No, AI Won’t Lead to Mass Unemployment
New technology will lead to new wealth and opportunities
I recently had the pleasure to attend a debate between Martin Ford (author of Rise of the Robots) and Antony Sammeroff (UBI: For and Against) on the topic of automation and joblessness that has been hounding the AI community for the past decade. The public debate has only picked up in the past year as Andrew Yang has come onto the scene with his signature UBI proposal, billed as a response to the looming threat of permanent, technological unemployment through automation.
Many of the proponents of the economic apocalypse view, however, are sorely mistaken and repeatedly make similar errors. AI — as well as the most powerful technologies — will lead to changes in the job market and potentially painful disruptions for some. These changes will not lead to disaster, but will eventually bring greater prosperity to the vast majority of people.
First, let’s focus on the mistakes made by Ford, Yang, and others.
The Wrong Metric
Each of these thinkers focuses on the wrong metric, namely: jobs.
“Jobs” become the focus as if they are the summum bonum of economic prosperity. This misses the point because we don’t work for the sake of work, rather we work in…
