Highlights
- London "at sharpest edge of change" due to reliance on white-collar, finance and creative industries vulnerable to AI.
- City Hall polling shows 50 per cent of London workers expect AI to affect their jobs within next 12 months.
- New London task force on AI and free training programmes to be announced in Mansion House speech.
Sadiq Khan will warn that artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate large numbers of jobs in London and usher in "a new era of mass unemployment" unless ministers take urgent action.
In his annual Mansion House speech, the London mayor will say the capital is "at the sharpest edge of change" because of its heavy reliance on white-collar work, finance, professional services and creative industries.
Without government intervention, existing roles will disappear faster than new ones are created, Khan will warn, with entry-level positions the first to go.
Response and risks
According to the Financial Times, Khan is expected to announce the creation of a London task force on AI and the future of work.
The group, drawing on industry and government expertise, will assess how technological change is likely to reshape the capital's jobs market, while City Hall will also begin offering free AI training for Londoners.
Polling conducted for City Hall showed that half of London's workforce expected AI to affect their jobs in some way within the next 12 months.
Khan will acknowledge the technology carries huge potential benefits, which could "transform our public services, turbocharge productivity and tackle some of our most complex challenges."
However, the mayor will add that the impact on the labour market will be "nothing short of colossal" unless actively managed.
He will say ministers face a choice and can either "seize the potential of AI and use it as a superpower for positive transformation and creation or surrender to it and sit back and watch as it becomes a weapon of mass destruction of jobs".
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, previously said AI's acceleration could mirror the Industrial Revolution's effects, which "didn't cause mass unemployment but it did displace people from jobs".
"If it (AI) results in a thinning out of entry-level jobs, where people learn a trade, but we still need people to rise up, we do have to think about what it is doing to the pipeline of people," Bailey said in December.
Companies including Klarna, BT and Salesforce have already started replacing roles with AI. A recent National Foundation for Educational Research report warned approximately 3 million low-skilled jobs could be automated by 2035.
