As fears of artificial intelligence-fueled job loss ripple through society, one potential fix is seeing broad support from Americans and Canadians alike: giving workers the right skills to thrive in the AI age.
A multiyear study, highlighted in a recent Foreign Affairs article, reveals that many adults in the U.S. and Canada want the government to address AI-related job loss through workplace retraining and reskilling — a solution that cuts across party lines and far and away trumps other proposed alternatives.
The researchers surveyed 6,000 Americans and Canadians, randomly presenting them with different economic shock scenarios involving either AI adoption or offshoring, and then asked them to evaluate a range of potential policy responses. Beatrice Magistro, an assistant professor of AI governance at Northeastern University, and her colleagues analyzed the results to compare how attitudes varied across the two types of disruption and identify which policies drew the most support.
