Re:Sergey Brin warns of AI threats through a 'technology ren...
by legitster on Monday April 30, 2018 @09:32AM
(#16958418)
Very good point. But the reality that hiring just slowed down and banking became easier also isn't enough to convince me that automation was bad.
Re:Sergey Brin warns of AI threats through a 'technology ren...
by mcbits on Monday April 30, 2018 @11:10AM
(#16959195)
Incremental automation of any specific task isn't bad, especially if it can be introduced at a rate that's in line with the normal turnover/attrition for a job.
The doom-and-gloom scenario is when extremely adaptable and productive automation is deployed across many industries without time for the labor market to adapt, causing the world's population of 5-6 billion impoverished people to grow to 6-7 billion. Advancements in defense technology make it impossible for the masses to revolt and seize resources to revert to a pre-automation economy among themselves, so they die off.
A few hundred million shareholders and financiers enjoy their abundant luxury goods for a while, but they soon turn their robot armies against each other and also die off.
Counterpoint[0]:
> But US bank teller employment actually rose modestly from 500,000 to approximately 550,000 over the 30-year period from 1980 to 2010 (although given the growth in the labor force in this time interval, these numbers do imply that bank tellers declined as a share of overall US employment).
[0] http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/02/19/technological-unemploym...