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I think he's correct and don't have anything major to quibble with.
It makes sense for unions to fight for higher pay, but they are up against the inexorable forces of technology, automation, and profit maximization.
And one thing I'll add: profit maximization is NOT a symptom of capitalism. Even in communist countries people will seek to maximize profit. They just operate in a different organizational environment, is all.
I predict the first order effect is that economic inequality will get worse. Instead of hiring one supervisor and 10 artists, you now hire one supervisor and one AI to produce the same amount of outputs.. Naturally the supervisor will accrue the gains, but the 10 former artists are out of a job or have to take lower pay.
Of course, there will always be adjustments. These people whose jobs are no longer needed--what will they do, where will they go? Jobs resistant to automation, like personal care, are likely to see an influx of workers, perhaps lowering the wages. There will likely be pressure to unionize those jobs to protect incumbents from the influx of workers, or to put up stringent licensing requirements (again, to protect from influx of new workers).
There will be a lot of bumps in the road. Product quality might suffer early when AI is not able to perfectly replace human workers. But probably the kinks will get worked out over time, or people will just get used to the new reality of lower cost but crappier products, like we always do.
Finally, the speed of the transformation will depend on interest rates. Lower rates will result in bigger gambles in AI and speed the transition.
interesting, i wonder if we’ll see the “artists” you speak of transition to creating things that AI cannot (or returning to physical sculptures, oil paintings, or some other art form).
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Probably some will, but not all. So the net effect will probably be a reduction in the number of artists, or others whose jobs can be replaced by AI.
But it also makes you wonder whether there will be a consumer side reaction. Will people seek after products that are still made mostly by humans? Will it be like a luxury good to do so? Will we even be able to tell?
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