With so much AI buzz in the air these days, there are many sensationalist claims about the effect of the technology on the job market.
One prevailing narrative – and perhaps the driving financial incentive behind AI – is that AI is set to automate everyone’s jobs, or at least a large portion of them. Whether this is for better or worse is another question, as scholars have observed that mass unemployment combined with monopoly capitalism is not exactly a recipe for utopia.
Still, more optimistic voices – those of technology CEOs, investors, and other market players – argue that AI automation will usher in an era of unimaginable prosperity for humanity.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, for example, seems to think that AI productivity gains will completely change everyone’s relationship to work in the near future. However, unlike some of his fellow tech billionaires, Huang says AI will leave everyone with more work than ever before.
At the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington DC this week, Huang said that “everyone’s jobs will be different” as AI ushers in a wave of new business concepts and projects. “If your life becomes more productive and if the things you are doing with great difficulty become simpler, it is very likely that because you have so many ideas you will have more time to pursue things,” suggested the CEO.
As an example, Huang pointed to radiologists, who he says are now “more efficient” workers thanks to AI, processing more scans than ever before. (In reality, increased workloads are likely the result of a major shortage of trained radiologists in the United States, the kind of crisis that private AI companies hope will bring huge profits.)
This conference was also attended by Tesla and the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, who with his characteristic spirit suggested that work will be optional in the future, like sports or computer games are today. “If you want to work, you know, the same way, you can go to the store and just buy some vegetables or you can grow vegetables in your backyard,” Musk explained.
“I’d say there’s every evidence that we’re going to be more productive and we’re going to be busier anyway because we have a lot of ideas,” Huang replied. “I think Elon will be more busy as a result of AI. I will be more busy as a result of AI.”
It remains to be seen whether the mogul’s vision will see reality, but one thing is certain: with their immense wealth, they will be fine even if the lives of ordinary people are thrown into chaos.
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