Resumen de Technology and the reskilling debate: What’s the problem and what should be done?

Andrew Weaver

• The idea that technological advances pose an imminent threat to the livelihoods of large numbers of workers has become so prevalent that one early candidate for the 2020 U.S. presidential election centered his entire campaign on a proposal to address the issue.1Hardly a day goes by without media articles breathlessly warning that robots and artificial intelligence will soon render many employees redundant. A natural question that arises is: how should workers, firms, policymakers, and educational institutions respond to these dire predictions? Do employees need to be retrained to acquire new skills that will enable them to adapt to changing technological circumstances and employer demands?