Teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a digital twin of the labor market to simulate the potential impact of AI on jobs in the United States.
Teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a digital twin of the labor market to simulate the potential impact of AI on jobs in the United States.
The project, called Iceberg, was launched earlier this year, TechSpot reports . The experimental simulation uses ORNL's powerful supercomputer infrastructure to provide insight into the ability of AI technologies to replace real-world jobs.
An MIT study based on this simulation suggests that a theoretical AI workforce could already cover 11.7% of the U.S. labor market. In terms of wages, this impact could reach $1.2 trillion across the financial, healthcare, and professional services industries.
The project assessed 151 million American workers, taking into account their competencies, work tasks, and geographic location. The simulation mapped more than 32,000 professional skills across 923 occupations across 3,000 counties. As a final step, the researchers determined the ability of AI agents to perform identical skills and occupations.
The Iceberg Index can reportedly describe the displacement of human jobs in a specific county, down to individual census tracts. In addition, the project simulates the labor market in all 50 US states, rather than focusing only on technology hubs in coastal regions, as traditional estimates have done.
The researchers hope their work can inform policymakers about needed investments in training programs or infrastructure plans in advance, before funds are allocated.
