SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) poses risks to South Korean youth jobs, according to a central bank report on Tuesday.
The Bank of Korea (BOK) report said that youth employment continued to decline in industries with high AI exposure, citing the National Pension Service (NPS) subscriber records and the economically active population survey.
Youth jobs reduced by 285,000 over the past four years. Of the total, 94 percent, or 268,000 lost jobs, were clustered in high AI-exposure sectors.
Youth employment tumbled 31.4 percent in the information service for the past four years, while those in publishing, computer programming and professional services dropped 27.4 percent, 16.6 percent and 11.6 percent each.
In contrast to the shrinking job opportunities for the youth, employment for workers in their 50s continued to grow in the same industries, indicating a widening generational gap.
The report emphasized that the AI's impact depended on its application method, as the drop in youth employment was severe in industries where the AI is used for automation, which replaces human tasks.
When the AI was deployed for augmentation, which acts as a tool to assist and enhance human work, the negative impact on youth hiring was limited, the report concluded.
It noted that the employment outcome depended not on the AI adoption itself but on whether businesses choose to replace or assist human work. ■
