Economist: AI likely a threat to Inland jobs

The Inland Empire economy faces a dire threat from artificial intelligence, more so than other parts of California due to the fact that the two-county region has so many service sector jobs, according to a local economist.

“AI is not coming, it’s already here, and it’s a direct threat to every job in the service sector,” said Jay Prag, economics professor at the Drucker School Management at Claremont Graduate University. “The people who thought their education was going to give them a service sector job for life are about to get a shock.”

Prag was the keynote speaker at a recent conference on the Inland Empire economy held at Threshold Aviation at Chino Airport. Despite being generally optimistic about the region’s immediate future, Prag said AI “will disrupt a lot of things” and must be dealt with immediately.

Jobs in logistics, healthcare and education are all prominent in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and they tend to be positions that can be filled by AI.

“AI makes it possible to replace Jay Prag,” Prag told the audience of business owners and managers. “It can generate something that looks like me, and talks like me, and presents lectures like me. That means the school where I teach really doesn’t need me anymore.

“Because I don’t own the rights to my lectures, so there’s not much I can do about it.”

Prag went on to say that the Biden Administration’s economic policies, although successful in some areas, were not sustainable in the long run, and that “Trump 2.0” is likely to produce more long-term economic growth.

He also dismissed concerns about the Trump Administration’s tariff policies, which some fear will cause inflation.

“There’s a lot of talk about tariffs, particularly on China, but I’m not seeing the threat,” Prag said. “China is not the trade partner (with the United States) that it used to be. They’re an impoverished country. There are a lot of other countries we can trade with.”