Forgot to capture notes from this when I had a subscription, but I’d argue that there are MANY paths for AI, only two of which are “sky net” and “boring clippy enterprise software”, the rest are modeled by economics.
Right now major tech companies are locked in an arms race to capture as much public dollars from AI-ify all the things. Bill Gates out here suggesting we’ll see the dawn of the 2 day work week or the Jetsons 1 hour work day… which feels optimistic in a way that ignores how incentives actually work under capitalism.
And I say this as someone who likes markets and believes in the allocation of goods and services through them. But unregulated markets don’t generally create incentives to reduce working hours while paying the same wages.
Productivity gains don’t automatically become shared gains. Historically, they flow upward unless counterbalanced by policy, norms, or pressure from workers and society.
This is nothing new about AI.. but its certainly forefront in the discussions right now.
Quote Citation: Joshua Rothman, “Two Paths for A.I. | The New Yorker”, 2025-05-27, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/two-paths-for-ai