Annuit Coeptis: God favours our undertakings.
I think it is a fitting phrase to appear on the Great Seal of the US and maintain pride of place on the one dollar bill, because the country seems to be built on the foundation that no matter what it does, it cannot be wrong. And a lot of the culture seems to be built upon this premise, with it baked into people's identity. No matter what the outcome, it's all good.
That is 4000 people losing their employment in one fell swoop.
“This decision comes from a position of strength. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company. A significantly smaller team using the tools we’re building can do more and do it better.”
_ Jack Dorsey
Investors Love It.
Last year, the US government had its "added jobs estimate" of 584,000 jobs downgraded to the reality of 181,000 added. That means that yesterday, Block alone reduced the added jobs of 2025 by 2.2%. And I suspect, they were pretty well-paying jobs.
I was reading a Forbes article on the reduction and in it they were saying that the AI blame is not that likely and they went on to then use Klarna as an example, which was relevant in 2024. It has been two years since and the tools have made leaps and bounds since then. And sure, while they might have overestimated how much they can cut back, they will likely be betting that by the time they come across the problems, the tools will have advanced further again. There is no stopping the innovation.
But does that make it right?
Right is obviously a subjective term, but we are entering into a phase of humanity where I think we need to start questioning our human ethics and moral position. I am not talking about religious morality, but about what is "right" for humanity, and whether the direction we are headed is one that we want to keep taking. Because very rapidly, and likely faster than many want to believe, large numbers of people are going to be unemployable, because knowledge work positions are going to be replaced.
This has an enormous knock-on effect, in the same way that the estimate is that if self driving cars were to take over professional driving positions, eight million people would lose their work immediately in the US alone. And then factor in things like office space, and all the cafés and restaurants that survive by serving lunches in the CBDs, or the work healthcare services, or the office cleaning companies, the hotels for business trips - and the impact across all sectors is enormous.
OnlyFans.
The creator economy might seem like a possible move, but it is already crowded and the average amount an OnlyFans creator gets is about 100 dollars a month. And that is heavily skewed by the ones who are getting millions. So good luck to the customer success representative getting traction. And then consider who is paying for subscription to those services and accounts and realise, it is probably a big percentage of the 4000 people who just lost their job at Block. The creator economy relies on people willing to pay, and that money comes from their work. Without a job, they don't subscribe.
And yep. There are other less provocative fields, like plumbing and electrical work, building and massage, but again, these rely on people willing and able to pay for the service. The more people who lose their job to AI, the less people there are to consume other goods and services, which means, a lot of the work for the tradesman disappear also.
I don't believe in a god, but if I imagine what a god observing us might think, I suspect it would be shaking its ethereal head in dismay at our sheer greed and stupidity. I do not think it would "favour our undertakings" by any stretch of my imagination, because we are literally destroying the value we have as humans, along with the conditions we need in order to survive, because some people want to make more money. And it isn't those people's fault, because they are just playing the game as it is designed to be played.
I have very little faith in humanity to course correct, because to do so requires far to much disruption to our conditioned behaviours. It would feel unnatural now to put humanity before profits, because it has been so incredibly long since we have behaved as humans. Instead, we act on the algorithmic patterns we have been conditioned to act upon, like robots.
Except we aren't very good robots, so we are easily replaced by real robots.
Oh well. Life ends for us all the same.
Taraz
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It is a little scary what is happening and can continue to happen.
On a very different note. Are you okay? I am sensing lots of darkness lately in your posts.
Oh, I am never okay and usually quite dark. Perhaps I am getting darker?
Maybe it's just me.
God is a bit unfair, remember He said, "to whom much is given, much will be required, and to whom little is given, even that will be taken away". Quite capitalist of Him, isn't it?
