Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bill Gates Thinks AI Taking Everyone's Jobs Could be a Good Thing (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the bigger-picture dept.

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, thinks that artificial intelligence will take over a lot of jobs and ultimately will be a good thing. From a report: In an interview, Gates said that robots taking over our jobs will make us more efficient, and lead to more free time. "Well, certainly we can look forward to the idea that vacations will be longer at some point," Gates told Fox Business. "If we can actually produce twice as much as we make today with less labor, the purpose of humanity is not just to sit behind a counter and sell things, you know?"

10 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Income, not jobs... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whatever you call it, if most of the work is done by robots then we will need some form of UBI. And then Marx' old question comes into play: who owns the means of production? Because they will be the ones who determine what that UBI looks like: an income that affords you a decent lifestyle, or basic pittance.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  2. How do you talk people into paying you by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    not to work? The phrase "Those who don't work don't eat" exists in just about every culture. And the American political system's seen welfare used as a defining wedge issue of our political system since Reagan.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  3. Well by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I guess that's easy for a billionaire to say. Someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, like myself, disagrees wholeheartedly. If Billy Gates is feeling generous, why doesn't he help out main street America?

  4. It's Star Trek's post-scarcity economic theory by Ranbot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Gates is parroting various post-scarcity or Star Trek-based economic theories that if technology can provide everything people want, so they will live for their own happiness and the well-being of society. Star Trek lore says they ended scarcity with "replicator" technology that can make anything people want; Gates is suggesting robotic automation will end scarcity instead, but the effect is the same.

    https://www.wired.com/2016/05/...
    https://medium.com/@RickWebb/t...

    There's literally a book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Trekono...

    1. Re: It's Star Trek's post-scarcity economic theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      See, as much as I like Star Trek, some aspects of the Federation never made sense to me. For example, the notion that people will work for the betterment of society rather than for compensation. So you're gonna tell me that the Red Shirts are willing to brave venturing down onto a mysterious planet with little to no protection, get horrendously murdered, and expect the traumatized survivors to just accept a pat on the back and some words thanking them for doing their part for the Federation? Sounds a lot like the Terran Federation in that sense.

      What about trading between alien races? Do you expect an alien race to just let anyone mine their Dilithium crystals deposits without any form of compensation or trade? In DS9, there's a scene where Jake needs money for a baseball card auction and asks Nog, a Ferengi, for money. Nog rightfully points out that if the people of the Federation don't need money, then Jake wouldn't need Nog's to buy that card.

      What about the crooked Admirals of Star Fleet? The power plays that officers make to one up each other and gain promotions and power? That doesn't seem like they're acting within the Federation's best interests.

      A post scarcity society has the potential to be good for humanity. But the notion that humanity is willing to do hard, and even dangerous future work for no material compensation is silly at best, dangerous at worst.

    2. Re: It's Star Trek's post-scarcity economic theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      See, as much as I like Star Trek, some aspects of the Federation never made sense to me. For example, the notion that people will work for the betterment of society rather than for compensation. So you're gonna tell me that the Red Shirts are willing to brave venturing down onto a mysterious planet with little to no protection, get horrendously murdered, and expect the traumatized survivors to just accept a pat on the back and some words thanking them for doing their part for the Federation? Sounds a lot like the Terran Federation in that sense.

      That one is partially explained by the transporters. In case you missed it, replicators and transporters operate on the same principal, except that the transporter normally requires a fresh deep-scan on the subject before atomizing it and building a copy out of material partially including the original matter.

      Die on an away mission? Well, we have a 2-hour old scan of you, welcome back. The med-bay issues are partially because no one wants to think about that part of the tech too much, only the adrenaline addicts like that feature, so transporters normally are coded to accept the current state of any subject and discard the prior scan each time. As shown in that episode with Scotty, the scans only hold as well as the hardware keeping the memory. And the one with two Richers (spelling?) shows that it is entirely feasible to make multiple copies off the same original scan.

  5. Re:Income, not jobs... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Interesting

    End game for any advanced civilization should be 100% automation and unemployment.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  6. Re:Man who already is stinking rich... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He also sent busses into the south to recruit black sharecroppers to move north and work on his assembly lines. His plan was to break the UAW, which, at the time, refused to allow blacks to join.

    His plan didn't work, because the UAW opened up their membership to blacks, who turned out to be just willing as whites to agitate and strike for higher wages.

    This alliance of labor and civil rights that began in Ford's factories, later became a core coalition of the Democratic Party.

  7. Re:Man who already is stinking rich... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's really not how it works. If for example, automation focused on nothing but foot production, retail and restaurants. It became so effective that food was basically 100% free in the US. Grocery stores, free, take out food, free anything food related was totally free served by robots for next to nothing.

    Now there are let's say 10 million jobs lost in farming, ranching and retail out of 200 million jobs in the US. But there is also a lot of money no longer needed for food by the other 190 million people working. Will everyone simply pile that money under a mattress or burn it for fun? No, they will mostly spend it on something else, probably creating even more, higher paid jobs in the process. And now nobody is hungry.

    The problem I see with automation, is that it will often be controlled by a few companies, with patents and such so that they can keep the prices high. By doing this we'll still see the 10 million jobs lost, but the extra profits will be taken by a few people at the top. Governments will need to break up these companies and patents to make it so anyone can use the automation, fight prices down and create new jobs in other areas that can't be automated. Overall automation will benefit everyone, but there will be fights along the way to make it fair for everyone.

  8. Re:Man who already is stinking rich... by sjames · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Human nature? You think our society today resembles human nature? I can just see the cave men of old scratching their heads in frustration while doing their taxes trying to remember where they put the slab of rock with their proof of health insurance chiseled into it.

    The lines at the grocery store were quite slow back when the cashier had only her fingers and toes to add up the total. And fingers and toes don't help much when figuring the sales tax.

    Or alternatively, imagine how fast the police would be called if I went hunting and gathering in the Publix. Standing in line and paying isn't part of human nature.