Watch: Robert Abela Wants AI To Substitute ‘Many Workers Malta Can Do Without’
Prime Minister Robert Abela has warned several workers that their jobs could soon be automated.
In an interview with Malta Daily, Abela was asked. how he intends to address Malta’s overpopulation problem. He repeated his statement that the government will soon become more selective on the type of foreign workers it allows, although he once agains topped short of clarifying which jobs he is alluding to.
However, he did say that he intends to invest in AI and robotics to substitute the use of a substantial amount of human labour.
“Only workers required by the labour market will be allowed to come, while we will invest in economic niches that burden the infrastructure as little as possible,” he said. “This means economic niches where the use of AI and robotics can substitute many, many workers that the country can do without.”
Once again, Abela didn’t clarify which jobs he was referring to but said a labour market analysis by JobsPlus should be concluded in the coming weeks.
However, he did stress that he wasn’t advocating for degrowth.
“We can never shrink the economy or job opportunities, but this is a challenge we must address and we cannot maintain the same level of population growth we had in recent years,” he said.