It's 2026. AI has changed the world, and continues to do so in more ways every day. We should be headed towards that Star Trek timeline where nobody wants for anything. Computers and automation have removed any shortages that any citizens could encounter. People are free to be creative and contribute as they see fit. The reality these days is that AI gets to make art, while taking artists jobs. AI gets to write more and more, while authors do so less and less. Automation is removing manufacturing jobs and productivity is up... but the people who had those jobs still need jobs in order to survive. AI doesn't mow the lawn... yet, or fix blocked pipes, so some jobs are still secure. However, those of us that spent some years studying to code and learn new technologies are now in a purgatory where jobs are being replaced or changed left and right, but people are still needed in the process, and it's hard to find where they fit. Adaptation is crucial to have any chance at all.
I have always been one to welcome change in my life. "Change is the only constant in life" is one of my motto's. The other is "Failure is not an option... it comes bundled with your Microsoft™ product". However, I have never experienced change at this pace and at this scale before. It's daunting. Trying to find a job at my age in this climate feels impossible. It feels like everyone is just creating AI generated resumes with terms like "client-facing" and "results-oriented" and other gibberish that then gets digested by other AI systems to determine the suitability of a candidate for possible human review. When it comes to human resources, why is AI such a part of it? All this system seems to filter for is how well someone is able to game the system through the use of keywords. It doesn't seem to measure at all how well someone is able to solve real world problems they might face.
How would I change it? That's the question... right? I was taught to be a problem solver, not a finger pointer. Don't complain unless you can offer an alternative. Well, lets look at that. People need jobs in order to live. So we, have to have jobs for people unless we can change that basic fact. A universal basic income could address that, but I don't think we are close to possibly implementing that. So, how do we reconcile a world where productivity is up at the expense of providing jobs and the resulting income. If we don't also have increasing jobs and money for people to spend, then who is consuming the increase in producivity? And if you modify the situation to say that efficiency is up for the same productivity, then that should mean that costs are down, and so prices can come down, so that people can have more for their dollars that they have to earn. However, that doesn't seem to be happening either. Instead the "efficiency" goes to generating more profits. Do the profits get distributed to the people who work at these highly efficient companies? Not so much, it seems. The profits trickle up. It all doesn't work. On the surface, the idea of making life easier for people through AI and automation doesn't seem to be actually making life easier for most people. It's a false economy and the system is broken. There I go finger pointing again.
So, here's what I think needs to actually happen. UBI, and capitaltruism. A system of capitalism and altruism combined with checks and balances implemented. If a CEO wants to earn x dollars, then it can only be a limited multiplier of what the lowest paid person in the organization can get. Incentives should exist for providing good to the world and helping people. Environmental costs need to be taken into account in the cost of goods produced and sold. Success and innovation should be rewarded, but homelessness should also not exist. Peoples lives should actually get easier as we get better at doing things and develop magnificent new technologies. If they are not, then what is the point of it all?
What happens if changes are not made to the existing systems? More and more people are using more and more credit just to live because costs are increasing as they make comparitively less money. It's not a sustainable system. Without increased demand for AI and the products of automation, the increase of supply is useless and the massive debt load taken on to implement these new technologies has no chance of being repaid. An economic crash is inevitable. The fancy new tools no longer make any sense, and nearly everyone ends up worse off than we were before they arrived. It's a real problem that doesn't seem to be significantly addressed at all currently. It feels like society is carrying on on hopium alone, and people have their heads in the sand because they don't want to see what is inevitably coming if systemic changes to address the real problems of peoples needs are not made.
In the short term, I need a job to live, and it feels like a slog through Hades trying to find one. In the long term I have great fear for what may be coming if we can't fix the root issues that we are all going to have to face.