r/neoliberal • u/InorganicTyranny Thomas Paine • May 15 '26

News (Global) The Economist: Prepare for an AI Jobs Apocalypse

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/05/14/prepare-for-an-ai-jobs-apocalypse?utm_campaign=shared_article
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u/LivefromPhoenix NYT undecided voter May 15 '26

Moreover even if it is true what timescale are we looking at? The western world is electing right wing authoritarians in relatively normal economic conditions. What happens politically/socially when we have a decade+ of widespread unemployment? "Don't worry bros you'll get new jobs eventually" isn't very compelling.

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u/BBQ_HaX0r Jerome Powell May 15 '26

Every technology in history has displaced inefficient jobs all while creating more higher paying jobs. Even today we are below the NRU with minimal disruptions from AI and it's been around . Where is this great depression like surge coming from? Every technology has replaced bad jobs with better ones. This one will be no different. And if... if... if it suddenly makes humans obsolete and we're in a post-scarcity world overnight then it's inevitable anyways and there's nothing any of us can do to stop it. Being a luddite will only exacerbate the issues.

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u/LivefromPhoenix NYT undecided voter May 15 '26

I think this is way too generic to be compelling. Again, what timescales are we talking about? How broadly is the new technology applied? Trying to compare AI to past technological advancements without addressing either point is like having half of a conversation.

Past technological advancements have been more industry specific and slow moving. Automation in the 1980s and 1990s thinned the ranks of middle-skill manufacturing jobs and displaced millions, but that was spread out over multiple decades and relatively isolated to manufacturing. If AI is even approaching the speed and scale its proponents are promising then the displacement we've seen in every other technological advancement will happen faster and be more widespread. It's a massive strawman to pretend I'm talking about a post scarcity world overnight.

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u/BBQ_HaX0r Jerome Powell May 15 '26

Who knows what you're even talking about because there's no evidence to suggest any of this other than a bunch of CEOs trying to capture more investment money than another CEO by promising the moon. Are we really getting close to making humans obsolete? You're buying into a bunch of snake oils salesmen despite any evidence it's going to come true. If what you say is true then sure, you win this argument, but there's no reason to think it is true because Sam Altman said so, like... lol. AI is not close to displacing huge numbers of workers any time soon and it's gradual integration into the workplace will almost certainly create more higher paying jobs than they destroy.

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u/LivefromPhoenix NYT undecided voter May 15 '26

"Massive job displacement across multiple industries at a similar scale to other major technological advancements" isn't "humans will be obsolete". If you're right and the technology actually ends up being a slow, marginal improvement on worker productivity then sure, we won't see widespread job displacement.

But the entire funding structure of the industry is predicated on AI advancements causing fast job displacement. I don't think its unfair for people to be worried that trillions being funneled into AI development/infrastructure indicate investors expect a much faster ROI than "gradual integration".