IMF warns AI to hit almost 40% of jobs worldwide , nothing so see here, move along!!!!

I remember reading years ago that low skilled workers were going to suffer most from the coming AI wave. But now from what I read, its actually the higher paid tech workers than need to worry, and there certainly have been lots of layoffs in the tech world. I'm sure the robot is coming, and in a recent podcast I recall hearing that a general labour robot would soon be ready that would work for the equivalent of $5 per hour. This certainly would put warehouse jobs and such out of business.

Saying all this, I never understood how an economy needs to be more productive in order to grow. 100 years ago, there were many more farmers, and today, one farmer with specialized equipment can feed thousands of people. This of course freed up would-be farmers to go do other things, like build bombs to fight wars, etc., but this fast approaching wave of productivity increase will free up more workers, but I doubt there will be anything else for them to do.

If Tesla ever solves FSD, this clearly puts Uber drivers out of business. But will it not also put Tesla workers out of business? Why would people even choose to own a car if what used to cost $50 for an uber ride will now drop to $10, since the biggest expense, the driver, is gone. So on the one hand, Tesla will be a great robo taxi service, but I doubt they will be selling as many cars.

So an increase in productivity only benefits society if the benefits are shared equally. Will governments tax companies more and then distribute these taxes to citizens? If not, then there will be a lot of people with nothing to do, no income, and this should also feed back to lack of customers. Tesla might very well have a great robo-taxi service, but if nobody can afford a ride, and people buying less cars, will this actually kill their business?

Interesting times coming...
 
The fundamental assumption of capitalism is that human work has value. The question is whether this assumption will hold or break down this century. If the latter we can't go on with the way things used to work.
 
Read those reports with a pinch of salt.

Remember the chip crisis?
Just after the COVID-19 crisis,
there was a very huge shortage of semiconductor chips for cars, computers, AI, ....
There were hundreds of reports saying we needed hundreds of chip factories,
and demand would be very very strong for many many years.
What happened?
A few months later, the situation was back to normal.

MANAGEMENT BY FACT
As long as the report is not supported by
facts
numbers
data
charts,
treat the report as garbage.
 
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mikeriley said:
Hopefully the jobs at the IMF will be the first to go.
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AI won't create mass unemployment. Assuming your society has sufficient productive capacity, which the USA certainly does, jobs become political and social constructs more than economic ones. Back in the day a 'job' was 70 hours a week hammering steel on the factory floor under the eye of a foreman; now it's often 10-20 actual working hours of shuffling digital paperwork or sitting in Zoom meetings.
 
I don't think there is a clear grasp of what the impacts will be. Similar to the internet, smart phones, social media etc. 10 and 30 years later.
 
Specterx said:
AI won't create mass unemployment. Assuming your society has sufficient productive capacity, which the USA certainly does, jobs become political and social constructs more than economic ones. Back in the day a 'job' was 70 hours a week hammering steel on the factory floor under the eye of a foreman; now it's often 10-20 actual working hours of shuffling digital paperwork or sitting in Zoom meetings.
More...
Hey! I gotta do that laundrey in between that meetings, when else?
 
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