At some point AI becomes powerful enough that it’s no longer economical to employ humans. That’s important, but it’s also something like the next phase after the phase we’re entering with AI.
The phase we’re entering now is one where AI will automate and transform work in ways that make humans more productive. It’s a bit unclear how long this period will last. My guess is between 15 and 30 years, because it’ll take about that long for us to grow the economy enough to be able to afford to build AI powerful enough to fully replace humans. This is an often overlooked concern: we don’t build AI just because we can, but because it’s economical to. We’ve seen similar patterns during industrialization: we don’t build a factory or automate something until it becomes cheaper than just paying a human to do it in a bespoke way.
So eventually, yes, AI eats everything, but there’s likely enough years before that when we’ll have to live through a world thoroughly transformed by AIs working with humans as productivity multipliers.
At some point AI becomes powerful enough that it’s no longer economical to employ humans. That’s important, but it’s also something like the next phase after the phase we’re entering with AI.
The phase we’re entering now is one where AI will automate and transform work in ways that make humans more productive. It’s a bit unclear how long this period will last. My guess is between 15 and 30 years, because it’ll take about that long for us to grow the economy enough to be able to afford to build AI powerful enough to fully replace humans. This is an often overlooked concern: we don’t build AI just because we can, but because it’s economical to. We’ve seen similar patterns during industrialization: we don’t build a factory or automate something until it becomes cheaper than just paying a human to do it in a bespoke way.
So eventually, yes, AI eats everything, but there’s likely enough years before that when we’ll have to live through a world thoroughly transformed by AIs working with humans as productivity multipliers.