“As an economist, I understand productivity; people lose jobs when technology changes. But the valuations of these AI companies are literally based on the assumption that hundreds of millions of people will lose their jobs and employers will buy AI services instead of labour services.”
Dr Denniss said that while much of the attention was focused on the technology itself, he was more concerned about the broader economic consequences.
“What is the ATO’s plan? What are the state government plans?” he asked the committee.
“Again, all that money that Anthropic is betting on is coming from somewhere, and that’s going to have very real consequences for individuals, for communities, for the economy, for the way Commonwealth budgets are drawn up.”
Dr Denniss also challenged the argument that Australia risked being left behind unless it rapidly embraced AI, warning that national security concerns should not be used to justify an unrestricted rollout.
Are you telling me that you wouldn’t want to give your time to any of a thousand causes if you could afford it? I used to DJ for the children’s hospital internal radio station, it was awesome fun, the whole job was cheering up sick kids in hospital (and their families). Even now, I can’t think of anything in my whole life that was more rewarding.
But it paid $0.
Imagine not needing to worry about money so you could do this full-time? It would be so marvellous!
Volunteering is great as long as you have reasonable living conditions. If you are poor and can’t afford transport, rent and other necessities it’s difficult to sustain volunteering work.
I was pitched unlimited free time, not poverty.
One of these sounds great to me. I’ve had the other in the past, too - do not recommend.
I get that. It’s just that the way our society runs if you don’t have a reasonably-paying job or some sort of back up, it’s pretty hard to be a gentleman or lady of leisure.
I really like my retirement. I’ve chosen to carry out a project at my place which I couldn’t have done before either when I was working or when I was poor, so I love this free time. I do recommend.
Having a pretty clear idea what you’d do with your time helps.
In a world where paid work is not necessary, why would unpaid work exist?
Well I suspect there will still be sick and injured kids who need cheering up, no matter what else is going on. Even the starship Enterprise had a sick bay.
I mean, sure? But you can’t build a society off of soup kitchens.
We’re talking about, literally, tens of millions or even more that are permanently unemployable. Similar situations have happened historically; they normally don’t end well.