Michael Ramirez for September 04, 2023

If AI is taking over jobs, the republican party will be around a long time. Everyone knows that republicans can’t think for themselves!

It is going to happen. And the results will be… all over the board in terms of how well it (doesn’t) work. There are two main ways it can eventually fall out, if I’m foreseeing clearly (what are the odds of THAT?):

We can go the RThuglican route where the rich harvest the income from the AI “workers” and the rest of us descend into some kind of alternate economy (probably not legal) and barter for everything because nobody has money. The key word will be “subsistence” and life’ll be brutish, painful and short.

Or we can go the socialist (gasp) route in which everybody gets a more or less equal stipend kinda like a negative income tax. You can get more by finding a way to compete with AIs (and other people)… or you can do what retirees do: Volunteer. Follow a dream. Take up a meaningful (to you) hobby. The key words will be “self actualization” and life will be strangely civilized, joyful and possibly long enough.

Can AI dig a hole or hold a spanner?

AI is BS!

It happens. Just ask the blacksmith and cooper that used to work in my town. Stay adaptable and move on. Dinosaurs weren’t and look what happened to them.

People being hyperbolic about ai

Literally only jobs that are getting replaced are ones that use manual labour

The Republican Party, in contrast, has wholeheartedly embraced OI (Organic Ignorance)

What actually should be replaced by AI are judges and juries. That would bring in consistency in discovery and sentencing and do away with the two tier system which incarcerates poor people and privileges orange baboons.

Don’t forget, Ramirez, AI can easily invent and draw pre-programmed right-wing hatred just like you do,

It will be hard to tell the difference as bureaucrats are robotic and can’t be reasoned with.

Key word:ar·ti·fi·cial/ˌärdəˈfiSH(ə)l/ or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.“her skin glowed in the artificial light”2.(of a person or their behavior) insincere or affected.“an artificial smile”Similar:feignedinsincerefalseaffectedmanneredunnaturalstilted

Oh no Michael, what will you do now?

The GOP is close to realizing a dream in place since 1980: one-party rule.

So,pack up yer $h|t and get outta here!

Given the help you get from the UI counter, it might be an improvement. Still, it a sign of the times, self checkouts.. automated phone systems.. self serve gas stations. If the bean counters can eliminate a job with a replacement they can write off as a tax expense.. they will.

At least with AI we might find less hold time on the phone and converse with something that speaks understandable English.

Artificial Intelligence is not intelligent. It’s just faster and has access to a huge database. It doesn’t think, it guesses based on millions of trial and error guesses. It’s not conscious. It’s not taking over the world.

In a perfect world AI would do those menial, soul killing jobs that people do, but hate (think DMV or tax preparation). They do those jobs better than people because unlike people, AI has no soul to kill. The problem is that we can’t envision a world without the need to work. We can’t see a world where we’re not working to survive and make some dude a rich man.

Yep, just like 30 some years ago when computers took over for handwritten applications for unemployment that were reviewed and approved by another person, now long gone to another job. Newspaper ads for finding a job while unemployed. Dropping off job search report at the unemployment office every two weeks. Calling in to qualify for unemployment. Or like some 150 yeas ago when we used animals for transportation taking weeks or months to destination. Or some 100 years ago when we took to air, or 60 some years ago when we took hours to go half way around the world. Some people can’t stand progress.

About 85% of job loss, historically, has been to advancing technology. This is nothing new.

That advancing technology was supposed to bring us a life of ease and luxury. But since we measure a person’s worth by the amount of work they do—instead of the value to society they generate—low-skill workers are at a continuous risk of being replaced by technology. (Along with off-shoring and trade.)

So, what is to be done? Two things. First, we need to build as many bridges as possible for people to “skill up.” Not everyone will do that, of course, but the days of trading loyalty and back-breaking, low-skill labor for a middle-class life are over.

Second, we need to seriously re-examine how wealth is shared in this country. It’s pretty unfair to tell people they have to work hard to earn their keep, then to not give them the opportunities to do so.

Or, we could just keep on the same path, with the rich getting even more rich and the rest of society being shut out.

No matter what we do or do not do, technology is going to continue to advance. Trying to save jobs by holding it back is pointless and futile. Just ask the milkman, elevator operator, town crier, stock boy, paper boy, gas station attendant, traffic cop….

Ramirez doesn’t have to worry about AI eliminating his job. The hedge funds and other corporate owners are doing that without using intelligence of any variety.

A corporation’s ONLY responsibility is to make as much money as possible, after all.

And this is a bad thing, why?