The impact of artificial intelligence software implementation will likely have substantial effects on San Mateo County’s workforce, but supervisors are working to properly anticipate the shift in jobs available and ensure as minimal negative impact as possible.
At the regular board meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Ray Mueller presented a resolution directing county departments to project the impact AI implementation will have on their respective workforces, propose alternative positions for employees to seek, and track ongoing impacts.
“AI is a wonderful technological innovation and we have every reason to be enthusiastic and excited about it, but we also need to understand that with it comes potentially that period of time of technological unemployment,” Mueller said.
The county is looking to implement AI to streamline administrative tasks, enhance data analysis and improve decision-making processes, a staff report reads, but this also demands the county consider potential job displacement, or technological unemployment.
It is incumbent on governments, labor leaders and industry to search for those new jobs and “ease the pain that would be felt” during the period of technological unemployment, Mueller said.
The implementation of AI may initially result in a loss of 300 million jobs globally, economics experts have estimated, but the impact can ultimately be softened by county efforts, Mueller said.
San Mateo County has a unique role in this technological revolution, supervisors noted, recognizing it along with Santa Clara County are innovative hubs that should be at the forefront of establishing guardrails for such advancements.
“I do think this is worth the work,”Mueller said. “We’re venturing into an area that we don’t know where we’re headed and I think it’s incumbent upon us and the protection of our workers and our economy to make sure our economy remains focused as a human-centered economy.”
While the county navigates its technological future, it should continue to consider the human impact, possible consequences, ask who is at risk, why and where they are going to go within the workforce, Julie Lind, executive officer of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, said.
“This resolution puts in place necessary guardrails to ensure AI doesn’t just become another reason to cut corners or cut jobs,” Lind said. “It says that if we’re going to move forward with this technology we need to move forward responsibly.”
With AI likely affecting many entry level, technologically-oriented jobs, young people should be informed about alternative employment and career opportunities, Supervisor Jackie Speier said.
Moving forward with implementing AI throughout the county is ultimately an effort to make its services readily available and easy to access, supervisors Noelia Corzo and Mueller said. While AI may be used to efficiently process backlogs, individuals who previously held jobs overseeing such tasks may be able to be redirected toward face-to-face interactions with the community, ultimately benefiting residents.
“That’s the type of future that AI can enable if we are searching to put resources into those new jobs,” Mueller said.
Mueller and Supervisor Lisa Gauthier will work on a subcommittee to coordinate a study session on AI and the impacts of its implementation on county jobs at a coming date.
(3) comments
Yes, let's bring back the horse whip and buggy ;"why and where they are going to go within the workforce, Julie Lind, executive officer of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, said." Bravo, Julie, I hope that you are aware of the fact that the majority of County employees never get their annual review as required. The slackers are simply augmented with new hires. Let's take the term 'workforce' with a grain of salt. She is just concerned about losing union dues.
I hope the County takes this opportunity to perform a good DOGE-ing on perhaps 30% of the jobs as outlined in this article, wish the made-redundant employees well in their new careers OUTSIDE government, and save the taxpayers from more unwarranted tax payments and increases.
A lot of what the county employees are doing is creating "studies", doing outreach and surveys, and putting the results on maps and slideshows.
Then they get a lot of praise from all board members for the presentation.
Then the project dies slowly in a drawer, because politicians don't provide the necessary oversight or request accountability.
Five years later and with new board members, staff pulls out the old slideshows, repeats the process, get's the praise for the slideshow again and puts it back in the drawer.
Of course AI could do that faster, better, and cheaper.
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