There are about as many estimates of the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on US jobs as there are pundits out there.

Certainly there have been many predictions of millions of net job losses. Others, however, have said that the history of automation has been that while some and even a large number of jobs may be lost in some areas from automation and AI, more still are likely to be created from the advances in technology.

A recent study on this topic by the researchers at The Brookings Institute was part pessimistic, warning that some 36 million US jobs were at risk, with 70% or more of the tasks involved in those jobs capable of being done by machines with current technologies.

That's a bit scary. But on a more optimistic note, is the graphic below presented in the report, which Brookings says summarizes six basic tendencies in the workings of automation and its interplay with human labor:

The Historical Interplay of Automation and Jobs

Source: Brookings Institute

Not surprisingly, Brookings says "routine” physical and cognitive tasks will be the most vulnerable - but that has surely always been the case.

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