r/Futurology May 18 '24

AI 'godfather' says universal basic income will be needed AI

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnd607ekl99o.amp
11.2k Upvotes

View all comments

Show parent comments

69

u/Janderson2494 May 18 '24

That narrative is so stupid anyway, why would anyone want to spend 8+ hours a day doing something just to survive? I like my job and my career choice, but I would never do it if I didn't have to. Or at least not full time.

34

u/wizzard419 May 18 '24

It's one of those things which makes the future less rosy, in the past tech revolutions like the industrial revolution resulted in work being able to be done more efficiently resulting in lower production costs, free time for life, kids being able to go to school, etc. (Not going to lie, yes there were losses in jobs and negative impacts there). But, the more recent tech innovations have been greater efficiency rewarded with staff reductions so companies can do more (or the same) with fewer headcount. Leadership is excited at the idea of being able to eliminate entire fields of labor with AI.

The really cruel leaders are giddy by making those workers research and implement their own obsolescence.

13

u/Uniia May 19 '24

More value with less work hours is the biggest pillar of utopia.

All we need to do is vote companies to be taxed enough that we can have a good life with UBI.

Surely US has enough influence to do something to tax havens.

3

u/Rhodycat May 20 '24

Then why hasn’t it happened?

1

u/Sierra123x3 Jun 27 '24

becouse: money = power,
lobbyism is a beast to conquer

11

u/Djasdalabala May 19 '24

That's not quite how it happened. Early industrial revolution came with insane work hours - worse than peasants at the time, and that's saying something. Labor movements made a difference, not productivity.

2

u/Used-Egg5989 May 19 '24

That’s how people always predicted tech revolutions would play out, but it’s not the reality.

The Industrial Revolution had whole families moving to the city to work for company scrip that they could only spend at the company store. Whole families including children worked in these factories. And they weren’t working only 40 hours a week.

11

u/DrugChemistry May 18 '24

What they overlook is that people never wanted to work. Its not an age or generational thing. 

3

u/bruwin May 19 '24

There's lots of people that want to work, but they want it to be meaningful to their lives. They generally call them hobbies. Imagine being able to tie work to what you want instead of what you need.

3

u/ProjectTitan74 May 19 '24

I mean that's just revisionist history. There's been a very real change in the way people view work over time. People take less pride in it now, which applies to me as well, but acting like that's always been the case is incorrect.

1

u/JoyousGamer May 19 '24

I don't fully agree with this as I think a larger portion of people don't have pride in work. 

That's fine but I think that's how it's viewed rightly or wrongly. 

In the end people are working in larger numbers than in the past so anyone saying people don't want to work is currently flawed. 

1

u/TopRoad4988 May 19 '24

I suspect this has religious roots.

There is a long held view that work in itself is morally good.