'Creator of AI' has worrying answer when asked about what jobs are safe from the new technology

An AI pioneer gave a worrying answer when he was asked what sort of jobs are going to survive being taken over by technology, and who is not going to be as safe from job losses.

There is a growing fear that job losses linked to artificial intelligence have already begun, with the BBC reporting that several companies had said the 'new realities' of AI were behind recent job losses.

For many bosses, the ideal worker is the one who doesn't need to be paid or take breaks, while Forbes predicts that in 2026, more of the flesh and blood workforce will be replaced to cut down costs.

Of course, if lots of people lose their jobs to AI then they aren't getting paid, and that's lots of people who can't afford to be customers elsewhere, but it wouldn't be the first time the economy has been driven off a cliff in the blind pursuit of more money.

But that's a problem for tomorrow, which does inevitably always end up becoming today, and Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio has spoken about the jobs he reckons won't even exist in a couple of years' time.

AI expert Yoshua Bengio has warned people working at computers will soon face AI taking their jobs, but physical jobs may also be at risk down the line (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)

Bengio is the most cited computer scientist in the world, and he recently appeared on the Diary of a CEO show, where he painted a grim picture of the impact AI was going to have on the jobs market.

He said: "It's more a matter of time than 'is it happening or not'. The cognitive jobs, the jobs you can do behind a keyboard.

"Robotics is still lagging, though we're seeing progress, so if you do a physical job as Geoff Hinton is often saying 'you should be a plumber' or something, it's gonna take more time.

"But I think it's only a temporary thing."

So it's bad news if you do a job sitting at a computer, but if you're thinking that because your job involves physical labour you're safe, the expert warned that while 'robotics is lagging' behind AI right now, he does 'think it's going to happen' eventually.

Bengio warned that the rise of the machines could mean a lot more problems for us as he suggested 'an AI with bad intentions could do a lot more damage if it can control robots in the physical world'.

He said: "If it can only stay in the virtual world, it has to convince humans to do things that are bad.

"AI is getting better at persuasion in more and more studies, but it's even easier if it can just hack robots to do things that you know would be bad for us."

Many experts have warned that only a scant few jobs will be safe from AI within the next few years, as Dr Roman Yampolskiy said advancements would mean by 2027, it 'makes no sense to hire humans for most jobs'.

Meanwhile, Microsoft released a list of the 40 jobs they think are most at risk from being made obsolete by AI, so it's a worrying time for a lot of people.