The rapid expansion of industrial robots, artificial intelligence and other forms of automation will boost — rather than harm — job creation in developing countries in Asia, according to new research by the Asian Development Bank.
The development lender is the latest major institution to wade into the heated debate about the impact of new technologies on employment.
Economists such as Dani Rodrik of Harvard University have argued that the rise of robots could be especially damaging to developing countries, by eliminating future factory jobs and preventing them from following the manufacturing-led growth model that helped pull hundreds of millions out of poverty in China, South Korea and Taiwan.