Lower profits and fewer jobs? From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
So what happens if AI destroys both profits (due to it being “free” and a freely distributed commodity) and jobs?
Setting aside sensationalist dystopian fears of AI taking over our Spaceship (“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the famous line from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey), let’s focus on two more realistic possibilities:
1. Per my blog post What If AI Is Only a Cost and Not a Profit Bonanza?, AI is already a commodity and therefore there is no way to establish enduring profits as competitors have the same tools, much less grow high-profit trillion-dollar monopolies such as Google, Apple or Microsoft based on commoditized AI.
2. AI eliminates jobs which are not replaced by a massive wave of new jobs, a process known as technological job displacement (the elimination of jobs when human workers are replaced by technology).
The economist John Maynard Keynes discussed the potential of technological job displacement to disrupt the economy and society, as the gains (higher corporate profits and productivity) would be outweighed by the loss of broad-based, stable employment.
I am skeptical of the claims that tens of millions of jobs will be lost due to LLM AI (large language model) or machine-learning AI. I discussed the limits of AI and technology in my book Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power and A.I. in a Traumatized World.
It seems more likely that these AI tools will boost the productivity of skilled human workers rather than entirely replace skilled human workers.
But for the sake of debate, let’s assume the projections of 30 million jobs will be lost will prove accurate.
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