Normally, you’d be loathe to find me agreeing with anything Bill Gates has to say outside of operating system software development.
But his recent comments about AI are probably accurate – and that means the right needs to come up with answers. ASAP.
While ChatGPT and Grok are impressive insofar as their current designs, the technology is – allegedly – rapidly advancing.
Hell, Elon Musk recently said that we are on the event horizon of the singularity.
What Gates recently said on The Tonight Show of all places, is basically this: AI is going to put most of us out of business, so to speak. Specifically, he gave the example of doctors and teachers.
While there is some truth to the economic argument that there’s really no such thing as a shortage of demand for labor, the basic argument doesn’t take into account the fact that the American education system pumps out kids who can’t even read – forget advanced or futuristic training on the types of jobs that will be left over when machines are doing all the thinking.
Even if you disagree, just run with the thought experiment for a bit. Even if the libertarians are right, there is at least going to be a very rough transition period – for the last Boomers, for Gen X, and for Millennials. So what do we do with all these people?
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There are many options, but most break down into a few generalized categories:
We can do nothing, and just have swaths of millions of unemployed and unemployable people. How are they going to earn a living?
Some states will certainly go for training programs – I think we’ll see more instances of the “the Triangle” in North Carolina popping up as states look to stay competitive. But states, at least during the transition period, aren’t going to be able to provide the welfare for millions of indigent citizens. It’s just not in their budgets, and their budgets aren’t structured for anything like mass unemployment.
Do we look at a national Universal Basic Income, which has been bandied about by many on the left? The very notion is antithetical to the great majority of Americans – especially the kind of people who are like to be needing it.
Do we put those people to work on all the infrastructure projects we have desperately needed for decades, ala FDR?
Most of the typical prescriptions are going to be like kryptonite to half the country.
How many choices do we really have? Obviously this is not a deep or academic dive into the topic, but I want to hear from you.
Let’s hear it. Share your ideas in the comments below.