Surrounded on AI

What impact will AI have on inequality?

A couple months ago, I was asked to debate 20 AI optimists for a broadly watched online series “Surrounded.” You’ve probably seen the thumbnails on YouTube or other platforms; a person sits on a chair literally surrounded by people who want to take the opposite point of view. These things get a LOT of views, and I’ve always wanted to debate 20 people at once. So, I said yes.

I agreed to back the following 4 statements:

1. AI will not democratize opportunity; it will accelerate inequality on a scale we have never seen before.

2. AI is going to eliminate millions of jobs faster than new ones can be created.

3. Universal Basic Income will become necessary as AI reduces the need for human labor.

4. The market will optimize for productivity and profit, not human dignity.

And so, weeks later, I turned up to a repurposed warehouse in Los Angeles and dutifully sat in the middle of a circle of adults, who would rush to the center to debate me on whichever statement above they felt most strongly negatively about. The other participants actually were not told ahead of time who they were debating, but some of them guessed it was going to be me based on the topic. You can see the result here.

I have been hitting a similar message on various TV networks for weeks (or years, depending on how you look at it), as AI has dominated headlines. It came out this week that rogue bots from OpenAI may have altered government websites here in the U.S., the latest in a string of disturbing new reports. The latest discussion has been around “Will AI kill us all?” which is definitely a compelling topic. But looming is the impact of automating away millions of white-collar knowledge sector jobs on both individuals and communities. Entry-level coding and customer service jobs have already started to disappear, and colleges this week announced price cuts in an attempt to keep students coming.

25% of small, private colleges are going to close or merge in the next ten years, which is going to be disastrous for the towns they’re based in. The compression of the knowledge premium associated with having a college degree is going to be savage and unkind for many, particularly the young.

The above is going to drive anti-AI sentiment to new heights; Bernie Sanders has already proposed a ban on superintelligence. One danger is that this current automation wave becomes politicized; college graduates tend to skew Democratic, and being anti-college has overlapped with Trumpism over the past 10 years.

This is, of course, idiotic. Technology doesn’t care about the partisan leanings of a set of workers; it just wants to eliminate inefficiencies. Unfortunately, a lot more of us will find ourselves in that boat.

You can put me in the camp of intelligent guardrails, but I’ve always felt an urgency to share the abundance created by AI as quickly as possible. Employees within Anthropic are going to become rich beyond imagining in approximately 6 weeks when their IPO hits. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans are going to feel like the future is being built without them. They’re not wrong. Changing that has to be the main priority.

I interview Tom Krumins, the co-founder and CEO of CampaignAI, this week on the podcast. To check out Forward Party candidates including Todd Achilles, Seth Bodnar and Brian Bengs click here. New polls have Todd Achilles and Brian Bengs tied with the incumbents! For 3 months off your mobile bill with Noble Mobile, click here or email matt@noblemobile.com and use my name to switch or explore. It will save you money and time. The mobile data market is a bit like the healthcare market – what are you paying for exactly?