The Ambiguity of Human Value

The boss of Standard Chartered has apologised after describing employees whose jobs are vulnerable to being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) as "lower value human capital".

Discussing how automation was likely to lead to thousands of job cuts at the bank at a recent conference, Bill Winters said it wasn't about cost cutting but "replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we're putting in".

He later sought to contextualise the remarks via LinkedIn and said he was sorry for his wording, which had "caused upset to some colleagues".

He said he was committed to helping staff "cope with the accelerating pace of change".

The rise of AI tools has led to predictions of huge job losses, particularly for tech workers and graduates.

Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, as well as financial services firms, have already blamed tens of thousands of layoffs on AI over the last year.

Standard Chartered is a global bank headquartered in the UK, and is understood to employ around 82,000 people, with most of these in back-office roles.

In Winters's first post, he said he wanted to clear up what he had said and why at the investors conference.

- Jemma Crew, BBC