AI fuelling growth while putting Asia’s young workers at risk, IMF meeting hears

An investment surge into artificial intelligence may be helping prop up a global economy battered by energy supply shocks, but the technology’s potential to cull jobs requires swift mitigation if Asia’s youth are to secure a place in the future workforce, delegates were warned at the IMF–World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok on Monday.

Soaring energy prices, persistent inflation and mounting debt framed the opening of the week-long summit, which was last hosted in the Thai capital in 1991.

Unusually, the US has not sent its Treasury Secretary to attend the gathering, despite triggering the energy crunch following its war against Iran, taken alongside Israel, in February.

Since then, oil prices have oscillated around US$100 a barrel thanks to the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, driving up inflation and forcing governments to drain reserves or borrow heavily to cushion consumers from high costs.