This truth is hard to accept (even for me), but you must get comfortable with it. The faster, the better.
All businesses seek to maximize their profits (even yours). Would you work a day in your life if, starting tomorrow, you received a magic airdrop of $1M every day? No, right?
So, between you and a stable cash flow, there lie thousands of tiny obstacles. Unfortunately, you’re one of them. We don’t ride horses anymore because cars are more practical. Companies are reluctant to hire because training new talent takes much longer, and having AI that hustles yields immediate rewards - unlike a junior who only makes mistakes. You are expensive.
As an experienced worker, you’re just a workhorse who will be replaced by a muscle car that asks for no food. Your boss will gladly replace you as soon as they can. They will look sad and say, “I’m sorry, it sucks”, but they will still do it without batting an eye.
It’s so obvious. Not only do they need to pay your salary, but they also have to pay taxes for you, provide your equipment and food, prepare nice working conditions, and compete with other companies to attract top talent. The list goes on and on. AI has none of those costs. All it needs is power and software.
AI has already changed our landscape and it won’t stop. The old world is over. If you hold a job, be thankful, but don’t get too comfortable. I got replaced by AI at my last gig because of the reasons above, so I’m onto my next chapter.
But this won’t stop at the employee level. Now that everyone is being replaced, even entire businesses are at risk. Businesses are not unique. All novel ideas quickly spawn competitors. There’s no such thing as an irreplaceable business.
Imagine a world where a few prompts can replicate your whole business idea. Suddenly, anyone can generate anything that’s been done before - based on a detailed spec crafted carefully by another AI - and instead of being your customer, they just build their own solution overnight.
However, now that employees are not needed and businesses are in danger too, we come to the culmination of this long path: How will you be able to afford anything in the new society if you can’t earn? And when you can’t afford anything, how will businesses that are still alive make profits and survive?
This will cause a lot of conflict. People will be really angry that AI is slowly taking their jobs. There will be no means to survive and violence will prevail.
More wars are inevitable. More fighting for resources - just like barbarians looting their neighbors. Peaceful good Samaritans will turn into hungry violent murderers.
So, is this AI revolution really worth it? Is this the future we’re building for ourselves? I’m not looking forward to that at all. But does it mean we should boycott AI? Well, I don’t think so. I think AI is here to make our lives easier.
But the problem is that our system and values need to change along with this progress. The old monetary system is what holds us back and poses a risk of killing us with its demise.
Money needs to lose its value. Money works because we agreed that it works. In reality, it’s just a piece of paper: nothing more, nothing less.
We won’t really need money in this new society. It will be a relic of the past. We will look at ourselves from the past the same way we look at cavemen today.
We need to develop a new system that is adequate for the future we will live in. If we don’t respond to that call, we will be in trouble. AI taking your job will be considered a harmless act compared to what’s coming.