Bill Gates Thinks AI Taking Everyone’s Jobs Could Be a Good Thing

Megalith

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While AI could very well upend (or even replace) sizable portions of the human workforce, Bill Gates believes that the transition will allow for at least one benefit: more free time. The billionaire argues that robots will result in a more productive society, as AI is all about efficiency and getting things done quicker.

"There will be challenges because the rate of change will be faster in these next 20 years than it’s been before," Gates said. He concedes that the government will likely be forced to rework its social safety net programs, and help displaced workers retrain for the new economy, but if done right, it will be a net positive for everyone.
 
Cue the "we survived the industrial revolution, this is no different so everything will be fine even though I can't explain why" crowd.
 
The idea on the surface seems good.

However he highlighted at least 2 major problems indirectly and directly.

One was government reworking the safety net and doing it right. I don’t think currently we have government looking out for the people and their track record on doing things right isn’t stellar.

Indirectly the more free time and longer vacations. Sounds great but our society hasn’t rounded the corner to go socialist where money spread out among everyone. We are still very individual wealth oriented society. I also wouldn’t look for government to fix that correctly.

So maybe in his perfect society and in his rich neighborhood this works... but I doubt this works in my lifetime. To many bumps and road blocks.
 
While I can see the benefit, and would certainly love to work less, I don't see how this can work in a capitalist society.

We basically need to become Star Trek....
We need replicator technology before we even become close to that world. Too much social strife in this world also. People from different backgrounds will never put their differences aside and work to make the world better. Religion will see to that.
 
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Bunch of Naysayers! All of you!. We'll be living the Star Trek Utopia once the robots takeover. Free to do whatever want. Though I suspect our robot overlords will have other plans for us. Probably zap us with a new and improved Black Plague.
 
Bunch of Naysayers! All of you!. We'll be living the Star Trek Utopia once the robots takeover. Free to do whatever want. Though I suspect our robot overlords will have other plans for us. Probably zap us with a new and improved Black Plague.

Long live Captain Dunsel!
 
I think there will have to be a way to tax AI labor the way we tax human labor.

Yep. Naturally, the companies will complain about "taxes being too high" and move abroad. So we won't have the robot workforce nor what little jobs would exist in maintaining / configuring / troubleshooting them. Win win!

The countries I think that will handle it best are the ones who have programs to retrain their workforce (Denmark, Sweden). They also aren't controlled by corporate lobbyists, so they can force their corporations to play ball.
 
So long as this country continues to thrive on the "FUCK YOU, GOT MINE" mentality when it comes to income, food and shelter, Bill's argument has zero momentum.

The mentality of "FUCK YOU, GOT MINE" is about as baked into America's DNA as apple pie and the 2nd amendment.
 
If technology advances enough, humans won't need to work. We can use the free time to learn not to be backstabbers and think of shit for the AI to create.
 
If technology advances enough, humans won't need to work. We can use the free time to learn not to be backstabbers and think of shit for the AI to create.

As long as corporations run this country, it ain't happening. It's moving closer to being the backdrop for a movie such as Elysium at this point. Minus the robot drones and nanotech.
 
Eh... if this is really the case then everyone will have to find new things to do. It's pretty inevitable. Imagine a country outlawed AI doing jobs, but some foreign power decided to enact it. You couldn't compete with those foreign companies. Instead it would be a good idea to figure out ways for people to still be productive in a new environment.
 
Eh... if this is really the case then everyone will have to find new things to do. It's pretty inevitable. Imagine a country outlawed AI doing jobs, but some foreign power decided to enact it. You couldn't compete with those foreign companies. Instead it would be a good idea to figure out ways for people to still be productive in a new environment.

The thing is no one knows with any certainty what these new jobs would be or how fast even they would be replaced by AI. Secondly, developing countries that need jobs would probably act protectionist policies at home while trying to export as much AI labor as possible.

If AI becomes powerful enough it will rewrite human existence and 10th Century thinking will be useless.
 
Sorry, but the government really ISN'T supposed to be in the social engineering business.

And just about every time it's ever engaged in some sort of social safety net program, they've become huge, bloated, unworkable nightmares that WISH they could be something as harmless as cluster fucks.

More over, it places WAY (WAAAAAAAAY) too much power into the hands of the government.
It's really tough reign in a runaway government when they can hold your livelihood hostage.

Everything in me is screaming "NO! BAD! DUMB!" through a bullhorn roughly the size of the Arecibo antenna assembly.
 
Sorry, but the government really ISN'T supposed to be in the social engineering business.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This is government social engineering.
 
Sorry, but the government really ISN'T supposed to be in the social engineering business.

