With so much AI buzz coursing through the air these days, there are plenty of sensationalist claims about the tech’s affect on the job market.
One prevailing narrative — and arguably the driving financial incentive behind AI — is that AI is set to automate everyone’s jobs, or at least a huge portion of them. Whether that would be for better or worse is another question, as scholars have observed that mass joblessness combined with monopoly capitalism isn’t exactly a recipe for utopia.
Still, more optimistic voices — those of tech CEOs, investors, and other market players — argue that AI automation will kick off an era of unimaginable prosperity for humankind.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, for example, seems to think AI productivity gains will completely change everyone’s relationship to work in the near future. Unlike some of his fellow tech billionaires though, Huang says AI will leave everyone with more work than ever.
At the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington DC this week, Huang said that “everyone’s jobs will be different” as AI ushers in a wave of new business concepts and projects. “If your life becomes more productive and if the things that you’re doing with great difficulty become simpler, it is very likely because you have so many ideas you’ll have more time to pursue things,” the CEO suggested.
As an example, Huang pointed to radiologists, who he says are now “more efficient” workers thanks to AI, processing more scans than ever before. (In reality, increased workloads are likely the result of a massive shortage of trained radiologists in the US, the kind of crisis which privately owned AI companies hope will bring immense profits.)
Also in attendance at the conference was Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who with his characteristic wit suggested work will be optional in the future, like sports or video games are today. “If you want to work, you know, in the same way, you can go to the store and just buy some vegetables or you could grow vegetables in your backyard,” Musk explained.
“I would say that there’s every evidence that we will be more productive and yet still be busier because we have so many ideas,” Huang responded. “It is my guess that Elon will be busier as a result of AI. I’m going to be busier as a result of AI.”
Whether either mogul’s vision sees reality remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: with their immense wealth, they’ll be fine even if the lives of ordinary people are thrown into chaos.
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