White collar jobs to be decimated by AI?

Kai-Fu Lee predicts the rise of artificial intelligence will wreak havoc on office jobs. Lee was the former head of Google research in China, he's a top tech investor and one of the best-known Chinese technologists. He predicts that the availability of company data that can be used to train machines, especially in areas like law and accounting, will result in significant fewer jobs.

“This replacement is happening now, and it’s happening in a true, complete decimation,” Lee told a conference at MIT last week. “In my opinion, the white-collar workforce gets challenged first—blue-collar work later.”

Lee pointed to several of the investments made by his company, Sinovation Ventures, as clear signs of how routine office work is already being transformed by AI. For example, Lee has backed Smart Finance Group, a company that uses machine learning to determine a person’s eligibility for a payday loan. Sinovation has also invested in companies that automate customer service, training, and other routine office services.

You can read more about his thoughts at MIT's TechnologyReview.