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When artificial intelligence begins automating jobs once done by humans, women will have to worry more than men, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co.

The report, which was compiled by the consulting firm’s research arm, McKinsey Global Institute, analyzed US labor-market trends through 2030, and found that women are 1.5 times more likely to need to change jobs in the next seven years.

McKinsey attributed the figure to the high amount of women in industries with lower-wage jobs, which will be most affected by AI technology already present in models that are available for public use like ChatGPT, Google’s Bard AI and DALL-E, which generates images.

“Women are heavily represented in office support and customer service, which could shrink by about 3.7 million and 2.0 million jobs, respectively, by 2030,” the report states.

Blacks and Hispanics will also be adversely affected as these workers are “highly concentrated in some shrinking occupations within customer service, food services and production work.”

In all, at least 12 million workers in US could be displaced by technology and switching jobs come 2030, McKinsey said.

The analysis also showed that among low-wage industries, 1.1 million jobs could be entirely swiped from the workforce.

Workers across these in-jeopardy jobs are up to 14 times more likely to need to change occupations than their higher-paid counterparts employed in the transportation, construction and healthcare industries.

For employees want to find a new job with a better salary, “most will need additional skills to do so successfully,” the report noted.

However, not all white-collar positions will be unscathed by the incoming wave of AI in the workforce.

Lawyers are among the high-paid workers who will see “the biggest impact of generative AI” since models “can search through case law, … freeing lawyers to think through how to apply them in new legal arguments.”

AI-backed tools like the ones developed by Sam Altman’s artificial intelligence company OpenAI will also be able to use the tech to edit documents, the form noted, which is usually what lawyers “spend a great deal of time” doing.

Civil engineers’ jobs may also be on the chopping block, as generative AI will “accelerate the design process, taking all building codes into account for fewer errors and less rework.”

McKinsey notes that a streamlined process in planning, designing and executing infrastructure — tasks civil engineers are trained to do — “is vital at a time when the nation needs to deliver more affordable housing and major infrastructure projects.”

However, “physical work is not going away,” the report added, noting that better-paying jobs could grow immensely, by as much as 3.8 million jobs.

Overall, it “probably wont be that kind of catastrophic thing,” McKinsey Global Institute partner Michael Chui told Bloomberg of the impending wave of AI-powered automation in the workforce.

But, it’s still “going to change almost every job,” he added.

If handled correctly, McKinsey said that the US workforce could see a significant increase in productivity and property.

The study reports that in the best-case scenario, productivity could increase from 1%, where it is now, to up to 4%.

It also attributed the shift to net-zero emissions to a decline in the workforce, as it’s already begun shifting employment away from oil, gas and automotive manufacturing.

Some 3.5 million positions could be wiped out by the transition to greener emissions by 2030.

Those jobs will be replaced by positions in green industries, which will see “a modest gain in employment” to the tune of 700,000 additional jobs, according to the report.

“We also see increased demand for healthcare workers as the population ages, plus gains in transportation services due to e-commerce,” McKinsey said.

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Missouri bill proposes Bitcoin reserve fund for state investments

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Missouri bill proposes Bitcoin reserve fund for state investments

House Bill 1217, introduced by Representative Ben Keathley, aims to establish a Bitcoin reserve fund for Missouri and mandate crypto acceptance for state payments.

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World

Australian politician changes his name to ‘Aussie Trump’

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Australian politician changes his name to 'Aussie Trump'

An Australian politician has legally changed his name to Austin Trump in a move inspired by Donald Trump – in what he said was a protest against the country’s ruling centre-left Labor Party.

Ben Dawkins – who is an independent MP in Western Australia’s upper house of parliament where Labor holds a majority – is now listed as “Aussie Trump” on the WA parliamentary website.

He has also changed his username to “Hon. Aussie Trump MLC” on his X account.

“I’ve launched a political protest against the tyranny and systematic corruption of the Labor government in WA,” he wrote, in a post on the social media platform, signing off as “Aussie”.

“Vote Labor Out! & Drill Baby Drill!,” he wrote in a second post, appearing to echo the US president’s plan to increase the extraction of oil and gas in the United States.

He also posted a photo showing legal confirmation of the name change from Western Australia’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

“I want to be like Trump in the sense of calling out woke leftist nonsense,” he told 9News.

“I would love you to reach out Donald, just ring the office here.”

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“This is simply attention-seeking stuff,” said Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook, the state’s Labor leader, at a news conference on Thursday.

“I’m not sure how much lower he can go.”

Western Australia state elections are due to take place in March, before the country goes to the polls in a nationwide vote that must be held before 17 May.

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US

Search under way in Alaska for missing Bering Air plane carrying 10 people

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Search under way in Alaska for missing Bering Air plane carrying 10 people

A search for a missing plane carrying 10 people is under way in Alaska.

The Bering Air flight left Unalakleet at 2.38pm on Thursday but contact was lost less than an hour later, the firm’s operations director David Olson said.

Officials are trying to work out its last-known position but the coastguard said the Cessna Grand Caravan was 12 miles offshore as it flew across Norton Sound.

Tracking site Flightradar24 reported it at 5,300ft before contact was lost.

It was travelling from Unalakleet, a community of about 690 people in western Alaska, to Nome, a gold rush town just south of the Arctic Circle.

The flight time is normally just under an hour.

In a post on Facebook, Nome’s fire department said: “We are currently doing an active ground search from Nome and from White Mountain.”

It added: “We ask the public to please think of those who may be missing at this time, but due to weather and safety concerns please do not form individual search parties.”

Weather in Unalakleet at take-off time was -8.3C (17F) with fog and light snow, according to the US National Weather Service.

Bering Air serves 32 villages in western Alaska and air travel is often the only option of travelling long distances in rural parts of the US state, especially in winter.

“Staff at Bering Air is working hard to gather details, get emergency assistance, search and rescue going,” said Mr Olson.

Read more from Sky News:
Cold snap on way as temperatures set to plummet
Gino D’Acampo denies inappropriate behaviour

Nome in Alaska.
Pic: AP
Image:
The plane was heading to Nome, just south of the Arctic Circle. Pic: AP

It comes soon after two major air accidents in the US in recent weeks.

Sixty-seven people were killed when a jet and helicopter collided in Washington DC and seven died when a medical plane crashed in Philadelphia.

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