WINNING THE WAR ON WAGES:

Almost 250,000 public sector workers could lose their jobs to robots over the next 15 years, according to a new report which claims machines would be more efficient and save billions of pounds.

Reform, a right-of-centre thinktank, says websites and artificial intelligence "chat bots" could replace up to 90% of Whitehall's administrators, as well as tens of thousands in the NHS and GPs' surgeries, by 2030 - saving as much as £4bn a year.

Even nurses and doctors could fall victim to the march of the machines, which the report says can outperform humans at some diagnoses and routine surgical procedures, and are more efficient at collecting information.

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