Yah. This is where Stewart's propensity to create what he thinks as humor through performative hyperbolic self-righteousness while ignoring nuance and one last step of critical thought, diminishes sometimes very good messages. Or misses them completely. I can name any number of examples. But this is a particularly good one. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a hater. He's often sooo close to being on something. And then veers off course and goes over the edge. I think his movie Irresistible is one of the more important movies ever made. But not for the same reasons he thinks.
We're going to need EVERY BIT of AI in the coming decades. Yes, all the wool spinning about AI solving existential problems and freeing us to pursue our dreams and whatnot is definitely fluffy wishful nonsense.
But, the idea that AI's biggest threat is it will replace the workforce? That is EXACTLY why we need it. The workforce is likely already shrinking relative to the demand for production/output. I would guess in 25 years or less, it will actually start shrinking outright numerically, as opposed to any relative measurement.
Within the lifetime of most of the posters here, we're going to see the flip to a very large older population. And very few younger workers to support the demands of that older population. The population in the US itself will start dropping in the next 50 years. Or less. It's already dropping in many parts of the world and with each coming year, we will hear of yet another country who's population is actually declining.
Stewart won't care. He'll be dead before the effects really hit. If young people truly want to maintain the level of life we have now...throughout their entire life....we're going to need a metric button of AI and all it will be capable of to do that. Literally that. Do jobs that we don't have enough people to do.
And yes. New technology replaces jobs. It always has and always will. And yet, we've been able to find work for anyone who wants it. AI will be no different. People complain all the time about self checkout taking the jobs of cashiers. When was the last time you hired a blacksmith? Looked up something in the yellow pages? Or dialed "O" for the operator? Or used a knockerupper instead of an alarm clock? Who even makes alarm clocks anymore? You just use the same thing that replaced operators and Yellow Page printers. I haven't seen an ad in the help wanted section looking to fill a position in the "typing pool". Noting that I didn't even see those ads in newspapers, but on entirely new platforms that employ people to produce. I'd add that I see ads for jobs in entire industries that didn't even exist when I was in college.
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