OpenAI leadership keeps pissing me off with their obviously inauthentic claim that humans will be doing productive work in the future. They are targeting, by 2028, an automated AI researcher, and yet claim that there will be bountiful jobs in the future for humans to do that are super high paying and interesting. Sam mentioned something to the effect of people in ten years working really exciting, high paying jobs in space. Why say this, if he very likely doesn't believe it?
It's simple, if you tell everyone you're going to take their jobs, they will very much dislike you. The idea of people's jobs being "taken" has lead to nationalism, racism, and societal disruption since the founding of America (remember the Know Nothing party?). OpenAI knows that there is lots of potential unemployment and civil unrest coming up. People who lose their jobs can't provide for their families, and the most important thing in the world to everyone is providing for themselves and their families. Financial disruption, in simple terms, is a really big deal. Maybe it's fine to avoid near-term societal disruption by being honest, but it's more disruptive to not simply state the facts (as Elon does). Quick change is hard, so we better start preparing the public in advance.
People who go bankrupt jump off skyscrapers. Even if we believe in a post-work, UBI driven future, let's not forget this.
