Frontline PBS: In the Age of AI

In my view, the rise of AI and the automation of anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the Western workforce is the upcoming destabilizing development of the 2020s that I am currently the most excited about. I think this could create enough unrest to take liberalism out for good.

I want to see how the introduction of AI and automation intersects with the deep unpopularity of the liberal establishment, social media, the rise of China as the world’s new superpower and mass immigration, demographic change and the ongoing rise of populism in the West. What is this confluence of these combustible factors in the near future going to produce?

Social media alone has created a lot of disruption and fall out. That is going to be nothing though compared to the fallout from this. Things are pretty bad now with all these populists revolting against the liberal order all over the world. Let’s destroy millions of middle class and working class jobs so that Jeff Bezos can get even richer on top of all that. Brilliant!

I have an idea. We will tell all these dispossessed Western workers to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and compete in the free market with robotic slaves!

Note: I see our friend Kai-Fu Lee is featured in this.