9. Short Debate: The white heat of technology?

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:19 pm on 9 January 2019.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 6:19, 9 January 2019

Thank you very much. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It only seems like a few months ago that I was standing up in this Chamber making a similar speech calling for the Government to take action on digital skills, and that's because it was only a few months ago that I was giving such a speech. 

I'd like to thank Mohammad Asghar for bringing forward this debate. It's important that we work across party on this agenda, and I was struck by his quoting of Harold Wilson from that famous speech in 1963. Harold Wilson went on to say that,

'the strength, the solvency, the influence of Britain, which some still think depends upon nostalgic illusions…these things are going to depend in the remainder of this century to a unique extent on the speed with which we come to terms with the world of change.'

This is as true now as it was then. I'm a strong advocate for making sure that Wales can come to terms with and adapt to the world of change that Harold Wilson talked about in the speech that Oscar quoted. Automation and artificial intelligence are going to bring big changes to the workplace and have been doing so underneath our noses. Any role involving repetitive tasks across all industries risk being automated. Our role is to see new technologies as a means to free-up people to do things that machines can't. As the new First Minister has made clear, we need to make sure we provide new jobs for the future and encourage companies to redeploy people whose tasks are taken over by AI so that their know-how and creativity can be harnessed to develop their businesses and support front-line services.