous vehicles dominate ride-sharing, delivery routes and long-haul trucking won’t be far behind. In the coming years, A.I. and robotics are likely to significantly reduce the level of human labor needed in occupations as diverse as warehouse work and software engineering. We’ve seen economic displacement caused by globalization and immigration lead to frustration and division. The next wave, fueled by automation, will hit faster and cut deeper.
Because of this, my friend has decided to commit 1 percent of his firm’s profits to help people learn new skills for jobs, demonstrating what leadership looks like in the A.I. age. I believe that every company benefiting from automation — which is most American companies — should follow this lead and dedicate 1 percent of its profits to help retrain the people who are being displaced.
This isn’t charity. It is in the best interest of these companies. If the public sees corporate profits skyrocketing while livelihoods evaporate, backlash will follow — through regulation, taxes or outright bans on automation. Helping retrain workers is common sense, and such a small ask that these companies would barely feel it, while the public benefits could be enormous. Even corporations will suffer if A.I. dislocates large parts of the labor force — because the newly unemployed will no longer be able to afford their products and services.
One percent of profits — not revenues. That’s a rounding error compared with what’s at stake, and it could change the trajectory of the lives of millions who will be displaced by A.I. Roughly a dozen of the world’s largest corporations now have a combined profit of over a trillion dollars each year. One percent of that would create a $10 billion annual fund that, in part, could create a centralized skill training platform on steroids: online learning, ways to verify skills gained and apprenticeships, coaching and mentorship for tens of millions of people.
The fund could be run by an independent nonprofit that would coordinate with corporations to ensure that the skills being developed are exactly what are needed. This is a big task, but it is doable; over the past 15 years, online learning platforms have shown that it can be done for academic learning, and many of the same principles apply for skill training.
The threat of artificial intelligence doesn’t only present a job crisis. It creates an education challenge. The problem isn’t that people can’t work. It’s that we haven’t built systems to help them continue learning and connect them to new opportunities as the world changes rapidly.
To meet the challenges, we don’t need to send millions back to college. We need to create flexible, free paths to hiring, many of which would start in high school and extend through life. Our economy needs low-cost online mechanisms for letting people demonstrate what they know. Imagine a model where capability, not how many hours students sit in class, is what matters; where demonstrated skills earn them credit and where employers recognize those credits as evidence of readiness to enter an apprenticeship program in the trades, health care, hospitality or new categories of white-collar jobs that might emerge.
I’ve spent nearly two decades trying to help people learn at every age. I’ve seen how many people aren’t able to enter growing fields because they lack basic science, reading comprehension and math skills that should be mastered by high school (but unfortunately often aren’t). And I’ve also seen what becomes possible when people are given access to free education that meets them where they are, helping them to learn at their own pace. The same approach can equip workers to prepare for new careers.
Millions of jobs will be waiting for them. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nearly two million open health care jobs each year for the next decade. UNESCO estimates a global shortage of 44 million teachers by 2030. The construction industry needs more than 500,000 additional workers annually just to meet demand, and openings for electricians and plumbers are growing faster than average. The hospitality and elder care industries — work rooted in empathy and presence — are expanding, not shrinking. There is no shortage of meaningful work — only a shortage of pathways into it.
Sal Khan is the C.E.O. of Khan Academy and the vision steward at TED, both nonprofits that provide free online education for more than 200 million learners globally.
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