Dr. David Hanson on the Social and Financial Impacts of AI and Automation

Dr. David Hanson is an innovative robotics designer who was nice enough to talk to me about his predictions on the social and financial impacts of automation and artificial intelligence for my midterm research.

1. What will be the biggest social impact of automation and AI?
Hard to say. In the short term, the biggest social impact will be on improving efficiencies in the economy, which will mostly benefit the wealthy and increase the economic gaps. As society is disrupted by waves of accelerating change, the ways people relate to technology and each other will be impacted, in ways that are difficult to predict exactly. Certainly many changes will be negative. People will lose their jobs, and opportunities for governments and companies to manipulate people for negative sentiment will grow more sophisticated. In the long run, truly sentient AI will change history in ways that will redefine the very meaning of humanity. I hope we survive that. I hope that such AI can help correct destructive trends, and I aspire to help realize such AI. If we succeed in this aspirations, life will probably become very good for everyone. It's a race against the myriad ways that humanity could perish or spiral into horrific suffering.

2. Will automation eliminate the need for humans to work?
I believe so, but there will be tremendous disruption, turmoil and trouble along the way. Hopefully such elimination of jobs will be accompanied by increased opportunities for bettering the lives for the displaced. We have to take steps to make that happen.

3. How long do you think it will take for that to happen?
Hard to say, but maybe 15 years.

4. What kinds of occupations will humans have instead?
I hope humans will have the chance to self actualize, and evolve into new states of being.

5. What place in society to you see for unskilled humans in the future? 
In the short term, unskilled people will often become destitute, but with great opportunities for distraction through cheap immersive entertainment media. I hope we can rise up to the challenge and offer universal basic income combined with a good education system to help unskilled displaced workers follow their dreams, but that depends on enlightened leadership. A few nations and companies will provide, most won't.

6. What is the biggest economic impact of a.i. on America?
The biggest impact of ai on America remains in the areas of big data and search. Soon that will change to general resource management, and myriad other uses. Including intelligent 😉

7. Do you have theories on how humans will make income if they lose their jobs to automation?
Wherever they can. Sometimes people will take crappy jobs, some will go of the grid, others will take welfare, others will adapt to new jobs. Given the many areas where machines still perform poorly, people will make money in creative pursuits, which generally machines can't yet perform well. I hope we can provide a universal basic income, and develop the tools to help people find purpose beyond mere jobs.

Hanson's "Sophia"

8. Do you think living wages or universal wage could happen in America? What would need to change in our society economically for that to happen?
Regime change will be needed before universal basic income will be possible in the U.S. Local governments could make this happen first.

9. What is the economic impact of drone use on American soil? (related to the military industrial complex jobs)
So far, the economic impact of drones in the U.S. is small, but we are on the threshold of radical changes if drone delivery takes root, and if drone surveillance becomes common. A fascism of ultimate convenience shopping.

10. Is full workforce automation economically sustainable when considering energy use and manufacturing materials consumed?
Sustainable automation depends of increasingly efficient use of energy and resources. We are getting smarter and more, but on a debt drawn from the ecosystems. They will collapse eventually, and this could kill civilization. We need to get much smarter and more before this happens. It will probably require greater than human intelligence and creativity, and this is where super benevolent superintelligent AI could save us.

11. What prevents employers from going to a fully automated workforce today?
Robots can't yet do all the things that people can. Most manufacturing requires manual dexterity that only humans can provide so far. Any deep adaptive problem solving still requires people. Many domains of human labor that could be automated, aren't cost effective to automate yet.  These factors likely will change in coming years.

Want to learn more? Check out David's Ted Talk below, "Robots that Show Emotions."

 

Dr. Hanson's Ted Talk "Robots that Show Emotion"

Hanson with his bot Einstein

 

Hanson's re-creation of "Philip K. Dick"

Zeno by Robokind - Robots4Autism™

Dr. David Hanson with his son Zeno and his robot Zeno