Social AI Could Wipe Out the Working Class | Sen. Bernie Sanders

[lowlife]

1980s was peak humanity

It's all downhill from then on out.

I'm gonna go with somewhere between mid 90's and early 00's, with 9/11 being a clear demarcation for the accelerated downfall of humanity "as we know/knew it." 1945-2000 we had a hell of a run.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

I think in 10 years, they might capture 5% of the working class, only elon is creating a general purpose robot to do that, and I dont think it replaces past five percent. Even self driving cars, a simpler version of robotics, has taken a long time, and will continue to take likely five more years to retire uber drivers, human dexterity is darn unbeatable, however, even without robots, manufacturing jobs can disappear due to more innovated processes.

Yeah, the working class is made up of tens of millions of people and while the vast majority won't be affected by AI but even a small percentage of this huge number results in millions of people.

I'm thinking the more manual, harder work won't be affected but things like manufacturing or simple office/administrative work will.

In any case, we really really need to start looking into universal basic income.

 

[Zazen]

All I know is using the likeness of someone to deceive people should be criminalized. AI celebrity porn, using audio to fake something a politician said, etc.

 

[Cole train]

If A.I will eliminate a lot of jobs and there will be mass unemployment then who will companys sell products to since no one has money?

Not to mention if A.I can replace some industry completely (say driving) then why would A.I company not start running trucks themself, the actual truck company would then be a not needed middle man

Questions for smarter people than me lol

 

[Why did you]

You are giving the higher ups that make these decisions far too much credit. In big companies these employees are an ID on a spreadsheet with a cost associated with them. If they can use AI tools to cut costs even if it means replacing experience and knowledge with lesser quality employees, they will. If they see a team of 5-6 sys admins that can be replaced by 2-3 people assisted by AI, they will. It's already happening now where I work with "automation".

Social Thread 'Watching an RPA Demo at Work Right Now… Are We All Being Replaced?'

Jun 11, 2025

I’m literally still in a Teams call right now—600+ people from my company watching a live demo of Automation Anywhere.


They’re showing how it records user activity on desktops to identify repeatable workflows, so bots can take over those tasks. It’s impressive tech. But as I sit here, I can’t help but think:


Are we watching the blueprint for automating our own jobs?


What’s surprising is that no one has raised this question. Out of hundreds of people, no one has asked, “When do you plan to replace most of us?” lol
Instead, everyone’s asking things like “How do I build a...

• Why did you
• Replies: 49
• Forum: The War Room

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[Gamer2k4]

Customer service jobs will never go away completely though. People hate chatbots. To this day, I find myself yelling "speak to a representative" into the phone. I stopped using Coinbase because I hate their CS so much.

Yes, people do hate chatbots. But that hasn't stopped companies from using them.

People would like to go to a grocery store checkout and have one person ringing them up and one person bagging, too. Yet not matter where you go, there's probably two staffed lanes out of ten (with baggers only if you're lucky), and a dozen or more self-service checkouts.

Companies will always push to make their service departments as bare-bones as possible, because the cost savings more than offset whatever loss in customer satisfaction goes with it.

 

[Why did you]

If A.I will eliminate a lot of jobs and there will be mass unemployment then who will companys sell products to since no one has money?

Not to mention if A.I can replace some industry completely (say driving) then why would A.I company not start running trucks themself, the actual truck company would then be a not needed middle man

Questions for smarter people than me lol

then I'll try to answer : )
Perspective is usually that the ultra-wealthy need the masses to keep consuming in order to stay rich, but that might not actually be their ultimate objective.Instead, I suggest that some of the most powerful and wealthiest might have a long-term vision where:Money is no longer the real goal , they already have more than enough.The true goal is control and exclusivity ,a world optimized for them, not for mass participation.AI and robotics provide all essential services ,from production to maintenance, without relying on human workers.Population reduction of “unnecessary” humans ,intentionally or passively, through lack of opportunity, resources, or societal collapse.A shift from capitalism to post-capitalist elitism ,wealth becomes irrelevant because they control the means of survival outright.In that scenario, the “consumers keep the system alive” logic breaks down, because the system is redesigned for a small elite who don’t need broad consumption to sustain their way of life.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

There his no stopping whatever is coming so all you can try to do is prepare accordingly

 

[Cole train]

then I'll try to answer : )
Perspective is usually that the ultra-wealthy need the masses to keep consuming in order to stay rich, but that might not actually be their ultimate objective.Instead, I suggest that some of the most powerful and wealthiest might have a long-term vision where:Money is no longer the real goal , they already have more than enough.The true goal is control and exclusivity ,a world optimized for them, not for mass participation.AI and robotics provide all essential services ,from production to maintenance, without relying on human workers.Population reduction of “unnecessary” humans ,intentionally or passively, through lack of opportunity, resources, or societal collapse.A shift from capitalism to post-capitalist elitism ,wealth becomes irrelevant because they control the means of survival outright.In that scenario, the “consumers keep the system alive” logic breaks down, because the system is redesigned for a small elite who don’t need broad consumption to sustain their way of life.

