Why A.I. will create more jobs, happier people, and a better world
Economists struggle to explain why artificial intelligence will not kill all of the jobs. They are right, but the arguments they often make do not get through to non-economists. This is largely because of the premises they use; a simple thought experiment can drive the point home much more easily.
Imagine a future in which AI, robots, and automation have replaced every single job. No more janitors, and also no more actors. Everything, even novels and artwork and teaching, is done automatically, without humans at all.
In this imaginary future, I own a factory that makes rubber boots. Because everything’s automated, I get all of the profits from my boot factory without giving it to my employees. And everything I consume can be made by robots. But I will want more.
Take books as an example. I can read a book on, say, the history of beer, that is expertly written by an A.I. that gives me all of the information about beermaking and beer consumption in history. That A.I. is so good that it makes the book fun, interesting, and all around enjoyable.
This will satisfy a large portion, say 90%, of what I wanted when I bought the book on the history of beer. But it lacks that 10% — namely, a human interaction.
So I will pay a premium for a book that is written by a human about the history of beer. That person maybe owns a beer factory where all the beer is made by machines, so they know more about beer than me, a rubber boot factory owner.
So there is still a market for human work — but it has become an optional, extra, added value product, much like how we pay extra for handmade products than machine made products.
But this won’t be limited to books. Someone who enjoys beer will want to drink a beer made by humans to get that extra bit of human connection, and they will pay a premium for it. The beermaker may pay a premium human-made rubber boots, since rubber boots are important in breweries. In all of these cases people are paying not just for the end product, but for the human connection they feel when buying and consuming that product.
Thus we have an economy where human-made products are given a surplus value, which in turn creates a market and demand for human jobs.
The A.I.-will-kill-jobs arguer will object here, saying that such an economy will have a much smaller amount of jobs. This is not necessarily the case. Rather, because technology makes production cheaper and more efficient, there will be greater profits to those who own the means of production, which provides greater expendable income. That, in turn, allows people to spend more money on premium products and less on cheap alternatives. Since human connection is a premium value-add in products, automation will drive greater demand for these new types of human-touch-jobs.
Of course, some jobs will disappear. Unless you are a psychopath, you probably do not enjoy seeing people dig ditches or produce actuarial tables. Jobs that are dirty, hard, or boring will disappear, thus making humanity on the whole happier and the world more productive. It will also free up people from those jobs to pursue other more creative and fun types of work.
We are already seeing this with things like Patreon and social media. A generation ago, the idea of people willingly paying money for audio programs that they could get for free would have seemed ludicrous, but people do it out of a desire to support content creators. People will tip other people on social media platforms even if the people being tipped are total strangers.
The values that this new economy will have will be very different. Instead of having endurance, being obsequious, or tolerating long work hours, charisma, physical beauty, and unique or unusual abilities will become more valuable. Intelligence will continue to pay a premium, fortunately, so humanity will still progress.
And so, do not be fooled by luddites; the A.I. revolution is not going to create an underclass of unemployed miserable people. It is going to create a world where people choose their work and choose work that is fun, enjoyable, and that other people truly value. This, it should be noted, is close to the utopian future that Karl Marx predicted:
“For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”
A.I. will make it possible for you to be a rubber boots factory owner in the morning, a beermaker in the afternoon, and a podcaster in the evening. This is something that should be celebrated by everyone, regardless of political or ideological position.
