[cors-fls]

The comparison only starts to make sense in a post-work society where there is no working-class, whose existence depends on working.

Unfortunately these companies are working to eliminate jobs, but not in any way making a path for a transition to a post-work society.

[stevefan1999]

They are not eliminating job, you still have jobs in 1984 which is where we are heading to. You still need to hire someone to do the mass surveillance and policing, and enforcing the laws that are getting more and more draconian day by day. And you still need people to instigate-cough-motivate hate on something in order to keep the momentum of the society to shift the focus. Those still took labor but AI makes it easier.

We are indeed entering a post-job-scarity environment though. You see a lot of ghost posting and lack of response for years now, 6 out of 10 application is ghosted, 2 out of 10 said no, and just a few remaining. Jobs are getting rarer and are going to be more of a status rather than for breadwinning

[uncletaco]

It really sucks that everyone’s go to dystopia is 1984. Especially in this case given 1984 required the active participation of millions of citizens whereas Brave New World maps better where control is enforced through comfort and irrelevance instead of force.

The tech dystopia doesn’t even try to flatter us by assuming we’re important enough to oppress individually.

[Someone]

> You still need to hire someone to do the mass surveillance and policing

Someone, yes, but not millions, maybe not even thousands anymore.

The Stasi needed 1 in 40 of the working population as informers (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/lessons-from-...), but large parts of surveillance can be automated now.

For policing, you may not need that much, either. To put out smaller fires, you only need local superiority in numbers. That can be achieved by having a small force that can be rapidly deployed.

For large uprisings, you can use drones. You’ll want to avoid that, though because that isn’t guaranteed to keep you in power.

[iberator]

This!

AI is taking jobs faster than making new ones!

No field is safe and trying to switch careers over 40 is almost impossible. Even flipping burgers is nearly impossible (very hard to do without pior experience at such age).

[anonzzzies]

Over 40 at least you are almost halfway. Definitely you can switch, if you are a half decent thinker, most things are possible; I am sure you can become an electrician and that, at least where I live, makes very good money. Plumbers you cannot find if you are keedeep in your own poop here. In my home country my old classmates (I have an electrician degree but became a software engineer) are making more than most programmers being electricians. Not sure what is wrong with someone who cannot flip burgers after 40.

[squidbeak]

The elimination of jobs necessarily 'makes a path' to a post-work society. Post-work couldn't exist without it. Beyond that, it isn't in AI companies' power to shape economies and societies for post-work (which is what I assume you're really getting at here). All Altman, Amodei, Hassabis and the others can do is alert policymakers to what's coming, and they're trying pretty hard to do that, aren't they? - often in the teeth of the skepticism we see so much of on this site. Really if policy makers won't look ahead, the AI companies can't be blamed for the bumps we're going hit.

[jplusequalt]

>they're trying pretty hard to do that, aren't they

How so? Throwing out the term "UBI" every once in a while doesn't miraculously make it economically viable.

[ahf8Aithaex7Nai]

Yes, these people are publicly warning about the risks of AI. Altman is promoting regulation that clearly favors OpenAI. This is called regulatory capture. It aims to strengthen one's own position. Furthermore, the claim that these companies cannot shape economies is simply false. They decide how quickly they deploy, which industries they automate, whether they cooperate with unions, etc. These are all decisions that shape the economy.

Widespread job losses as a path to post-work are about as plausible as a car accident as a path to bringing a vehicle to a standstill. You would have to be from another planet (or a sociopath) not to understand that this violates boundary conditions that we implicitly want to leave intact.

[squeefers]

post-work? is this from the same lot who cant work-from-office because theyd have a nervous breakdown? who exactly pays for my existence in this world where i dont have to work?

[UltraSane]

They ARE, just the post-work society is limited to the people who own the AIs

[squeefers]

post-work in that sense is as old as civilization. there is no post-work without some kind of dominating your fellow man