January 2025
AI is gonna ruin everything maybe
Let me preface this by saying that I’m terrible at predicting the future. When I was 9, I’d thought I’d be married by the time I was 20. When I was 30, I thought we’d have a Civil War in 2017 and climate change catastrophes by (checks watch) next year. Huh. Wasn’t far off on that one.
When I was a kid, the future was a grand adventure with flying cars and laser swords and spaceships to Mars and aliens and robot pals, and we were all going to be a part of it together. We were going to solve global warming, figure out homelessness, and finally, FINALLY build that freakin’ MOONBASE.
Anyway, I’m pretty confident that AI is going to ruin that future for everyone (well, for most of us). Not because of a robot uprising but because of corporate greed.
Follow me on this one.
See, I’m an artist. I make stuff. And if by some miracle, I make a thing that becomes popular, I could make money.
Corporations can’t have that. They hate competition. That’s why Disney keeps buying up companies left and right. They’re slowly starting to own all of popular culture. Eliminating all competition. Which is terrifying for our culture, as one monolithic entity will soon control the mythology of a nation.
I don’t really need to explain why one single organization can’t be in charge of something so important, right?
So here’s my tin-foil hat conspiracy theory.
Eventually, AI will replace all white-collar jobs. Not this year. Not next year. Probably in about 20 to 30 years. There is probably no white collar job a computer could not do eventually with enough processing power. Sorry, AT&T store managers. Sorry, teachers. Say hello to Educatron-3000! Kids stay home and are educated remotely via the Internet.
Where are the parents? Working the fields. Working the mines. Working trades.
Those will be the only jobs available.
Those jobs aren’t going anywhere. Robots were supposed to take those jobs. Robots were supposed to do the menial labor. They were supposed to be our slaves. After all, the word “robot” means “slave.”
What about the arts?
The demand for human-created art will always be there, sure. But will become more and more untenable for human artists to make any kind of living that way. As corporations crank out more and more AI-art. As AI becomes more advanced and billionaires realize “hey, I don’t NEED to pay writers or artists or ANYONE to make anything for me anymore. I can have the computer do it for free! Yippee!”
It will never be illegal for humans to make art or cure disease or go to the moon. There just won’t be any market demand for it. In time, the culture will shift to where people will look at you funny for wanting to be a scientist much the same way as they currently do for wanting to go into musical theater or professional badminton.
“How you gonna eat?”
And the same will happen with other industries. They’re already talking about it. AI that cures disease. AI that explores the galaxy. Why should we ever hire a human doctor? Maybe human surgeons. Maybe. But for how long?
And why would this happen?
Because business owners are driven by profit above all. “As is their right!” you shout. “They took on all the risk!” you shout, raising your pitchfork. Hold on, hold on. Listen. Profit is great. I love making money too. But just because you CAN do something doesn’t always mean you SHOULD do something.
What about empathy? What about the human cost? Just because it’s cheaper to replace all your miners with one Australian man, does that make it the best idea?
That’s it. That’s the end. The billionaires invest in AI. The AI makes the art, performs the research, cures disease, writes the books, wins the awards, explores the solar system, etc. The billionaires live it up in their pleasure domes on Mars. Maybe a few of them become researchers or artists or doctors if they feel like it.
Meanwhile, anyone not a member of the privileged upper .001% slave away in the mines or the factories or the farms. Some of us may be personal servants to the billionaire/trillionaire class, working as butlers or maids, I suppose.
But there will be no real reason to create humanoid robots.
Why build slaves when there’s already a cheap, plentiful, self-replicating slave-class already here?
“But William! Why are you demonizing the rich? Aren’t the rich just people like you and me?”
I’m not demonizing anyone. I’m projecting what I think will happen based on stuff that’s already happened in history. People fire people when it’s convenient. Insurance companies deny life-saving surgery to cut costs. Companies post jobs that don’t exist. Business owners discriminate against possible hires based on disability-status. Sorry. Sure. #notallrichpeople if that makes you feel better. I’m not talking about “the good ones.” I’m talking about the bad ones. If you feel guilty, maybe I’m talking about you. I’m probably not.
A quick aside because there seems to be some confusion on what constitutes a rich person: It’s someone with more than a million dollars in the bank. One million is the official cutoff. Everyone’s always afraid to be black and white about stuff like this. Whether it’s about age or race or class or whatever. Listen. These things are social constructs. We make up the rules, so I made up my own. You don’t have to abide by them, but these are mine.
One million equals rich. If you have a million and don’t feel rich, that’s ok. This isn’t about feelings. This is about numbers. A million is a lot. A billion is a lot more. If you only have 999,999.99 dollars, you’re almost rich but still middle class. Sorry.
If you care, the cut-offs are 1 million and up is rich, 40k to 999,999 is middle class, and below that is poor. 39k and below is poor. No one likes using the word poor. We like to say underprivileged now. But it’s the same thing. It’s no great shame to be poor. But it’s no great honor either, as Tevye says.
Now, I have no problem with billionaires existing. Or going to space. Or doing whatever they want in their free time. I just don’t want us — because we are ultimately the ones with the power — to accidentally get so excited over AI that we enter a bad future of unending servitude in exchange for convenience.
That’s my ultimate doom and gloom scenario. We’re heading that way. Just a civilization of drones under the boot of their kings. Just like it’s always been, I guess.
Hopefully, I’m wrong again. I like being wrong. It’s so much more exciting.
Wow, that was a depressing read.
Here’s a video of a bunny I made ten years ago on a sick day. I’d burst a blood vessel in my eye from blowing my nose too hard.
And yes, that is a Watership Down reference.
Final thought:
This article not written with any AI whatsoever because I am not a freakin’ cyborg. If you or someone you know was offended by this post, I am sorry but also tickled to have made you feel something. Thank you so much for reading!
This is brilliant William!