Yes Bill, it has begun.
The Age of AI has begun | Bill Gates (gatesnotes.com)
In the United States, the best opportunity for reducing inequity is to improve education, particularly making sure that students succeed at math. The evidence shows that having basic math skills sets students up for success, no matter what career they choose. But achievement in math is going down across the country, especially for Black, Latino, and low-income students. AI can help turn that trend around.
Bill, I know that you know better than that. Education barely changes anything around inequality. We have generations upon generations who did better scholarly and are still struggling financially. Here is the most recent example:
5 years ago we were telling students “do CS, you’ll be fine”. Today, they are or have graduated, AI is a reality, and we need ten times less programmers in 2023 than we thought we needed in 2018.
(for those who don’t know, AI is very good at programming)
That means, all those 2018 students are now competing with no end in sight. One will get a job, the next 199 will not. They all did what they were supposed to. They’re all probably good enough to get a job, it’s just that AI exists now but didn’t five years ago. And you know how companies love their employees, right?
BILL, WAKE THE FUCK UP
It is just the beginning and it is already massively disruptive. AI literally doesn’t help the way things used to be, today.
First, we should try to balance fears about the downsides of AI—which are understandable and valid—with its ability to improve people’s lives. To make the most of this remarkable new technology, we’ll need to both guard against the risks and spread the benefits to as many people as possible.
Second, market forces won’t naturally produce AI products and services that help the poorest. The opposite is more likely. With reliable funding and the right policies, governments and philanthropy can ensure that AIs are used to reduce inequity. Just as the world needs its brightest people focused on its biggest problems, we will need to focus the world’s best AIs on its biggest problems.
The solution is called Universal Basic Income. For all who do not own property. Society living on top of jobs that pay for everything, is over. It’s been gradually over with technological achievements decade after decade since the end of WWII, if we want to be honest. And that’s fine. Wealth just needs to be redistributed equally.
AI —that I’m toying with everyday and everyday I’m thinking holy fucking shit— is the nail in the coffin of society propelled by jobs. There’s so much of what’s the point with this tool next to me? Yes, paradigm shift. It’s real.
What’s the next step?
I’d like GPT10 to control and manage the federal banks around the world, balancing interest rates and money in a rational way, providing enough for all, which is totally doable without AI but yup, greedy little bags of meat.
But before that UBI now, y’all.