Meet on the ground floor of QNC, on or near the gray slab benches at 7:20ish, and a regular will let everyone into a room in IQC for 7:30 pm. You can see the precise location on plus.codes. The benches are near the Ring Road entrance, and across the hall from an orange-tinted lab space.
As always, vegetarian snacks will be provided.
Activity
This week we will be discussing the impact AI is having on jobs. We’ll read some posts debating how much automation has already begun, which sectors are predicted to be the most impacted, and what the consequences will be. We’ll discuss how we think this will all play out, what we should do about it, and how AI is currently affecting our own jobs and career path.
Historically when jobs are lost, the ones that replace them are further on the knowledge work spectrum. Do you think this will happen again, or will they be closer to manual labour?
How many new jobs do you think will replace those that are lost to automation? Will they be more or less desirable?
AI has the ability to extend expertise to more workers, could this rebuild the middle class and actually reduce inequality? Or will the gains be concentrated in the upper class?
Overall productivity will rise with automation, do you think it could rise so much that it offsets the potential negative effects of societal destabilization and increasing inequality?
How often do you use AI at your job? When do you think it will fully replace you?
If you were graduating high school now, would you still pick your current career path?
There is a distinction between AI “automating” vs. “augmenting” work and this may determine whether a job is destroyed or upgraded. For your own work, is AI currently automating your tasks or augmenting them?
If large numbers of jobs are displaced, what should the response be? UBI, retraining, work-sharing, taxing automation, something else? Which of these do you actually find plausible, and which are just comforting to say?
A lot of people derive identity, structure, and status from work. Even if AI abundance solved the income problem, would a world with far less human work be a good one? What would replace what work provides?
Meet on the ground floor of QNC, on or near the gray slab benches at 7:20ish, and a regular will let everyone into a room in IQC for 7:30 pm. You can see the precise location on plus.codes. The benches are near the Ring Road entrance, and across the hall from an orange-tinted lab space.
As always, vegetarian snacks will be provided.
Activity
This week we will be discussing the impact AI is having on jobs. We’ll read some posts debating how much automation has already begun, which sectors are predicted to be the most impacted, and what the consequences will be. We’ll discuss how we think this will all play out, what we should do about it, and how AI is currently affecting our own jobs and career path.
Readings
Supplemental Readings
Discussion Questions
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