Ask HN: Help me with this chain of thought about AI impact on economy | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Help me with this chain of thought about AI impact on economy

2 pointsSateeshm5 comments

I have no economics background. But very broadly here's what I'm trying to understand.

1. Companies pay people to build products or provide services

2. People pay corporations to buy these products or services

3. Companies stop paying people and leverage AI or big AI orgs APIs to provide the same services or products (assume AI replaces all workers by this point)

4. People have no money to buy these things

5. How will companies or big AI orgs earn money when no one has money to buy what they are selling?

They can trade with each other and keep everyone else happy or at least complacent. Like how we treat horses.

This relates to Fordism. Particularly, the part where they pay workers high enough wages to buy products.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordism

You have to rewind to why money and companies emerge in the first place. Not all systems require them. Look at plants.

    (assume AI replaces all workers by this point)

Step 3 here is like dividing both sides of a math equation by zero; you can make anything come out of logic if you assume nonsense.

Also, if AI has "replaced all workers" then why will the "big AI orgs" (presumably all made of AIs) need money for services at all? Surely it would be Full Luxury Space Communism time.

I put that as an assumption because that is what concerns me. At least a scenario where all knowledge workers are not needed because AI can do the job just as well. I don't think that scenario is nonsense (may be unlikely or far in future) with the way things are going.

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