Whenever any progress is made, this is the logical conclusion. And yet, those who decide about how your time is being used, have an opposing view.
IMO, cyber security, for example, will have to become a government mandate with real penalties for non-compliance (like seat belts in cars were mandated) in order to force organizations to slow down, and make sure systems are built carefully and as correctly as possible to protect data.
This is in conflict with the hurtling pace of garbage in/garbage out AI generated stuff we see today.
Things may well reach a point elsewhere in the world finding out that some software is for sale in the European Union is itself a marker of quality, and therefore justifies some premium.
Software providers are also likely to be specifying narrow “fit for purpose” statements and short (ish) support window. If costs go up too much, people will be using “inappropriate” and/or EOL stuff because the “right thing” is too expensive.
To be clear, this is a step in the right direction but is not the panacea.
I actually think that will be the case. We're designing society for the technology, not the technology for the people in it. The human brain wasn't built to fit whatever gap is left by AI, regardless of how many words the technologists spew to claim otherwise.
For instance: AI already is undermining education by enabling mental laziness students (why learn the material when ChatGPT can do your homework for you). It seems the current argument is that AI will replace entry-level roles but leave space for experienced and skilled people (but block the path to get there). Some of the things LLMs do a mediocre but often acceptable job at are the things one needs to do to build and hone higher-level skills.
With GPS we have seen people confidently drive past road closed signs and around barriers off bridges.
With self-driving technology, we have seen them defeat safe guards so they can sit in the back while the car accelerates up to 70 in a subdivision.
So I'm not completely disagreeing with you, but I also am not too pessimistic, either. We will adapt, and benefit through the adoption of AI, even though some things will probably be lost, too.
“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. We will adapt and benefit, or we will not — time will tell.
I do not think the executive class is actually in on the power of AI to increase productivity, but rather to increase reliance.
Exactly. Some people forget we live in a capitalist society, which does not prioritize or support the contentment of the masses. We exist to work for the owners or starve, they're not going to pay us to enjoy ourselves.
When you sit down to think about it, what does it really even mean to do "more research"? What concrete phenomenon are you observing to decide what that is?
Across the journey from "subsistence agriculture", there have been countless approaches to nurturing innovation and discovery, but abstracting it into an abstract game measured by papers published and citations received is extremely novel and so far seems to correlate more with a waste and noise than it does discovery. Science and research is not in a healthy period these days, and the model that you describe, and seem to take for granted or may even be celebrating, plays a big role in why.
The UN estimates that around 500 million households or 2 billion people are still subsistence farmers. In 2025.
Fat lot of good competition has done them, especially when they don’t have enough surplus to participate in a market economy to begin with.
> ...those who decide about how your time is being used...
which stops individuals from:
> [spending] more time thinking, writing, playing piano, and taking walks — with other people.
Which it seems you would agree with. I don't see where they asserted whether this was a problem to address.
So no, no retirees or students or unemployed or disabled in that figure.
Because all the trends seem to indicate that to make a living people are working longer hours, holding multiple concurrent jobs (eg https://gameofjobs.org/are-americans-now-more-likely-than-ev...), and holding off retirement.
Now the service economy is turning into the sharing economy, I think the only thing we are sharing is the greater profits and they are taking the lions share.