Cant wait for techno feudalism

 

[b34stmode]

The artificial intelligence and robotics being developed by multi-billionaires will allow corporate America to wipe out tens of millions of decent-paying jobs, cut labor costs and boost profits.
What happens to working class people who can’t find jobs because they don’t exist?


your thoughts on this topic ?

When these videos put these two statements together

“Wipe out tens of MILLIONS of decent paying jobs”

“Boost profits”

If tens of millions of people lose their job, WHO is going to spend money for this supposed boosted profits?

 

[Long Dark Blues]

It should wipe out politicians first, IMO.

 

[TeTe]

Yes, people do hate chatbots. But that hasn't stopped companies from using them.

People would like to go to a grocery store checkout and have one person ringing them up and one person bagging, too. Yet not matter where you go, there's probably two staffed lanes out of ten (with baggers only if you're lucky), and a dozen or more self-service checkouts.

Companies will always push to make their service departments as bare-bones as possible, because the cost savings more than offset whatever loss in customer satisfaction goes with it.

Guess it depends on the customers/clients you serve. Half of our CS department handles our business clients. If we pawned them off on chatbots they'd go to a competitor. The last thing we'd want is to lose a client that brings in an obscene amount of money to us because we were too cheap to pay someone $50k a year to support their account.

 

[PhitePhan]

then I'll try to answer : )
Perspective is usually that the ultra-wealthy need the masses to keep consuming in order to stay rich, but that might not actually be their ultimate objective.Instead, I suggest that some of the most powerful and wealthiest might have a long-term vision where:Money is no longer the real goal , they already have more than enough.The true goal is control and exclusivity ,a world optimized for them, not for mass participation.AI and robotics provide all essential services ,from production to maintenance, without relying on human workers.Population reduction of “unnecessary” humans ,intentionally or passively, through lack of opportunity, resources, or societal collapse.A shift from capitalism to post-capitalist elitism ,wealth becomes irrelevant because they control the means of survival outright.In that scenario, the “consumers keep the system alive” logic breaks down, because the system is redesigned for a small elite who don’t need broad consumption to sustain their way of life.

What about when their toilet breaks?

 

[plataoplombo]

If automation and robots take all the jobs, that might not be a bad thing. Sure the transitional period will suck but once we adjust to the new society, it might be pretty good. My guess is we might really start considering colonizing othe planets.

If your needs are taken care of then what else is left? We'll need some kind of purpose or else we'll go extinct.

 

[Loiosh]

Makes zero sense to stifle growth by letting go of people. The ROI on augmenting the same number of people with AI is exponentially better than halving your staff to do the same amount of work as the staff you had. Good way to get left behind.

If I had ten employees generating $1 million a year.. and thought I was slick by getting rid of five and still making $1 million a year... I'm stunting growth just to save a small percentage.

However, if I have ten employees, augmented with AI, and they could make $2 million a year now.. which choice is the smarter one?

But hey, remember when the internet was supposed to take everyone's jobs? Automation has been happening for centuries and it has never caused mass job loss, it's just evolves the job market.

A lot of companies are staffed to meet demand of production.

I've worked for multiple companies that had fluid production and could increase staff when necessary.

Demand doesn't necessarily grow just because your production is more efficient.

 

[TeTe]

If automation and robots take all the jobs, that might not be a bad thing. Sure the transitional period will suck but once we adjust to the new society, it might be pretty good. My guess is we might really start considering colonizing othe planets.

If your needs are taken care of then what else is left? We'll need some kind of purpose or else we'll go extinct.

Sounds like an amazing Wall-E world to me!

 

[Loiosh]

My guess is we might really start considering colonizing othe planets.

I don't see this happening in the next century.

 

[plataoplombo]

I don't see this happening in the next century.

I don't know but 100 years is a looonnnggg time and technology is advancing pretty quick. We don't even know what kind of effects quantum computing can have.

 

[deviake]

If A.I will eliminate a lot of jobs and there will be mass unemployment then who will companys sell products to since no one has money?

Not to mention if A.I can replace some industry completely (say driving) then why would A.I company not start running trucks themself, the actual truck company would then be a not needed middle man

Questions for smarter people than me lol

Brother, I don't think the smarter people than us are that wise. It doesn't even seem like they're looking that far ahead. They just seem to want to control everything while taking from everyone else

 

[deviake]

I don't see this happening in the next century.

We can barely survive in Antarctica and that is by far vastly more habitable than anywhere else in the solar system. These tech people talking about colonizing Mars and all this other bullshit are smoking crack.