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Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by nine_k on Saturday May 16, 2026 @05:10PM (#48163841)
Driving a car is a chore, not a job (usually), much like washing dishes is. Dishwashers did not produce an economic collapse.

OTOH replacing people with AI would indeed bring about a huge economic downturn. What would be good is augmenting humans so that they can do 10x more. That would enable things that are hard to imagine exactly now, much like computers enabled interesting transformations in the society from 1980s to 2010s.

The current crop of AI is by construction unable to reach the human level of cognition, but it is quite good at doing some symbolic manipulation tasks. We will get used to that, and will integrate that in our workflows. Humans are still going to be needed.

Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by bobthepanda on Saturday May 16, 2026 @05:22PM (#48163936)
Tractor-trailer trucking alone is the 13th largest profession in the US. It’s not unusual for driving to be a whole profession in and of itself.
Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by nine_k on Sunday May 17, 2026 @01:12PM (#48170827)
Fair, but I spoke about cars, the commute / chore kind of work, not trucks, a commercial job.
Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by alluro2 on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:07PM (#48164581)
And do you feel that the industry in general, and individual companies are currently trying to augment / 10x their workers and have everyone share in the 10x profits that will bring? Or are they jumping on opportunity to try and cut costs by even single digits, by replacing those workers with AI and it's not their problem what those people do from there?
Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by nine_k on Sunday May 17, 2026 @01:14PM (#48170857)
If an employee brings in more profit than before, you want more such employees, not less.

You have to cut costs when the costs do not bring you enough profits.

Re:I believe there are entire companies right now under AI p... by bobthepanda on Sunday May 17, 2026 @07:21PM (#48174040)
That assumes the market is infinitely expandable.

If in fact you can meet the same market demand with fewer workers and the market does not expand accordingly, you get deflation and job losses.