Honestly, aside from Joe Biden being a moron, can you think of anyone in genuine need of artificial intelligence? In fairness to Joe, he’s not new to stupid, he has been a dim bulb his whole life. Adding in a dose of artificial intelligence to Joe would be like adding water to the desert – it wasn’t there to begin with, so it likely wouldn’t last long. But with computers and the Internet, the concept of artificial intelligence leaves you to wonder if Biden is the smart one.
The first question you have to ask about AI is probably the most important one: Why? As for an answer, I have no idea. It’s not needed, no one is clamoring for technology to do even more for us as a species, especially things that are entry level positions that help build character.
If you think about it, what will AI lead to? Sure, it could lead to the end of life on Earth, in which case there’s no point in talking about it because we’ll all be dead. Short of extinction, there are other issues a computer program initiating consciousness presents that we need to think about before it takes over all the thinking in the country too.
There will be a push to put AI to “work” to streamline many businesses, but what those businesses are matters a whole hell of a lot.
It’d be one thing if AI could handle dangerous work, jobs where lives are at risk, but that’s not what it will do. It will be used to completely eliminate entry-level jobs that are pretty damned important in the grand scheme of things.
Why would McDonalds pay someone to flip a burger, anyone, if there’s a computer program that knows exactly when to do it and can assemble the whole thing exactly as ordered without any pay required? They would be crazy to do it.
Once those jobs are gone it isn’t just the jobs people won’t have, it’s the experiences that go with them. Remember your first jobs? The retail gigs working in a mall with all the other “mall people” in there too, and the fun you had? That will be done and gone. Learning to talk with customers, help people, ask questions or just break the ice with a stranger will be gone forever. Those are pretty important skills to have.
How do teenagers get jobs when all they’re qualified to do can be replaces by a computer program, a credit card reader and the honor system? The simple answer is they don’t.
t’s hard enough to find someone young with a desire to get a driver’s license, let alone work experience – and by that I mean real work where you have to do things, not sitting around collecting a paycheck from a family friend. The vast majority of jobs impacted will be blue-collar and entry-level. Those are immeasurably important.
Think about what you learned in your first jobs. The people you worked with, the friends you made at those jobs, probably didn’t last that long, but knowledge you gained is likely still serving you well to this day. Many of those jobs will disappear, leaving those who have no desire to go, or ability to succeed in college with fewer, if not no, options. Has anyone thought of this? Sure, it’s neat that it can write a term paper on any subject in a minute, but what’s the point of studying if there’s nothing to study for?
If there’s one thing people need less of these days it’s deflation of their hopes about the future and a damper on their ambitions. Those reserves in people are filled, or at least started to be filled, when they enter the workplace. If fewer people enter the workplace or the entryway to a better life becomes a locked door…it’s not good.
Leftism thrives in inaction because it seeks to absolve people of responsibility for their actions and, more importantly, their bad choices. With nothing else to do, people are much more inclined to engage in bad choices. Who wouldn’t be attracted to a message centering on it not being your fault?
There are lots of things we, as a species, can do, but very few anyone ever stops and asks if we should. Maybe it’s time we do that when it comes to AI. If we don’t do it now, it’ll be too late really, really quickly.
