“For all the discussion of jobs AI may destroy, remarkably few cultural leaders have asked the more important question: how many jobs could AI create?”
A striking feature of the AI debate is that policymakers, cultural leaders and industry commentators routinely ask how many jobs artificial intelligence may replace, yet rarely ask how many jobs it could create. Throughout history, transformative technologies have generated anxiety about labour displacement, but they have also created entirely new occupations, industries and markets. The printing press, recording technologies, broadcasting, film and the internet all disrupted existing employment patterns while ultimately expanding creative economies. The challenge for policymakers is therefore not simply to mitigate the risks of AI, but to maximise its potential for cultural and economic growth.
The real policy question is not whether AI will change creative employment. It is whether governments, educators and cultural institutions will shape that change deliberately. A New Deal for the Arts should place job creation at the centre of AI policy, asking how artificial intelligence can support new creative enterprises, new artistic practices, new cultural services and new pathways into employment. Until cultural leaders begin measuring the jobs AI can create alongside those it may displace, the national conversation will remain incomplete.