How Artificial Intelligence Could Kill Capitalism

-Source-Forbes- If you believe the hype then Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to change the world in dramatic ways soon. Nay-sayers claim it will lead to at best rising unemployment and civil unrest and at worst the eradication of humanity. Advocates on the other hand are telling us to look forward to a future of leisure and creativity as robots take care of the drudgery and routine. A third camp probably the largest are happy to admit that the forces of change which are at work are too complicated to predict and for the moment everything is up in the air. Previous large-scale changes to the way we work (past industrial revolutions) may have been disruptive in the short-term. However in the long term what happened was a transfer of labor from countryside to cities and no lasting downfall of society. However as author Calum Chace points out in his latest book Artificial Intelligence and the Two Singularities this time theres one big difference. Previous industrial revolutions involved replacing human mechanical skills with tools and machinery. This time its our mental functions which are being replaced particularly our ability to make predictions and decisions. This is something which has never happened before in human history and no one exactly knows what to expect. When I recently met with Culum Chase in London he told me A lot of people think it didnt happen in the past so it wont happen now but everything is different now. In the short run AI will create more jobs as we learn how to work better with machines. But its important to think on a slightly longer timescale than the next 10 to 15 years." One guiding idea has always been that as machines take care of menial work (be that manual labor augmenting the abilities of skilled professionals such doctors lawyers and engineers or making routine decisions) humans will be free to spend their time on leisure or creative pursuits. However as Chace says that would require the existence of the abundance economy" a Star Trek-like utopia where the means of filling our basic needs sustenance and shelter are so highly available that they are essentially free.