Jack Ma: AI could enable a 12-hour work week

Axios ^ | August 29, 2019 | Rebecca Falconer

[C19fan]

Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma told the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai Thursday that artificial intelligence should enable people to work 4 hours a day, 3 days a week, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: It's a remarkable demonstration of Ma's faith in AI, given he's known for endorsing the Chinese tech sector's standard "996" schedule, which consists of a 72-hour workweek: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

The big picture: Ma appeared onstage at the event with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with whom he had a disagreement on whether humans can be outsmarted by computers.

[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.

[Fellow Traveler]

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

Typically that is when someone starts a war to absorb the excess population.

[fella]

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

[Drew68]

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

The people working 12 hour weeks wouldn't be the ones starving.

[DIRTYSECRET]

What would we do the rest of the time?

[Drew68]

What would we do the rest of the time?

Leisure, study, scholarly and scientific pursuits, invent things, create art, write books, teach others, mentor. There's lots we could do. The things advanced civilizations are able to accomplish once they find they have free time after their basic survival needs are met.

[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.

[gaijin]

The much-vaunted talk about "guarantee income"

That's the specious sugar to make the medicine go down.

THAT's the topic they flash around to make the common Joe CONSENT to getting displaced.

"That novel that's beeen kicking around in the back of your head, cuz you KNOW you're a genius, deep down..? This totally weird, New Economy Trick is going to let you DO exactly that..!"

It's BAIT to permit a new, unimagined level of Weath Inequality, with the "Wealth Inequality is Soooo Bad"- people achored at the top:

PERMANENTLY.

[Boogieman]

“The question is what to do with the 80% who have nothing to contribute...”

They’ll be given jobs in the Domestic Social Justice Force to make sure everyone complies with the current groupthink and anyone who strays gets re-educated.

[MichaelRDanger]

More likely there will be a revolution and a reign of terror with many heads of the elites on pikes before the American middle-class accepts a return to a feudal society and rule by neo-aristocrats...

[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.

[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.

[Bitman]

AI is already enabling oppression. Millions of pieces of content get uploaded to the social media sites every day and get screened by AI algorithms for ‘wrong’ words or ‘wrong’ ideas. Flagged content is then reviewed, and the AI ‘learns’ if it was correct by the decision the human screener makes upon review of the flagged content. Very neat, very tidy, and getting more efficient every day in identifying ‘wrong’ ideas and speech.