Stiglitz: Work for everybody in the robot era? The West (for now) has no answer

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“Inequality is not a destiny”: this is the title of a public lecture of the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Joseph Stiglitz about work and inequality, held on 12 May of this year at the Feltrinelli Foundation. The talk was presented during a series of meetings organised in collaboration with The Adecco Group.

Mr. Stiglitz also spoke about work and inequality in the short video interview made in conjunction with the event. "Over the next five years, Europe will have continuing problems linked to unemployment, especially of young people, and artificial intelligence will begin to enter the workplace,” he explained. “These will be the most important challenges for western economies. Europe and the United States will have to understand what types of skills people will need to compete with the robots and tools offered by artificial intelligence. The western economy will need to understand how to provide employment and employability, not only for that small part of the population who already have a degree or higher qualifications, but for almost all of their citizens.” According to Stiglitz, there is not an obvious answer.