If we project the logical trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI) it seems unavoidable that it must eventually be owned by all of us together as a national society. It simply doesn’t “work” for this particular technology to be privately owned by a few high-tech corporations whose sole mission is to generate financial profits. It doesn’t “work” in the same way it doesn’t work to lift yourself off the ground by pulling on your ears: It defies the force of economic gravity which says quite simply (and it’s embarrassing to state a truism as if it were an insight):
In a consumer-driven economy, a business can only make a profit manufacturing goods and services if there are CUSTOMERS willing and able to purchase those goods and services. And the existence of those customers depends on the existence of employment positions enabling them to earn the dollars necessary to BE customers.
This seems astonishingly simple, so it is even more astonishing that a major player in America’s market economy has a business model to eliminate customers! And even more jaw-dropping to watch America’s national leaders and lawmakers line up in breathless excitement to help make it happen.
If indeed (as the AI industry itself is now beginning to acknowledge) some very large portion of the employment positions in our economy—physical labor, mental calculation, technical analysis, strategic decision-making, creative problem-solving, aesthetic invention—are now to be assigned to robotic intelligence agents, then some very large portion of OURSELVES will suddenly have no income. And if—for lack of wage-earning employment—some very large portion of all of us together are unable to buy things, well…the consumer-driven economy will collapse!
How could it not collapse? Even the AIbots, working away to produce all the goods and services that used to be provided by us—even the AIbots will eventually be out of jobs because there will not be enough wage-and-salary-earning customers left to buy the goods and services the AIbots produce. And if the AIbots are out of jobs, then….
Wait a minute! Has anyone seriously thought this through? Or are we just charging ahead on faith that despite this calculus everything will work itself out—as it always has with previous technological innovations?
I could start a list of all the employment positions that AI is poised to replace (beginning with, according to the CEO of the AI company Anthropic, 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs by the end of this decade). But that list quickly grows to such incredible lengths it seems easier—and more interesting, actually—to make a list of the things AI cannot do better (and more profitably) than a human being. Here goes:
AI cannot play human sports, like football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc.
AI cannot give pedicures and manicures.
AI cannot be trusted to give haircuts.
AI cannot....
Hmmm… I’m already stuck! Everything else that comes to mind that human beings might find employment doing already can be, or will be accomplishable by an AIbot—including the making of this list! An AI savvy friend did me the favor of confirming this by putting the question to Chat GPT itself. Here is the list of things Mr. “Chat” came up with that AI cannot do:
Jobs Requiring Deep Human Judgment & Ethics
Therapist / Psychologist / Counselor
Ethicist / Moral Philosopher
Judge / Juror
Mediator / Conflict Resolution Specialist
Creative & Artistic Professions (Human-Centered)
Novelist / Poet at the highest level—(AI can handle romance and pulp fiction)
Fine Artist / Conceptual Artist—(AI can handle ad layouts and jingles)
Stand-up Comedian / Satirist
Art Critic / Cultural Commentator
Jobs Needing Physical Dexterity & Social Intelligence
Nurse / Caregiver for Elderly or Disabled
Early Childhood Educator / Preschool Teacher
Host / MC / Spiritual Leader / Priest / Pastor
Skilled trades (e.g. Plumber, Electrician, Carpenter)
Jobs Relying on Trust, Leadership, and Vision
CEO / Entrepreneur (Visionary Leader)
Diplomat / International Negotiator
Social Worker / Community Organizer
Fields Needing Intuition & Discovery
Theoretical Physicist / Mathematician (at the edge of knowledge)
Inventor / Innovator
Jobs With Legal or Moral Responsibility
Military Commander (High-Level Strategic)
Child Protective Services Investigator
Whistle-blower / Investigative Journalist
Other Areas Where Humans Remain Essential
Death Doula / Hospice Worker
Philosopher / Existential Thinker
Cultural Healer / Traditional Medicine Practitioner
What AI graciously grants to us humans, then, is the opportunity to earn our livings as professional football players, manicurists, psychiatrists, barbers, moral philosophers, judges, Picassos and Tolstoys, priests and spiritual leaders, stand-up comics, art critics, ballerinas, CEOs, diplomats, community organizers, plumbers and electricians, theoretical physicists, military commanders (one-star general minimum), investigative journalists, cultural healers, and “death doulas” (an employment I’d never heard of, but which sounds like we’ll be needing a lot of).
You may notice that this “HUMAN-HELP WANTED” list, by and large, does not describe employment positions most working-middle class job seekers can qualify to apply for. Nor are many of them positions that, even now, pay a living wage (what’s the going rate for an “Existential Thinker”?).
We are reassured by some specialists (e.g. Tim Wu writing in the New York Times) that this line of alarmist thinking is off base. That AI is not poised to eliminate human employment, but to augment it. For example, an entry-level lawyer will not be replaced with AI but will be replaced with another entry-level lawyer who knows how to use AI to do even more of what entry-level lawyers do.
This is an important and useful distinction, but even Mr. Wu admits that making it come true requires the AI entrepreneur-cowboys to intentionally limit their AIbot’s capabilities to the role of “augmenters”—rather than developing their full capabilities to be “replacers.” And which of these two AIbot products do you imagine will generate the most profits for the entrepreneurs, or for the law firms leasing the AI products?
The history of the common good versus corporate imperialism—Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Health Insurance—suggests that what is off base is entertaining the fantasy that any big, profit-seeking corporation will pay heed to anything other than maximizing revenues by minimizing expenses. And, if there’s anything that can be defined as an “expense” in the business world it is a human employee.
So, this is why all of us together will eventually have to wrestle ownership of Artificial Intelligence from the geniuses who invented it: We’ll have to do it so we can eliminate the need for “profits” from the calculations of what AI is good for and what it is allowed to do. We can do this together as a nation because, unlike the AI imperialists, we don’t NEED to earn profits with our fiat money investments. We have a completely different agenda:
What we need together—instead of profits—is for those trillions of dollars AI is poised to divert from our paychecks to remain right where they are. And, if you step back and consider it, that’s exactly what our market economy needs as well: It needs US with paychecks in our pockets!
Why the “geniuses” don’t seem to understand this is a genuine mystery.
Tell us how you really feel and think, John! Seriously, well-categorized and summarized. This one is a keeper. Thank you.