The Solution to AI-Driven Job Displacement Is a Robust Welfare State
The idea that AI will wipe out all our jobs is generating lots of apocalyptic headlines these days. It's no surprise why: in a society without an egalitarian welfare state and pro-worker policies, labor reallocation can be a disaster.
There is common concern that AI will be used as a laborsaving technology that results in widespread job loss and displacement. (Bill Varie / Getty Images)
The recent splash of Large Language Model (LLM) applications like ChatGPT has generated considerable discourse around how society and government should respond to the technology.
Some worry that LLM technology will create AI companions that could become a new type of vice in the sense that some people could get so sucked into them that it may disrupt their normal functioning in harmful ways, especially when it comes to creating and maintaining important social ties. Others worry that LLM technology could be used by malicious actors or perhaps become so advanced that it becomes capable of independent malicious action.
But right now, the most common concern you hear, which is also the most immediate, is about LLMs being used as laborsaving technology that results in widespread job loss and displacement.
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