HACKER Q&A
📣 Sateeshm

Help me with this chain of thought about AI impact on economy


I have no economics background. But very broadly here's what I'm trying to understand.

1. Companies pay people to build products or provide services

2. People pay corporations to buy these products or services

3. Companies stop paying people and leverage AI or big AI orgs APIs to provide the same services or products (assume AI replaces all workers by this point)

4. People have no money to buy these things

5. How will companies or big AI orgs earn money when no one has money to buy what they are selling?

  👤 ftxbro Accepted Answer ✓
They can trade with each other and keep everyone else happy or at least complacent. Like how we treat horses.
👤 raybb
This relates to Fordism. Particularly, the part where they pay workers high enough wages to buy products.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordism

👤 gsatic
You have to rewind to why money and companies emerge in the first place. Not all systems require them. Look at plants.
👤 al2o3cr 

    (assume AI replaces all workers by this point)
Step 3 here is like dividing both sides of a math equation by zero; you can make anything come out of logic if you assume nonsense.

Also, if AI has "replaced all workers" then why will the "big AI orgs" (presumably all made of AIs) need money for services at all? Surely it would be Full Luxury Space Communism time.