this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Futurology
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I sympathize, most of my work falls under the category of 'creative' too. But this conversation about AI & robotics needs to quickly move to UBI, or universal access to basic needs like health and housing. The day is coming when AI & robots can do all work, but for pennies on the hour & a free market economy isn't viable any more. This approach doesn't acknowledge that; it still assumes a free market economy can work in the future.
I really don't think we are anywhere close to this. I don't even expect to see it in my lifetime.
If AI/robotics follow the typical s-curve of technological adoption, I think the 2030s is most likely. We already seem to be at the beginning of that s-curve in 2024.
If you're assuming that we have the technology now in its prototypical early-adopter phase then your estimate of 2030 is for adoption of LLMs and generative AI.
We don't have even prototypical AGI yet, and it is AGI which is necessary to "do all the work." The s-curve of technological adoption assumes that the technology exists at the start of the curve. This is what I meant when I said "I really don't think we are anywhere close to this."
I'd rather see skilled artisans and crafts people flourishing than hear another venture capitalist shilling AI's purported merits infinitum.
These are simply the next iteration of snake oil salesmen.
AI is poised to crush labor and enrich Capital, at a time when Capital is already breaking records in profits leached directly from workers' quality of life.
If it doesn't contribute to the same broad economic footing as we saw in post-war 1950's America, then frankly, no thanks.
Well the world isn't giving up capitalism until it collapses, so the conversation still makes sense to be stuck around not letting the robots do all the fun stuff while we're stuck doing pointless busy work to prove we should continue to exist.
That is one way of looking at this. An alternative view is to say - "The day is coming when AI & robots can do all work, but for pennies on the hour" - will probably arrive by the 2030s. Every day we waste on pointless conversations that are destined to go nowhere, is a day we waste planning for the future. Worse than that, the chaos and despondency the AI/jobs threat creates, adds to the general conditions that are making the rise of fascism and the far right more prevalent.
You're assuming the people that own the machines have any interest in keeping us alive to reap the benefits of a mostly automated workforce
I never take ideas like that seriously. Even in sci-fi, the concept seems wildly fanciful.
Have you ever heard the term Superfund site or heard of the company Exxon?
Companies can, will, and have killed people for far less at the behest of the rich and powerful. If they get a scenario where they think they no longer need us, they'll make it happen.
The only hope I see here is that somebody needs to buy the shit