592: Will ”AI Abundance” Make us All Rich?

The boys drink and review Dogfish Head's Sixty-One, which is an IPA brewed with Pinot Noir grapes, then discuss the idea that AI will make us all wealthy while Pigweed's cat prances around the studio.

Elon Musk recently said that AI + robotics will eliminate scarcity to the point that there's no real point in saving for retirement. We'll have "universal high income."

It's like the Star Trek vision of the future where all your needs are provided for.

Does that make any sense? Can an economy function like that? Will "AI abundance" arrive simultaneously for every human need? Who will pay the taxes?

What does "lack of scarcity" really mean? There can be an abundance of food, or healthcare. AI isn't going to make more beachfront.

How do we get from here to there? What happens to property rights? Will the people who own the AI share their wealth with everybody else? Why? Who will make them do it?

When people start losing jobs (by the millions), how will they live? The idea that we'll tax AI to pay the people who are laid off doesn't make sense. If you tax the AI to pay the displaced workers, what have you gained?

The internal contradictions in the optimistic view of an AI-driven future are mind-boggling. The boys try to parse through it all.

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