AI enthusiasts insist that artificial intelligence will vastly increase productivity without reducing the net number of jobs, although many jobs will change in some respects. They have history on their side. On the other hand, AI pessimists point out that past technological revolutions have never made the human brain redundant. That’s true, too.
As I noted in a previous post, Marx wrongly thought the factory was the end of history. It is tempting to look at the current knowledge-based economy and imagine it is set in stone, too. With AI, it isn’t; entry-level office jobs are disappearing before our eyes. Then what?
I can only see two scenarios here. The optimistic one is that the welfare state is massively embellished through the use of UBI, and that millions of Americans will be freed to follow more creative pastimes. The other is that the redundant workers, lacking any other way to make a living, become retainers for a handful of incredibly wealthy people; in other words, we have a neo-feudal economy, with the owners of robots and AI models becoming the equivalents of medieval nobles, and everyone else providing services for them.
If it turns out to be the latter, I’m glad I won’t be around to see it.