And just about every time it's ever engaged in some sort of social safety net program, they've become huge, bloated, unworkable nightmares that WISH they could be something as harmless as cluster fucks.

More over, it places WAY (WAAAAAAAAY) too much power into the hands of the government.
It's really tough reign in a runaway government when they can hold your livelihood hostage.

Everything in me is screaming "NO! BAD! DUMB!" through a bullhorn roughly the size of the Arecibo antenna assembly.
So the government shouldn't be involved, fine. What's your proposed alternative to a situation where there's not enough jobs to go around for everyone who needs one to survive?
 
Sorry, but the government really ISN'T supposed to be in the social engineering business.

And just about every time it's ever engaged in some sort of social safety net program, they've become huge, bloated, unworkable nightmares that WISH they could be something as harmless as cluster fucks.

More over, it places WAY (WAAAAAAAAY) too much power into the hands of the government.
It's really tough reign in a runaway government when they can hold your livelihood hostage.

Everything in me is screaming "NO! BAD! DUMB!" through a bullhorn roughly the size of the Arecibo antenna assembly.
Who should be in the social engineering business if not the government? As opposed it is real easy to rein in companies when they hold your livelhood hostage? Give me a break.
 
Who should be in the social engineering business if not the government? As opposed it is real easy to rein in companies when they hold your livelhood hostage? Give me a break.
no one, or frankly, the people/society. Government is supposed to represent the will of the people, but more often or not it represents the elites that rule the people.
 
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And yes, Bill is right this time. Automation reduces the need for human labor, and increases productivity. So we should be able to meet needs and wants without everyone working. But there will always be some job that needs doing manually. But we can divide it up among the remaining people. So some people will still work, but perhaps only 4 hours a week. And they won't do it to have a living, but for ambition and recognition.

Automation can be a good thing, as it can free up people to pursue their hobbies and dreams instead of pursuing a menial job they hate. But we must accommodate this change. It cannot happen without some form of social engineering.
 
no one, or frankly, the people/society. Government is supposed to represent the will of the people, but more often or not it represents the elites that rule the people.
People's rule is anarchy. Most of the time people don't know what they want, and they don't have the necessary education to decide policy and engineer their own lives let alone the entire community.

Capitalism and the current tax system is already a form of social engineering. But it needs updating to be relevant to the current state of technology. Introducing universal basic income and reducing the mandatory work hours wouldn't mean the end of the world as we know it. It's the only solution I can think of, but if you have better ideas how to counter technological unemployment let's hear it.
 
I am all for the Star Trek. What's not to like about having all these opportunities
 
So the government shouldn't be involved, fine. What's your proposed alternative to a situation where there's not enough jobs to go around for everyone who needs one to survive?


Do you want the NICE answer? Or do you want the HONEST answer?

Warning. Nobody EVER wants the HONEST answer. And if they say they do, they're still secretly hoping for the NICE one.
 
Who should be in the social engineering business if not the government? As opposed it is real easy to rein in companies when they hold your livelhood hostage? Give me a break.


No, I'm talking about social programs, healthcare, welfare, etc.

Every time they start involving themselves, we wind up with atrocities like the VA, The "Affordable" Care Act, Social Security...need I go on?
 
People's rule is anarchy.

Incorrect. It's mob rule. It's a giant popularity contest.

In an anarchy, everyone just goes off and does their own thing. Simple lack of a centralized controlling body.

Of course, the second someone else imposes their will on someone else, you no longer have anarchy.
 
And yes, Bill is right this time. Automation reduces the need for human labor, and increases productivity. So we should be able to meet needs and wants without everyone working. But there will always be some job that needs doing manually. But we can divide it up among the remaining people. So some people will still work, but perhaps only 4 hours a week. And they won't do it to have a living, but for ambition and recognition.

Automation can be a good thing, as it can free up people to pursue their hobbies and dreams instead of pursuing a menial job they hate. But we must accommodate this change. It cannot happen without some form of social engineering.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is only going to continue a "Race to the bottom" regarding wages.

If there isn't some variety of retraining actively being made available for these to-be-displaced workers, it's going to be another chapter similar to all of those folks who lost their steel mill/coal mining jobs....Except this time I think companies are going to have a MUCH tougher time using the age-old excuse, (excuse changing the tangent here a bit)

"Sorry, we have to be competitive, so therefore you need to surrender your benefits and take a paycut. YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY TO BE WORKING. Oh, and don't blame us, blame the (insert any foreign country being used as the boogeyman here) instead."

What can be said, is that if there's no plan to give people a chance, I fear for the consequences possible.
 
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