I am amazed at how few people appreciate how many jobs can be replaced for a fraction of the cost.
1. They brought in these self checkout machines and soon they bought more and more because they are cheaper for the store.
2. Amazon.com and Walmart have both demonstrated they can effectively replace retail sales workers, stockers, etc. You can order online, they load it up and deliver it to your house.
3. Adidas and other shoe companies have automated the process of buying shoes so you can order online, then 3d printers and other machines make your shoes and ship them to you.
4. This is true of much of the manufacturing that was done in China which is why their unemployment is around 50%.
5. Tesla and others are making robots which can service your car, cook your food, and do other menial labor jobs. They can learn how to do the jobs by watching a youtube video.
6. Khan academy has a AI tutor that can tutor kids in any subject they have and probably do it much better than most tutors, it costs $35 a year.
7. McDonald's has a fully automated restaurant that doesn't have any people working there. It has done very well for ROI, you don't need as much land because the restaurant is drive through so you don't need a place for people to sit and eat or for them to park their car. If McDonald's can do this so can all the other franchise restaurants.
8. AI is replacing computer coders by the thousands.
9. AI is scoring at the 85% level on all the college Graduate Record Exams. How many doctors can also score at the top 85% in Math, Law, and accounting? Not only so how many can work four shifts a week with an annual cost around 30k? This is going to replace lawyers, it will replace doctors, it will replace accountants and tax preparers.
10. A company recently replaced the online support personel with AI and they are getting higher marks for customer service.
11. Because many companies are anticipating fewer people being able to do more work with the help of AI they are shrinking their human resources department because they will not be hiring many people in the future.
12. The military uses drones and robots that are operated remotely by people and have been doing so since 9/11. However, all the data from that can be used to train the AI to do the job without an operator. Already Ukraine and Israel are deploying massive numbers of drones that are operated by AI.
13. If they move to digital currency there is no reason to handle cash and that will eliminate the need for bank tellers. Already we have seen many bank branches closed.
14. Recently a song writer said he felt in the very near term all songs will be written by AI.
15. We saw AI make a short video which could have been used for an ad. They said to shoot that would have cost over $1 million, but the AI generated it in a matter of minutes. AI can make music, it can write songs, it can generate video that is realistic or animated, and it can make video games.
You don't have to replace 100% of jobs or even 50% of jobs to have a crisis. Put 25% of people out of work and unemployment will be on par with the Great Depression.