The problem is a little deeper than that. This unprecedented disruption requires no new scientific breakthroughs in AI, just the application of existing technology to new problems. It will hit many white-collar professionals just as hard as it hits blue-collar factory workers. Despite these immense challenges, I remain hopeful. If handled with care and foresight, this AI crisis could present an opportunity for us to redirect our energy as a society to more human pursuits: to taking care of each other and our communities. To have any chance of forging that future, we must first understand the economic gauntlet that we are about to pass through. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-human-promise-of-the-ai-revolution-1536935115The real battles that lie ahead will lack the apocalyptic drama of Hollywood blockbusters, but they will disrupt the structure of our economic and political systems all the same. Looming before us in the coming decades is an AI-driven crisis of jobs, inequality and meaning. The new technology will wipe out a huge portion of work as we’ve known it, dramatically widening the wealth gap and posing a challenge to the human dignity of us all.
Artificial intelligence just expands the scope of the problems we've had since the industrial revolution. Worrying about Skynet is silly, worrying about there being far more people than work requiring enough skill that workers can insist on being treated humanely is not. Everyone wants to talk about science fiction scenarios though, because despite there being an intro class in every CS department in the world people still treat AI like magic. Skynet isn't going to happen. Management timing how long accountants spend in the john might.