An issue that isn’t covered often enough is the role of automation and artificial intelligence on the labour market. While employment rates rise and fall, the prevalence of these new technologies is certain to have devastating effects on the amount of jobs available.
What happens when large numbers of people find that their fields no longer exist? What happens when professionals who have spent decades learning a trade or skill see it evaporate almost overnight? The long and short term effects of this are something essential to cover.
It should be noted that many who champion this next industrial revolution are also advocates of open borders and mass economic immigration. They also support so-called free trade, or globalization, which sees companies outsourced simply to reduce production costs. What happens when these are combined? In terms of supply and demand, this isn’t difficult to figure out.
[1] Continue high levels of immigration
[2] Outsource work to 3rd world to reduce costs (where possible)
[3] Slash available jobs and industries to work in locally
It gets even worse. Not only is this happening in Canada, but large amounts of taxpayer money are used to accelerate the collapse of the job market. The examples below are just a portion of what is being handed out under the title of “artificial intelligence”.
| ORGANIZATION | DATE | AMOUNT |
|---|---|---|
| AbCellera Biologics Inc. | Apr. 14, 2020 | $175,631,000 |
| AIMS Global Secretariat | Aug. 26, 2020 | $2,500,000 |
| Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute | Jul. 12, 2019 | $2,750,000 |
| Algolux Inc. | Mar. 1, 2021 | $667,000 |
| AltaML Inc. | Nov. 23, 2020 | $1,000,000 |
| Apollo Machine & Welding Ltd. | Apr. 1, 2021 | $581,500 |
| Association des médecins vétérinaires practiciens | Apr. 9, 2021 | $998,456 |
| Ayogo Health Inc. | Oct. 2, 2018 | $1,730,740 |
| BoG of NorQuest Col & Concordia Uni | Dec. 30, 2019 | $1,150,000 |
| CAE Inc. | Jul. 16, 2018 | $150,000,000 |
| CAE Inc. | Jan. 28, 2021 | $190,000,000 |
| Canadensys Aerospace Corporation | Oct. 8, 2020 | $2,498,664 |
| Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network Inc. | Jul. 6, 2020 | $49,500,000 |
| Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network Inc. | Jul. 7, 2020 | $30,000,000 |
| Canadian Forage and Grassland Association | Jul. 3, 2020 | $996,032 |
| Carleton University | Aug. 15, 2019 | $1,500,000 |
| Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc. | Nov. 19, 2020 | $2,647,000 |
| COENCORP Consultant Corporation | May 1, 2021 | $600,000 |
| Cognitive Systems Corp. | Aug. 22, 2018 | $7,268,261 |
| COREM | Aug. 8, 2019 | $860,000 |
| Council of Canadian Academies | Jan. 7, 2020 | $1,147,956 |
| Eddyfi NDT inc. | Nov. 9, 2018 | $1,550,675 |
| Ecoation Innovative Solutions Inc. | Aug. 24, 2020 | $3,875,000 |
| Element AI Inc. | Jun. 10, 2020 | $20,000,000 |
| Enns Brothers Ltd. | Jul. 1, 2020 | $660,000 |
| Fluidigm Canada Inc. | Jun. 1, 2018 | $650,000 |
| Giatec Scientific Inc. | Oct. 1, 2018 | $800,000 |
| Genov, Roman | Apr. 1, 2017 | $1,136,025 |
| Governors of the University of Alberta | Oct. 29, 2018 | $2,500,000 |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | Aug. 3, 2018 | $25,000,000 |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | Mar. 30, 2019 | $17,000,000 |
| Governing Council of the University of Toronto | Dec. 1, 2020 | $1,254,375 |
| Imagia Cybernétique Inc. | Aug. 31, 2018 | $1,000,000 |
| Information Technology Association of Canada | Nov. 1, 2018 | $1,980,358 |
| Linamar Corporation | Jul. 6, 2018 | $49,000,000 |
| Lytica Inc | Nov. 6, 2019 | $1,080,000 |
| Mckee Demczyk, Debbie | Mar. 7, 2018 | $2,000,000 |
| McMaster University | Oct. 18, 2019 | $1,479,441 |
| MindBridge Analytics Inc. | May 1, 2019 | $14,500,000 |
| Miru Smart Technologies Corp. | Apr. 1, 2021 | $600,000 |
