AI is no different in this respect than any other technology. The problems arise when we forget any technology is a tradeoff, it has hidden costs and unforeseen consequences. We must be careful to study the effects and results of new tech and how it will affect other aspects of society when it is adopted. And we must be especially careful to ensure that new technologies do not encourage the growth of small but influential constituencies that can benefit from the payoffs of the new tech, while they cavalierly pass on the costs to the rest of us.

The adoption of new technology is too often driven by its short-term benefit to some small sector or group, while it delivers long term problems to society as a whole. This is especially the case when the “short-term benefit” is restricted to a tiny minority interested only in their personal profit, and the “long-term problems” must be borne (and paid for!) by the rest of us. We must also be wary of becoming overly dependent on new technologies, so we are vulnerable to economic, political or military threats to them, or burdened by the cost of the vast infrastructures required to maintain them. Think of the automobile…

From what I can see, the introduction of technology today into the commercial sector is primarily designed to allow employers to hire workers who are less skilled, less educated, less experienced, and in fewer numbers. In other words, it is to lower labor costs. There is nothing wrong with that, if I were an employer, I would be doing the exact same thing. But I am not an employer. I have always seen myself as an employee. My entire life has been based on making my skills more valuable to potential employers so that I may prosper and flourish. Any policy which serves to make skilled, educated and experienced workers less necessary and less valuable is a threat to me, personally and to everyone like me. We cannot allow our civilization to become one where the vast majority of its members are incapable of providing anything of value. Lets face it, we can’t all be rock stars, entrepreneurs and software engineers. In fact, this is a potential threat to the society as a whole, since most of us are employees, not employers.

I understand that sometimes this is necessary, we don’t really need buggy whip makers or sextant navigators any more. I get that. But there are always tradeoffs and unforeseen consequences, we cannot allow those who will profit most from new technology to be the only ones involved in its implementation; especially when that implementation is so often subsidized by my tax dollars.