[C19fan]

Technologists Utopians have been saying that forever. I remember watching the "Jetsons" where are the flying cars, 12 hour work week, and apartment complexes in the skies???? No, AI will mean 80% of adults will have zero value in the marketplace and will need to be sedated with bread and circuses.

[G Larry]

Nonsense!

[thefactor]

I’d work 72 hour weeks, as long as anything over 40 hours is time and a half.

[Drew68]

No, AI will mean 80% of adults will have zero value in the marketplace and will need to be sedated with bread and circuses.

And 20% who have value will work 12 hour weeks, primarily to ensure the machines are running properly.

Jack Ma isn't wrong here. He's entirely correct. Men used to work sunup to sundown seven days a week. Shortened work weeks are the future and part of a trend that has been occurring in Western society since the industrial revolution. There's no reason to think this trend will reverse.

The question is what to do with the 80% who have nothing to contribute except violence, poverty, ignorance, superstition, and babies.

[gaijin]

Unmodified photo, he's TINY

[z3n]

Exactly. That’s just not how it works.

If you can gain much higher levels of efficiency in productivity using automation and AI (or whatever) then you’re not just going to keep the same number of employees and work them for 12 hours per week. You’re going to have fewer employees cutting your expenses and overhead and use them for the maximum number of hours that they can still maximize your production curves.

[fella]

A 12 hour work week would equal mass starvation and all that goes with it. See the film “The Good Earth”.

[gaijin]

"All those times getting picked LAST: Someday I will make the world PAY."

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I just shake my head when I ready stories like this. First, “work” isn’t static. If it was, the invention of the car and electric appliances, better food delivery systems and electric / gas heat would have created a 12 hour work week. If AI handles menial jobs, people will do more advanced jobs. There will always be a need for human labor. And second, why do these “futurists” always assume that people want a lower hour work week. There will be a group of people who work 50 or 60 hour weeks no matter how advanced technology becomes.

[tbw2]

I am more concerned by AI enabling oppression by algorithm TODAY, whether Sesame Credit in China or the American equivalent Big Tech is trying to set up.

[Waywardson]

100% of the time in history, every new invention from fire and the wheel, to AI has been met with ridicule and fear.

100% of the time, they have raised the standard of living for all mankind.

AI will be no different.

The buggy whip makers will find new work.

[a fool in paradise]

You won’t quailfy for employer healthcare insurance or paid holidays or vacation.

[Jonty30]

Are they going to pay me 4x my wages for the time I’m not working?

[dfwgator]

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young

-Donald Fagen