this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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It's the entire point of AI, to replace the workforce.
No it isn't. It's the entire point of some (well, many) modern AI companies, granted. But "the entire point of AI"? absolutely not.
That's the entire point of capitalism. To generate as much profit from as little expense as possible. Unfortunately capitalism is predicated on a human workforce earning income to pay for goods and services, so at some point the economic engine will shutdown and capitalism will have killed capitalism. Either way, once the level of robotics + dumb AI is more cost effective than the available workforce in any role, that role will be eliminated. Once general AI is achieved and (especially once) the robots can build and repair themselves, the proles will either get star trek or whoever commands the killbots (including an AI) will rule humanity and inherit civilization.
NOTE: could happen at any time, but my bet's on it not happening for many decades; possibly not for hundreds or thousands of years.
If your entire workforce is ai and you don't have any humans then how do humans who don't have a job pay for your product?
The entire concept of replacing the workforce with AI falls apart when you spend more than 2 seconds thinking about it. Only way it would work is if we actually got rid of the entire concept of money.
They're not thinking that far ahead. They're thinking "how can I make the lines go up this quarter?"
No doubt many of them understand that you need people with enough money to buy products or the economy stagnates. But they don't see it as their problem right now. Their problem right now is to make the line go up by any means they can. It's similar to how the owners must understand that climate change will fuck everyone if left unchecked, but they don't see it as their own problem right now, so none of them take any steps to avoid disaster. Capitalism doesn't contain mechanisms for coordinating actions towards the greater good. Instead it creates many "tragedy of the commons" type situations.
Corps have been complaining for years already that people aren't buying enough. Millenials are killing this industry and that industry because we don't consume enough - "enough" being whatever level they've decided we should consume. They feel entitled to our dollars, whether or not their product or service is any good.
If they were smart, companies would lower prices to be more competitive and incentivize people to buy more. Instead they've doubled down and posted armed guards at the store exits to intimidate the customers they have left. They've slipped data collection into every interaction. It's pretty obvious they're not playing the long game anymore.