Submitted by apinkphoenix t3_11v41u0 in singularity
I'm not talking about AI wiping us out - that may or may not happen down the road. No, I'm talking about mass unemployment, capitalism failing, and antiquated governments that can't keep up with the rate of change in modern society.
What happens when Copilot for 365 rolls out and manager Bob finds out that for a $10/month subscription, he can now suddenly generate sales reports that he got employee Susan to make for him simply by writing a prompt? Or that their chat bot running GPT-4 has been able to independently handle 30% of support tickets that humans used to have to handle, while never needing a sick day or time off?
The lie we're being sold is that AI is going to make us more productive, so we can achieve more in less time, freeing us up to do the things we enjoy in life. Lol, ok. If a company can now reduce its workforce by 10%, while increasing net productivity by 50%, why would they consider for a moment giving employees more free time when they can get rid of them and save money instead? If every business is doing the same thing, there is no incentive to offer employees better conditions because there is now a larger pool of job seekers looking for a reduced number of jobs.
We keep being told that new jobs always arise from automation, but no one can say what they will be this time. And this time, it's not going to be a slow rollout as it has been historically. One day soon, Microsoft will make Copilot for 365 available to anyone with a computer and internet connection. Of course, people won't be losing jobs on day 1, but it won't take long for employers to realise the immense benefits this brings in terms of productivity. Even if initially it's only leading to 10% increased productivity, across entire industries this will result in increased unemployment, even if it starts out as a small number.
So now lots of people are losing their jobs in a relatively short period of time, and the skills they have aren't in demand any more, and that demand continues to decline as GPT 5, 6, ..., n is released. What do these newly unemployed people do in the meantime? How do they survive in a world where the cost of living keeps getting higher and higher with no end in sight? How does that impact society, when more and more people are constantly stressed, out of work, and are struggling to pay their bills and put food on their table?
This is what terrifies me. There is no plan for this. The people in power don't even seem to be aware of the pace at which it will happen, let alone whether it will happen at all.
Our society needs to be reconsidered from the ground up. The ways of thinking from the past just aren't compatible with the rate of change we're going through now. Look at what's happening with education and ChatGPT. Artists and AI art. Programmers and Copilot. How long until trucks and Ubers are finally automated en masse?
It's clear that capitalism isn't going to continue working the way it has historically. One argument against that is that businesses need people to buy from them, and that is true. But when businesses are more and more productive thanks for AI, their expenses (human labour) are heavily reduced. So while their overall sales might decline because of increasing unemployment, their profit margins will still increase, resulting in less goods and services being produced while still making more money overall.
I read the posts and comments in this sub a lot, as well as other places, and based on the comments I read, I think that most people don't realise how suddenly these huge impacts on society are about to happen, which surprises me because people often highlight their amazement at how rapidly new AI models are emerging.
I'd love to know what you think.