Foxconn chair predicts AI will end manufacturers' search for cheap labor

Foxconn chairman Young Liu has predicted the combination of generative AI and robotics will destroy low-end manufacturing jobs and called on world leaders to recognize inevitable geopolitical shifts that will follow.

Liu on Tuesday delivered a keynote address at the Computex conference in Taiwan and advanced a theory that rich nations do two things to keep the cost of manufactured goods low: Allow immigration to bring in more people willing to work for low wages and outsource to low-GDP countries where costs are lower.

The contract manufacturing giant’s chair sees limits to those trends, as “eventually you will run out of low-GDP countries” and immigration becomes a political issue.