| Mission Control Space Services Inc. | Feb. 3, 2021 | $3,042,959 |
| Montréal International | Jul. 9, 2020 | $9,480,000 |
| North Inc. | Nov. 8, 2018 | $24,000,000 |
| North Inc. | Oct 31, 2018 | $24,000,000 |
| Octopusapp Inc. | Sep. 1, 2020 | $3,000,000 |
| OCED | Aug. 27, 2020 | $982,000 |
| Purdie, Thomas G | Apr. 1, 2013 | $651,061 |
| Savormetrics Inc. | Nov. 30, 2018 | $867,000 |
| Scale.AI | Mar. 15, 2018 | $229,765,127 |
| Sheikhzadeh, Mehdi | Mar. 7, 2018 | $2,000,000 |
| SSIMWAVE | Apr. 1, 2019 | $4,232,550 |
| Sunnybrook Research Institute | May 21, 2019 | $49,000,000 |
| Tangent Design Engineering Ltd. | Feb. 1, 2017 | $600,000 |
| Tangent Design Engineering Ltd. | Aug. 1, 2021 | $700,000 |
| Technologies Numetrix inc. | Jun. 8, 2021 | $608,288 |
| Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc. | Jul. 15, 2020 | $1,000,000 |
| Terry Fox Research Institute & Imagia Cybernetics Inc. | Aug. 28, 2020 | $49,000,000 |
| Tessonics Inc. | Apr. 1, 2021 | $600,000 |
| University of British Columbia | Jan. 1, 2020 | $1,203,433 |
| University of Manitoba | Mar. 5, 2021 | $1,603,078 |
| Valacta Limited Partnership | Dec. 2, 2019 | $566,617 | Vineland Research and Innovation Centre | Apr. 1, 2018 | $4,138,197 |
This is by no means all of the grants, just the larger ones listed.
Keep in mind, while Canada continues to bring record numbers of people into the country, we are automating entire industries. This will lead to massive losses of employment for those already here. The result is far more people, competing for far fewer positions. This sort of thing typically leads to much lower wages and benefits.
Getting artificial intelligence into aerospace and highly technical fields seems harmless enough, but it’s not going to stop there. Proponents of the AI trend never seem to realize that their jobs can also be automated out of existence as well.
This AI push will also impact the low skill market as well, and nothing is off the table. One such grant involves spending over $4 million to implement AI into the agricultural industry, and to automate a lot of the more “low skill” work. Another grant was for $30,000,000. Depending on the locations, this could mean the lack of any other options for many.
Far from being hyperbolic, automation replacing jobs has happened for decades, and will continue to do so. The service industry seems to be next on the list. Does anyone seriously think that workers will be hired back once replaced by robots? What happens to the people who can’t find work as a result of this?
Without an alternative in place for the people impacted by these drastic changes, expect chaos and instability to result from this initiative.
An interesting side note: the “political left” typically opposes free trade and globalization for the reason that it undercuts wages, and sees jobs shipped overseas. In short, decent work disappears. Mass automation will have much the same effect, and yet, silence from those same activists. How strange.
As for the “political right”: how exactly does gutting entire industries help secure an economic recovery? This trend is surely going to get worse.
Seriously, who thought this was a good idea for society?
(1) https://search.open.canada.ca/en/gc
(2) https://search.open.canada.ca/en/gc/?sort=agreement_start_date_s%20desc&page=1&search_text=artificial%20intelligence
(3) https://search.open.canada.ca/en/gc/id/csa-asc,003-2020-2021-Q4-04881,current
(4) https://search.open.canada.ca/en/gc/id/aafc-aac,235-2018-2019-Q3-00066,current
(5) https://search.open.canada.ca/en/gc/id/ic,230-2021-2022-Q1-0143,current
(6) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/22/restaurants-looking-for-labor-and-speed-turn-to-robots-.html
and..i’ll say it again STOP paying illegal taxes!!! STOP–they can do NOTHING without your money!!!