Will AI Deliver the Worst of Both Worlds?

July 11, 2023

by Charles Hugh Smith Of Two Minds

So what happens if AI destroys both profits (due to it being “free” and a freely distributed commodity) and jobs?

Setting aside sensationalist dystopian fears of AI taking over our Spaceship (“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the famous line from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey), let’s focus on two more realistic possibilities:

1. Per my blog post What If AI Is Only a Cost and Not a Profit Bonanza?, AI is already a commodity and therefore there is no way to establish enduring profits as competitors have the same tools, much less grow high-profit trillion-dollar monopolies such as Google, Apple or Microsoft based on commoditized AI.

2. AI eliminates jobs which are not replaced by a massive wave of new jobs, a process known as technological job displacement (the elimination of jobs when human workers are replaced by technology).