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The story
Microsoft founder Bill Gates published an essay on his personal website arguing that AI will hit employment hard, warning that “many jobs will disappear permanently” — and it’s become a hot topic. In a 5ch thread, some voiced skepticism, pointing to past predictions that turned out wrong, like “computers will wipe out jobs” and “the internet will wipe out jobs.” But plenty of others argued that “this time, AI is on a different level.” The discussion spread to cover which would be replaced first — white-collar or blue-collar work — the cost of deploying robots, and how to cover living expenses and tax revenue once jobs disappear.
“Jobs AI Will Wipe Out” — Bill Gates Says It Outright: The Race for “Human Work” Begins Now
“Many jobs will disappear permanently.”
An essay published by Microsoft founder Bill Gates on his own website has sparked major discussion.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
2010: 'The internet will wipe out jobs!'
2020: 'AI will wipe out jobs!'
I used to laugh off the computer and internet predictions, but AI feels like it's genuinely no joke
I don't really recall computers or the internet actually wiping out jobs, though
My company rolled out tablets on the floor, but there are still documents that need a physical signature. And apparently the volume of those keeps growing every year. Makes you wonder if they're just dumb
Wouldn't be surprised if lawmakers ban AI for everyone but themselves lol
That would just be a self-imposed economic sanction
You go get a job! Start cleaning!
An announcer's job isn't just reading a script, though. If anything, announcers probably do more work besides script-reading than you'd think (probably)
Standing-bar soba shops already have noodle-boiling machines running
Even if the tech eventually gets cheap, capitalism won't settle for that — you can already see them piling on useless features and unnecessary specs just to keep 'growing' (i.e., costs climbing forever, year after year)
A human costs close to 10 million yen a year, so I'd bet robots end up cheaper
Better a dry, robotic response than making a human do it and burn out 😎
Glico-Morinaga? (a nod to the infamous 1984 kidnapping/extortion case, notorious for using a recorded child's voice in its ransom calls)
I'm in software development, but I don't think I could handle convenience-store work — it doesn't look easy at all, however you slice it
I wish we'd just scrap the money system so people could get by without working
That's one of the problems with AI and robots right there
If you cut the number of working people like this, you end up with nobody left to buy whatever the AI robots are producing
Guess 'yellow-collar' and 'rainbow-collar' jobs are next
Well, physical labor jobs will still be around.
I figured someone would've quickly built an AI-driven system to automate the genuinely simple parts of jobs by now — when's that actually happening?? Or can they only ever churn out copies of existing stuff, so it never gets built?
If anything, cars are already built by robots to cut costs, which is exactly how regular people can afford them
You're the narrow-minded one. You clearly haven't touched the latest AI — it's seriously at the level where human jobs disappear
Gates may be a capable businessman, but he's no expert on forecasting the future either
And then people will be so bored with nothing to do that life becomes just watching videos and scrolling social media all day. Which is its own kind of hell
Without tax revenue the state can't keep running, so then what?
I've been a hikikomori (shut-in) for 40 years already, so I'm used to it — not hell for me
Plenty of people would genuinely enjoy gaming all day, not find it hellish at all
That's not freedom — it just means you become AI's livestock.
Maybe just live growing enough food to feed yourself?
Background and key points of this discussion
Gates’s essay was published on his own blog, “GatesNotes,” as part of a piece focused on how AI could dramatically cut the cost of delivering healthcare, education, and government services, touching on employment impact along the way. On 5ch, commenters brought up the historical pattern that jobs didn’t disappear even as computers and the internet spread, but others pushed back, arguing that those earlier technologies only assisted human work, whereas AI is different in kind because it can replace judgment and creative work itself. Some also noted that Gates is a businessman, not an expert in labor economics or forecasting, and opinions split on how much weight to give his remarks. The article offers no clear answer to the distribution problem — how to cover living costs and tax revenue once jobs decline — and the thread’s discussion didn’t converge on one either.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “‘Jobs AI Will Wipe Out’ — Bill Gates Says It Outright: The Race for ‘Human Work’ Begins Now.”
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