MIT launches task force on work of the future
MIT’s new Task Force on the Work of the Future seeks to understand and shape the job market for the next generation of employees.
The task force is a research team of over twenty students and faculty members from both engineering and social science fields. Their research is intended to address the changing nature of the job market due to rapid technological development, according to a press release from MIT News. This is in response to public concerns about many of today’s jobs potentially being outsourced to machines and computers due to advances in artificial intelligence.
The task force also aims to help shape the interconnected development of technology and the workplace, explained task force Chair David Mindell. They not only want to predict how the job market may change with new technologies, but also help to shape their development in a way that preserves the value of human input and allows for socially conscious job evolution.
This conscious shaping of the future of work will also involve adjusting educational techniques to prepare students for the new kinds of jobs they may encounter in the future, according to their website.
The initiative is projected to last two and a half years, MIT News reports. The task force plans to provide updates to the Institution through periodic conferences and presentations, as well as publish a book when the research has concluded.