Will AI Make Humans Unemployed and Jobless? Our Biggest Misunderstanding About Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is becoming increasingly mature. Although it has only recently attracted widespread public attention, it has already begun to affect various fields, including the job market.

Many people are starting to worry that AI will make their jobs meaningless or even completely replace them, causing massive unemployment in society. In Europe, groups have even risen up in protest.

However, this is not the case. For most jobs, AI is more likely to serve as an auxiliary tool rather than directly replacing human workers.

The True Face of AI’s Impact on the Right to Work

Alright, up to this point, this has been a mainstream view in society regarding how artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) erodes humans’ right to work.

Unfortunately, AI may not cost you your job, but your boss will certainly keep trying to replace you with AI—it’s cheaper and doesn’t complain.

Many opinions online—whether that AI will replace human jobs or that it cannot—miss the essence of the problem. Ultimately, the only evidence we can analyze is whether the overall unemployment rate shows signs of loosening.

Across all walks of life, there is a saying: “Every employee is just a cog in the system; no one is irreplaceable.”

If a job that used to require 10 people can now be done with just one person using a so-called “amazing auxiliary tool” to achieve the same workload, why would the boss keep paying 9 people who have nothing to do?

Whenever society discusses this issue, people always say AI lacks imagination, and that as long as we maintain our creativity and innovative ability, we don’t need to worry about being replaced, blah blah blah.

But what is the reality?

AI’s Creative Energy Is Not What You Think

Artificial intelligence can, through powerful computing power, instantly produce graphic and textual creations in various styles and designs. We only need to find a tiny fraction of these works, and they may already display creative presentations that amaze humans.

Even though this still cannot be said to mean that AI itself already possesses creative ability, from another perspective, the quantity of creativity it produces is beyond what humans can match.

The most obvious example is the flood of AI images today—haven’t they already amazed you and me?

Although the final decision on which work to use for commercial presentation (for now) requires returning to the judgment of the decision-maker (a human), this kind of work, similar to that of a magazine editor-in-chief, ultimately does not require many people.

Although many jobs (for now) still require human judgment and creativity—for example, doctors need to give diagnoses and treatment recommendations, lawyers need to fight for the best outcomes for clients, and teachers need to inspire students’ interests and potential.

These jobs cannot be completely replaced and cannot be simply automated, but as long as a method is trainable, AI has room to intervene. Or it may require only very little manpower, combined with remote work and AI label classification, to achieve implementation on a larger scale.

Yes, I believe that for a minority of people, the arrival of the AI application era will become an invincible weapon in their hands. But for the majority, it may not be so optimistic.

A Real Example of AI’s Impact on the Right to Work

An AI clerk developed by a friend’s company has already been officially launched in more than 40 large chain bakeries in Japan. It is touted as saving the company a great deal of manpower, but at the same time it also means that a great deal of manpower has become unemployed.

So, do you think you are among the majority, or the chosen minority?

Perhaps what we can ultimately rely on is the government and enterprises taking responsibility to ensure that people have sufficient opportunities and resources to undergo this transformation, so that society as a whole can develop fully.

A Universal Unconditional Basic Income Guarantee Policy Is the Answer

In fact, the arrival of the AI era is a good thing. Although it seems it will upset the balance that has been maintained for a hundred years under human capitalism, as long as the government is willing to make bold reforms and seize the opportunity to promote a universal unconditional basic income guarantee policy, people will no longer be forced to choose jobs they have no interest in and that are unproductive just to put food on the table.

By guaranteeing the social need for basic livelihood, let everyone confidently devote themselves to the lifestyle they are interested in!