12-12-24
People are breathing a sigh relief that the actors strike has finally been settled, and let’s be honest: we want to see her favorite TV shows and movies as soon as possible. We want to be entertained. It’s human nature. But you know what? We need to remember that the concerns the actors union had with regards to AI technology were quite valid. Now, I want to point out that I enjoy and use technology and recognize how it has helped humanity in many ways. But like with anything, there are pluses and minuses. And the truth is: as technology continues to advance, in the future, many jobs will likely become threatened.
We’ve seen in the past how as technology advances, some jobs become obsolete. Consider how horse-drawn wagons were so vitally important to society before the invention of the automobile. A significant number of people were employed directly or indirectly to this industry. But once automobiles became commonplace, many of these jobs virtually disappeared. In the past, what has typically occurred in these circumstances is that as some job types disappeared with the advancement of technology, people shifted to other career choices, some of which were created by the new technology. While very few people were needed to create and maintain wagons and wagon wheels anymore, a very large demand arose for the construction and maintenance of vehicles running on combustion engines.
But technology is now advancing to such a degree that in the future, AI and other types of robotics will be able to perform many jobs more cheaply and more effectively than humans. The other issue is that we’re not just talking about one career field. This is going to be affecting many, many types of jobs. It’s likely going to get to a point where there just will not be enough employment opportunities for enough of the population. We’ve already seen how factories employ smaller numbers of human workers due to robotics. Imagine a time when stores are using AI and robotics to restock shelves, check people out, serve customers in restaurants, perform most construction jobs, do the majority of secretarial work, the list goes on and on. In such a future, we will get to the point where there will not be enough new jobs to go around because AI and robotics can do things so much more effectively and for less money than humans.
What happens then? Society can’t effectively and humanely function if 30, 40, 50% of the working age population isn’t working because there literally is not enough work to go around. How will people survive? Also, for economies to function, humans need to buy and sell goods and services. But that starts to fall apart when such a huge chunk of the population isn’t working (and thus not having incoming employment paychecks).
Societies around the world are already having to grapple with some of this, and the issue is going to get much more severe. And what is frightening is that no one seems to have a good, long term answer on what to do. Technology is going to continue advancing. But we’re going to have to come up with something in order to keep society functioning in a way that is both humane and realistic.
Views and Observations 