AI is NOT directly replacing workers. But it's ABSOLUTELY doing so indirectly. Here's how...
🤑 AI Is Expensive. People Are Expensive. Something Has to Give.
AI may be free to use - but it's definitely not free to create. The investments being made in datacenters, chips, and model creation now rival the ENTIRE US GDP.
And just because many of these investments rely on circular deals and magical thinking doesn't mean there's no sacrifice involved. Because what's the largest current cost that can be cut to make way for these investments?
That's right: You and me. And the mass layoffs across the most profitable companies in history - Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft - that are making these investments are Exhibit A of that tradeoff.
🦾 AI Can't Do Your Job. But a Human Using AI? Absolutely.
If you're waiting for an army of AI-powered robots to show up in your cubicle as a sign of AI-powered job loss, don't hold your breath. But what about Sally over in the next cube who's been rocking ChatGPT since the day it came out?
BINGO.
Our jobs are bundles of tasks - analyzing data, making presentations, influencing colleagues. And while ChatGPT 3.5 might have been able to do some of them on the day it came out, even ChatGPT 5 Mega Plus Turbo Edition will never be able to do others 3 years later.
Which means that job loss won't come from doing MORE with robots but from doing MORE with the humans we already have. And if Sally, leveraging ChatGPT 5 Mega Plus Turbo Edition, can now do her job AND your job... how many bosses do you think it takes to screw in this particular lightbulb? :) 💡
🥶 Winter Is Coming. Not for AI... But for Us.
While there's a growing chorus of "AI is a bubble!" across the media world, it's not slowing down investment one bit in the real world.
On the other hand, the uncertainty about our AI future has absolutely frozen the two key sides of the labor market:
1) Hiring managers - Who wants to stick their neck out and ask for human headcount when your CEO is talking nonstop about AI productivity gains? Ask for too much and you might be the next one replaced...
2) Workers - Who wants to look for a new job when you've got to focus on protecting the one you have? It's no wonder we've all becomes Job Huggers now!
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Bottom Line: Don't get caught up in the binary thinking of "AI is stealing all the jobs" vs. "AI is a completely benign force for good." Instead, be an AI realist - both here's what's happening AND here's what I plan to about it.
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