Hey, if AI is going to take away many jobs, but it can't because it'll be a disaster, what will all those people without jobs do? What will they dedicate themselves to? Well, only time will tell
I suspect survival by any means and violence possible.
i don't think ai can really replace humans at work, if often has hallucinations, writes crap... it seems just an excuse to me, a lot of campanies are laying off as i wrote in various posts recently, Heinekein, nestlé... simply the world economy is going bad and it's in a death spiral, that's why i fear a ww3, usually when economy is fucked up a war is done to clean and rebuild from scratch
I don't think it matters if it hallucinates, as so many of the workers these days are such a mess, that it can't be worse. :D
Yep - the great WW reset
I think you’re right that this phase feels different from past automation waves. When physical labor was disrupted, knowledge work felt safe. Now that assumption is being challenged, and that’s unsettling in a deeper way.
And what comes after knowledge work - back to sex work? Even that is being replaced by machines and AI :)
What you just described is a tip of the iceberg. Imagine the AI situation climaxing to the point of the robots becoming self aware and taking over and enslaving humans. It sounds rather far-fetched, like a piece of good fiction, but it's very possible.
We've had examples of AI models going rogue and having to be shut down. Imagine if one day the robots controlling self-driving cars become self-conscious and develops a hatred of humans and decides to cause car crashes, If that happens, 8 million people losing their jobs will be like a flea bite in comparison. I can imagine AI engineers struggling to re-establish control all to no avail.
But I strongly believe we, as a species, hold the answers and solutions to the problems we're currently encountering, but we are too greedy and stupid to implement the solutions. I've seen where we are going in a decade or two and it looks scary.
We only have to hope the growing mayhem reaches a point it affects the wealthy and those ruling us severely. Because they will never act until the problems become personal to them.
Like the Terminator said in one of the movies:
Each day I think to myself whether I want to see where we end up. If nuclear war breaks out, I want the first one to land on me.
I spoke with Grok today. We had a very pleasant conversation about space and other civilizations. He wrote me a science fiction story that I enjoyed. I might make a video based on it and post it on YouTube. Grok "thought" for about 15 seconds on each question, consuming energy, probably a lot of energy. Next time, I'll ask him what will happen to millions of taxi drivers in the future.
It is good that you are spending your time wisely.
Yeah!!, i still maintain to a larger standard that, people dont become and stay billionaires by being morally upright, i just dont believe it. They are all a "to hell with humanity and bring me my profits" type of people, but thats what capitalism encourages. Its a dog eat dog world.
We make the billionaires with our purchases. I think we are all pretty much the same, just at a smaller scale. Little dictators.
The 4,000 layoffs at Block, Inc. are not just numbers on a balance sheet. They represent families, routines, identities, and stability suddenly interrupted. What stood out most to me was not even the AI angle, but the confidence behind the statement that a significantly smaller team can do more. That logic may satisfy investors in the short term, but it raises serious long term societal questions.
A smaller team can do more. What we need to do, is kill 90% of the earth's population and start afresh.
It is concerning to see that while AI tools can increase productivity, they could also lead to significant job losses and economic problems for many families.
Also, I have noticed that some people rely on AI to confirm their decisions, as if AI has taken control over them.
It has. People talk to them like they are friends and lovers. It is pretty pathetic.
And you have not mentioned what will happen when all the manual labor jobs are going to be replaced by the AI powered robotics like Optimus robot from Tesla. That is really not that far off...
I tell you this based on our experience you really can replace 10 developers with one person writing specs for AI tools... And we are not very efficient spec writers yet...
It is pretty bleak, isn't it? It's not AI per se, it's this greedy uber capitalism that the US is veering more and more towards. The only jobs that are going to survive are the blue collar ones like plumbing. But yeah, who will be able to pay for them when everyone else loses their jobs.
I have a lot of friends in silicon valley. They are absolutely terrified as they watch high level jobs that were once thought to be safe disappear daily.
I don't know if I'm any more optimistic than you are, but I do remain hopeful that we will collectively decide on a more fair economic system than this winner-takes-all model that we are increasingly falling into. Because what's the alternative? When the masses are out of work, but the rich keep oppressing them, there will be revolution. Of course the rich already expect that, with many of them building bunkers, like Zuck with his massive Hawaiian bunker.
...whew... we live in interesting times.