AI is a Tool for Economic Progress, Not a Job Taker 

In a response to a New York Times article about Amazon planning to replace its workforce with robots, Elon Musk reaffirmed his opinion that “AI and Robots will replace all jobs.” While the statement created a buzz, reality speaks differently.

This adds layers of fear and possibilities since the adoption of ChatGPT and similar platforms such as Gemini, and Claude, in different spheres of life and work. The trajectory of humanity has been altered, especially in the tech space.

The advancement of AI in itself has received mixed reactions, some Reddit users see it as a productivity booster and others view it as a disruptor of their livelihood even where they lack immediate evidence. But according to the International Labor Organization, there’s a significantly higher likelihood of job transformation than redundancy.

Also, the Hiring Labs report, the consensus of research hints at a hybrid transformation of jobs rather than a Generative AI replacement. Still, tech workers may have reasons to be worried. Companies actually want to ship faster and replace workers with AI; the difficulties make the process currently unclear or a black box of future outcomes.

Economics and AI

Economic narratives determine reality and humans adapt accordingly. Capitalism organically came up with the term “dignity of labor” to justify the practice of working long hours for rewards with access to resources and participation in the economy’s engine of production and human consumption.

This makes sense as long as there’s no disruption between the existing norm while preserving the possibility of change.  By this, capitalism built industries, businesses sprang up,  jobs were created as a result of the chaos, unions fought against unfair practices, and lawmakers devised regulations for nine-to-five workers and an ethos for the capitalist framework.

Civilizations have been built on the scaffolds of existing frameworks. However, the question of computers automating our jobs still rings an alarm bell against the collective. An understated part of the AI wave is, people may be less focused on mastery or professionalism; but on fear of the unknown. Cautious tech workers are worried about layoffs in their office spaces while undergraduates are still navigating their career choices amidst the uncertainty.

According to a McKinsey study, generative AI is capable of boosting developer productivity. Yet, general data is still scarce on certainty due to the productivity paradox and AI limitations. For example, some expert coders have reported high productivity gains and have created agentic workflows and specification documents while some only use it for research purposes or restricted use cases while blaming the AI bugs, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies.

Nonetheless, there’s one thing workers are missing and business owners instinctively understand: the creation and cultivation of wealth is in the creation of value— employees or machines are a means to an end. This doesn’t make employees expendable, but it hints that the market operates on value and scarcity.

Innovation and Disruption

The first thing that came to mind after the viral adoption of ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms, was the fear of writers getting automated away. But many understood it wasn’t just words that people read, it was the curation of thoughts by an informed human mind, or perhaps a playful one that mirrored imaginative possibilities. Large language Models are at best, mathematical ghosts of thoughts other humans have created with structural echoes.

If there’s any hindsight problem, perhaps the economic landscape would have been framed differently if text-generators or image-generators were the names given to these products rather than Artificial Intelligence. Not because the name is wrong but because it had awoken humanity’s greatest fears against domination and hijacking by aliens of computers in old sci-fi movies.

There’s also the perceptively thin line between a productivity booster and an automation/replacement of jobs. The job market has changed but a large part of it is similar with perhaps updated job postings with higher bars for employees because companies care more about their products and end goals rather than who does it — but they know humans understand it better even if they desire alternatives.

There are numerous projections with the economy radically altered for good with a cumulatively higher U.S. GDP by 16% and $13 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey Institute.  And recently Nvidia has crossed the $5 trillion threshold for a company due to the AI boom. Higher market surplus creates more opportunities because business leaders reinvest gains in new platforms which often translates into opportunities for people.

Where AI Utopia Collapses

From what we see, AI can only replace all jobs according to Elon Musk, if it fulfills five conditions:

First, it can think like humans; but there’s no perfect statistical concrete formula for this. Second, all products or books or thoughts have been created; which isn’t realistic because of the infinitude of human thoughts and possibilities of realities. Third, if human problems and complexities never arise from a shift in stability. Fourth, if the whole race of humanity catches up to the new stasis without improvisation. Fifth, if all questions about the origin of humanity have been answered.

Upon these five possibilities, the AI utopia hypothesis crumbles. There has never been any state in history where humans simply want to do nothing or not participate in their societies economically and socially. We would not live in a world organized by robots but perhaps a world where we organize robots.

Workers should therefore view AI as a tool for augmented productivity if necessary in their workflow and understand that production of value is necessary to be relevant in the economy and get opportunities, the only problem is how fast the goalpost of value may change due to the breakneck pace of innovations and thinking in new frontiers of development.