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State Council Document Sets the Tone for Mitigating AI Job Displacement, Scholars Propose SolutionsDevelopments
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Oct 26
Yicai
State Council Document Sets the Tone for Mitigating AI Job Displacement, Scholars Propose Solutions
The General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Adapting to the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technology and Helping to Build an Employment-Friendly Development Model," proposing to enhance the positive effects of AI in creating jobs and empowering traditional positions, and to effectively mitigate its job-displacement impact. The document requires that the scope, intensity, and pace of AI application in labor-intensive industries be grasped prudently and steadily, encourages enterprises to explore an unemployment buffer period system, and improves the income distribution mechanism that adapts to the development of AI technology. Multiple scholars invoked the concept of the "Engels' pause" in discussion, and Cai Fang put forward four propositions including promoting AI equality and cultivating the service industry in advance.
Oct 24
Yicai
Cai Fang: AI's employment impact has yet to show up in macroeconomic data; we must seize the window to prepare in advance
Cai Fang, a member of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the 2026 Bund Summit that AI's employment impact has not yet been reflected in macroeconomic data, but recruitment data and micro-level links have already shown signs of it. The current period is a brief quiet spell and a window for preparing countermeasures in advance. Citing research, he said that AI's improvement of labor productivity follows a J-shaped pattern, and labor substitution may already have occurred before productivity rises, so advance response is needed. He suggested incorporating the resolution of structural employment contradictions and the response to AI's impact into the "invest in people" strategy, and promoting the alignment of labor market institutions, social security, and flexible employment forms.