Author(s): David Barnhizer; Daniel Barnhizer

Culture Ideas Politics

The Artificial Intelligence Contagion examines the ominous social impact of as many as half the world's workers in the US, EU, China and Japan being replaced by AI/Robotics within the next 30 years. Jobs are already being lost across the spectrum, from the most intellectual to basic areas of services and labor. Nor will the Al/robotics transformation produce large numbers of replacement jobs-AI/robotics systems are already being designed to do increasingly high level work. Heavily-indebted governments will see revenues plummet while public debt will rise dramatically. This will occur amid crisis scenarios on a multitude of levels-mass unemployment, lack of personal savings, underfunded or non-existent pensions, health care problems, an aging population, and a drug and opioid epidemic. These conditions will drive many into hopelessness, homelessness, violence and crime. All this will take place in an environment of increased AI-facilitated surveillance by governments, aggressive militarization using AI systems and autonomous weapons, and the degradation of the world's economic and political order as financial benefits are diverted from human workers to a limited number of incredibly wealthy investors and managers. What will our children do as this unfolds? This book examines some possible solutions, including the need for political and economic strategies that do everything possible to slow and focus the transformation while protecting and creating human jobs. Book jacket.