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Alright, but not a very good title. The article basically says that it could reduce employment for certain industries depending on the market it's automating.
by preommr 8y ago
Alright, but not a very good title.
The article basically says that it could reduce employment for certain industries depending on the market it's automating. Whereas reading the title made me think it was going to be an article solely focusing on the positives of AI on employment.
And it doesn't even go into whether the boost that does come is better. It's very possible that a dozen or so low paying part time jobs are worse than having one high paying job.
- unchocked 8y agoThat's not what the article says. Its thesis is that automation of an industry first increases employment in it, and finally decreases it. This is because early stages of automation reduce very high costs to a manageable level, increasing demand and increasing employment despite increased efficiency. Later stages of automation reduce already low costs, so demand does not increase much and the efficiency gains translate to reduced employment.
- cimmanom 8y agoIt’s also possible to reach market saturation regardless of price point. Even if a meal costs less than 1 cent and even if that’s all anyone eats, you’re going to have a really tough time getting fast food sales to exceed around 3-4 meals per day for every person on the planet. How many mattresses can a person use? How many pairs of scissors do you keep in your home, and how often do you replace them? How many haircuts would you get per month if they were free? How many root canals? Lowering prices may increase demand, but at some point, the concept of demand increase becomes ludicrous.