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Comment by leovailati | Hacker News Reader

It is different this time. I bet that was also said when the transformations that you mentioned occurred, but this time it really is different.

LLM models are pretty general in their capabilities, so it is not like the relatively slow process of electrification, when lamplighters lost their jobs. Everyone can lose their jobs in a matter of months because AI can do close to everything.

I am excited to live in a world where AI has "freed" humans from wage slavery, but our economic system is not ready to deal with that yet.

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> but this time it really is different

I'm skeptical. This will drastically change what it means to do a job in a way that has never happened before, but humans will find a way to deal with the fallout. We don't have a choice. Besides, if we were able to disrupt the very foundations of our economy for a minor virus, we can and will do the same to deal with this if required.

Either way this change has already arrived and we are starting to adapt our lives in response to it like we have many times in the past.

tldr: This change is significant but we'll manage.

I wouldn’t say the handling of COVID was smooth to say the least.

Yes we handled it, we are still paying the bill for that handling (inflation).

I think AI will have the disruption level of COVID, but there will not be an end in sight, 5%, 10, 20, 50% of people will lose jobs and even if they can refrain and handle it, it will take 5-10 years for those people to handle it. Can the countries have people on unemployment for that long ?

If COVID was to be worse on young, healthy people, instead of elders and debilitated, we'd be in serious trouble today. It was very badly handled...

Not like AI revolution will be better handled. It will be even worse because there are very obvious economic incentives to handle badly

Covid is intrinsically bad.

I don't think this is the case for AI.

I see a completely different picture.

Productivity will skyrocket and with it the standard of living. Humans will always enjoy having other humans doing stuff for them.

Sure, it will be faster this time and there will be some growth pains.

It's not a matter of being ready, it's a matter of needing this. If you look at society's problems today, we're in a deadlock. I believe the benefits of AI can help alleviate a lot.

But to whose pockets will that productivity go? I think the gap between the haves and have-nots will widen and just increase society's problems

It will most likely widen, but who cares? What matters to me is the quality of my life, not others. If they're managing to get better than me while doing something useful to society, good for them.

What really matters is: the poor of tomorrow will laugh at the life of today's rich.

I mean, the poor won't have the Bezos' yatch, but they'll have access to some life amenities, health resources, etc, that Bezos can't even dream of having today.

That’s bull, the poorest will have to fight for water

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