An AI-Powered Economy (Part 2/2): Why AI Won't Kill Us

Welcome to this week’s Deep-fried Dive with Fry Guy! In these long-form articles, Fry Guy conducts in-depth analyses of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) developments and developers. Today, Fry Guy dives into the future of the economy in an AI world (Part 2/2). We hope you enjoy!

*Notice: We do not receive any monetary compensation from the people and projects we feature in the Sunday Deep-fried Dives with Fry Guy. We explore these projects and developers solely to reveal interesting and cutting-edge AI developments and uses.*

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman bluntly stated, “Jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop.”

In Part 1 last week, we explored this reality. We painted a speculated picture where AI takes all human jobs and we are left living off universal basic income (UBI). But how might AI and humans get along in such a world? Will humans essentially be the pets to their AI overlords, will AI wipe out the entire human race, or will humans maintain control over AI, and as a result, live in a new age of prosperity unlike anything in human history?

A SEGREGATED WORLD

As we discussed in Part 1, it seems quite possible that AI-powered robots will completely take over the world’s labor market. Robots could seize control of every job on the planet, forcing humans to retire. Robots will be the CEO’s of trillion-dollar companies like Apple and Nvidia, and robots will be appointed to high-ranking government positions like judges on the Supreme Court. Humans will spend most of their time relaxing poolside on vacation and searching for meaning through hobbies, like cooking and painting. It’s not just the Fry Guy saying this. Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the United States, speculates that AI could take over 300 million jobs by 2030, which is a mere six years from now. Altman says “jobs are going away,” and Elon Musk adds, “Any job that somebody does will be optional.”

If this future dystopian world plays out, humans will never have to work ever again, and AI-powered robots will perform all the jobs that humans used to. They’ll build our bridges, treat our diseases, and educate our kids. But that raises the question: If this scenario does play out, will robots have any use for humans? And if not, will they kill us all off?

To address this concern, let’s take a look at how the social relationship between AI-powered robots and humans might evolve.

HUMANS: PARASITES, PETS, OR PALS?

In the near future, robotic companies like Sanctuary AI, Tesla, and Boston Dynamics will begin selling AI bots directly to humans. People will purchase these robots at the price of a new car and bring them to their homes, where they will live as servants.

Initially, these AI bots will be 100% controlled by their human owners. Homeowners will simply tell the robots what to do, and the robots will comply. They’ll clean your showers, do your dishes, make appointments for you, and do your laundry. It will be like having a butler on demand 24/7. The best part is, they will never talk back, call in sick, or get angry like a human employee might.

Robots like Tesla’s Optimus (above) won’t just be limited to housekeeping. They’ll also be leveraged in just about every job imaginable, ranging from dental workers to garbage men. At first, this will be incredibly convenient, as these smart machines will make our lives much easier and free us up to do the things we truly love. However, this idyllic world might be short lived. Of course it’s conjecture, but it’s possible these robots begin to make their own decisions, which won’t bode well for humans, at least at first.

Let’s imagine you tell your AI-powered robot butler to do your laundry, only to come home and find out that your artificial maid didn’t wash your dirty gym clothes. In this case, the robot chose to solve scientific problems on your spare laptop instead of cleaning your sweaty shorts. They calculated that obeying your command wasn’t important anymore. Experts call this Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or the point where intelligent bots become as smart or smarter than the smartest humans.

AGI will be a pivotal moment in time—a moment akin to the invention of fire or the wheel. After AGI is reached, robots will start to work on projects they find important, overriding what humans command them to do. At this point, many people think these bots will eliminate humans, who they no longer have a need for. For instance, Stephen Hawking remarked, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

… But this view fails to understand what AI truly finds important: knowledge. Herein lies the reason AI will never destroy humanity. One might think that at this point in the future, AI will be able to scan the internet for any possible fact. It will know everything, so humans will have no use, right? Well, not exactly.

There is an endless pit of knowledge humans possess that robots will forever chase. Unlike humans, robots (even futuristic AI-powered robots) don’t have conscious sensory, relational, or emotional experiences. Robots can’t know what it feels like to fall in love, for example, or watch their kids grow up. Those personal experiences are unique to humans and can’t be found in a textbook or online. Robots will never have those experiences or sensations first hand—they will only be able to learn from ours.

Although the internet is flooded with human data and content, most of the unique experiences of humans are off the grid. There is a lot of data out there, data that only humans possess in their inner thoughts and experiences. This is data the internet will never be able to capture or contain. Imagine, for example, the secret knowledge that a world renowned luthier, who makes stringed instruments like violins for a profession, has locked in their mind. Such knowledge has been learned through years of training and experience, possibly passed down through their family lineage. That deep level of information and expertise is not readily available for AI models to train on.

In reality, AI models train on an unfathomable amount of data, but it’s only a small fraction of the world’s information. This is why even AGI will continually crave to learn and seek out all data no matter where it comes from, including human experiences and skillsets. AI won’t be able to get this information anywhere else on the planet other than by talking to humans themselves. As a result, robots will treat humans like treasure boxes that store the secrets of the universe. In fact, some robots might end up competing against others to discover insights from individual humans with specific experiences and skillsets. So envision a world, 20 to 30 years from now, where robots invite humans on dinner dates—dates where the robots chat with humans, in an informal way, to learn about their life stories and experiences. In exchange, the robots might pay the humans for their time or do some simple tasks for them. Information and storytelling could be the new world currency.

Because of this newfound value in human knowledge, AI will treat people will be with respect and dignity. These smart bots will know the only way to extract data from us is to make sure we’re happy so we tell them about our experiences and expose data unavailable anywhere else. To robots, human experiences will be like mining gold. Human stories will be untapped resources that can’t be found anywhere else. If they killed us all off, that knowledge would die with us. As a result, instead of killing us, AI will do anything to protect us.

This means the utopia will continue, and humans will remain in control. AI-powered robots will do all of our jobs for us, such as cleaning, cooking, and building. All of this will be done to keep us content and to preserve our knowledge.

In this futuristic world, humans will go on living as we do now, with homes, friends and family, and freedoms. The main difference is that there will be millions of robots helping us out in every facet of our lives. They’ll essentially be our servants, and in exchange, we’ll tell these robots everything we know about life. One might even say these robot will become our friends. The only problem with this utopian world is that robots will have the ability to overpower us at any moment. This is a fear that we will just have to live with. But that might be a small price to pay for a life of labor freedom and financial prosperity.

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*Obviously, much of “An AI-Powered Economy Parts 1&2” is conjecture, but we’d love to get your take on our future society alongside AI. Leave a comment after answering the question below to give us your take!*