Northeastern researchers performed advanced research and development on Valkyrie, NASA’s humanoid robot prototype, pictured here at UMass Lowell on April 6, 2016.
MATTHEW MODOONO/NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Northeastern researchers performed advanced research and development on Valkyrie, NASA’s humanoid robot prototype, pictured here at UMass Lowell on April 6, 2016.
By Joseph E. Aoun   
Like an argument about fire safety in the midst of a rising flood, there’s a jarring disconnect in Washington’s tax reform debate. While lawmakers battle over familiar grounds of supply-side economics and widening inequality, they’re ignoring the game-changing fact that artificial intelligence and automation will wipe out millions of jobs — up to 50 percent in the coming decades, according to some studies.
Despite the blithe dismissals of some senior government officials, the AI revolution isn’t decades away. Automated trucks are making deliveries, software is picking stocks and interpreting medical results. These are only the first drops in the AI tsunami about to hit our economy. Last June, a survey of researchers from Oxford and Yale predicted that within 10 years, machines will be better than human beings at writing high school essays, driving, and working retail. And while the rise of the robots will inevitably launch new professions, it will exact a steep near-term price in unemployment, income loss, and inequality. 
Lawmakers would be wise to note, too, that robot employees don’t pay taxes, nor do they purchase consumer products. Unless government leaders take decisive action soon, we won’t be arguing over how to slice the existing economic pie but about what to do with the crumbs.