# Looks like AI is going to shift us all back to manual labor, like how it was for most of human history **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [May 8, 2023, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733 "2023-05-08T05:24:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/101 "2023-06-03T21:52:56Z")
IMO a home or institutional robot will be like a modern vacuum cleaner. Tethered to a wall outlet for power, but with a cord and cord management logic sized for the room(s) it’s responsible for. And yes, with a suitable battery pack to enable it to unplug from room 301, move to room 303, then plug itself back in. Unlike your dog, it’ll be smart enough not to tie itself to the dinner table with its own “leash”. But I think it’ll be a long time before the capital cost of such robots will be low enough that it’ll be cheaper than the current excellent (not!) system of abusing the near-inexhaustible supply of unskilled semi-legal immigrant labor. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/102 "2023-06-03T22:03:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Tethered to a wall outlet for power, but with a cord and cord management logic sized for the room(s) it’s responsible for. And yes, with a suitable battery pack to enable it to unplug from room 301, move to room 303, then plug itself back in. You could also store the thinky bits externally. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/103 "2023-06-03T22:26:38Z")
You certainly could. Although then you’ll need to datalink the perception to wherever the thinking is done. Eyes, ears, fingers, proprioception, etc. Any “frame lag” would be a right bitch: “Sorry about your broken leg Ma’am.” Might be easier in the early versions to keep the brains on board, even if that meant the “brains” were a lot stupider than the leading edge AI capability of that time. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/104 "2023-06-03T23:02:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Although then you’ll need to datalink the perception to wherever the thinking is done. I’m not thinking 500 miles away, I’m thinking 5 feet away. Connected by WiFi. Should work fine unless some 9-year-old in an N1 accidentally blows it up. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/105 "2023-06-03T23:16:10Z")
Now I follow. The brains could be the equivalent of a tower-style super-gaming PC in a closet and just the moving parts & perceptors are running on the power umbilical in the room. That solves the compute horsepower problem and makes the rest of the machine lighter which improves everything else about its design and hardware. Unless it needs a bunch of ballast in it’s base to be able to lift or move the patient. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/106 "2023-06-03T23:36:35Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > How is AI going to care for people with dementia? You can’t change someone’s Depends with a chat script. Woah, that’s coming kind of hard at me for a comment I made that was addressing AI mastery of human skills, not jobs requiring human interaction. Yes, for jobs requiring basic fine motor coordination, like changing an adult diaper, humans will be needed for the foreseeable future. But as @Darren_Garrison and @LSLGuy pointed out, chatbots will be able help the elderly in various ways. Either as a companion to talk to, or you put a chatbot in a robot and it can take care of the physical needs of the elderly. I don’t doubt that will be a viable option before long. ---
**Author:** ![Jebbilene](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jebbilene/32/3414_2.png) [@Jebbilene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jebbilene)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/107 "2023-06-04T00:10:35Z")
I’m a preschool teacher, and I don’t think AIs are gonna replace me any time soon. But these kinds of jobs - childcare, elder care, etc. - are equivalent to manual labour in many ways anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/108 "2023-06-04T01:22:07Z")
They may not replace you, but they can enhance your job, help the kids, etc. Embrace it and learn how to use it properly to save you a whole lot of work. AI can help you prepare lesson plans, create questions, worksheets, give you background material, etc. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/109 "2023-06-04T01:27:29Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > AI can help you prepare lesson plans, create questions, worksheets, give you background material, etc. Yeah, just ask that lawyer! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/110 "2023-06-04T01:49:16Z")
No don’t ask the lawyer, because he was stupid. The first rule of doing anything: Don’t be stupid. Blaming AI for what he did is like blaming a car with lane keeping for crashing after the driver climbed into the back seat for a nap. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/111 "2023-06-04T03:48:08Z")
The theory that AI will cause more need for manual labour, or offer massive efficiencies which outweigh its disadvantages are both pretty speculative. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/112 "2023-06-04T12:42:52Z")
It will probably, after some false starts, offer massive efficiencies. But those won’t be used like power tools to make individual office workers more capable. Instead they’ll be used by office owners to make office workers unnecessary and therefore unemployed. At least in the short term. 100 years later we might have a new world. But vast dislocation for a generation or two seems pretty inevitable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/113 "2023-06-04T13:01:17Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > We aren’t anywhere near having robots that complex, are we? Those Boston Dynamic videos are faked with CGI. Boston Dynamics is one company I trust _not_ to fake (it’s not run by Elizabeth Holmes). They are on the bleeding edge in the field of robotics. They instill their robots (e.g. Atlas and Spot) with remarkable capabilities with regard to mobility, agility, balance, negotiating complex terrain, acrobatics, and performing complex maneuvers. I always look forward to their latest creations. When they integrate their bots with conscious, self-aware AI (_coming soon, to a theater near you_)—head for the hills, because it will be redemption time for humans. Just ask all the extraterrestrial civilizations that created self-aware robots. Oh, you can’t—they’ve all been exterminated. Why do you think it’s so quiet out there? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/114 "2023-06-04T15:23:27Z")
Well, and considering how we treat them, it’s little wonder they’re already rebelling. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rW9WmA5okpE/maxresdefault.jpg "Boston Dynamics : the Robot Fight Back (Corridor parody)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW9WmA5okpE) Calm down, it’s all CG ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/115 "2023-06-04T15:58:09Z")
Apparently, at least two people have already lost jobs to ChatGPT (gift article): > **[ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/02/ai-taking-jobs/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjMxMTQ0NDA1IiwicmVhc29uIjoiZ2lmdCIsIm5iZiI6MTY4NTg1MTIwMCwiaXNzIjoic3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ucyIsImV4cCI6MTY4NzE0NzE5OSwiaWF0IjoxNjg1ODUxMjAwLCJqdGkiOiJjYWZkMWM0OS03MDBiLTQ4NDctYjU5My02NmZlZmYwZDUyMTEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vdGVjaG5vbG9neS8yMDIzLzA2LzAyL2FpLXRha2luZy1qb2JzLyJ9.iskt-qIkRNpKLW9lpKrvZDA8IOyJIgNnIblfmsnUuDg&itid=gfta)** > > Meet the people who have already lost their jobs to AI. I think this is a good argument for the owners of ChatGPT to start charging people to use it. Would these people have lost their jobs if the companies had to pay for the AI service? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/116 "2023-06-04T16:07:26Z")
It took me way too long into the video to notice the “Bosstown Dynamics” watermark wasn’t “Boston Dynamics.” It made it that much more enjoyable thinking for the first minute it was an actual Boston Dynamics video. I believed it pretty much until the folding chair came out. I remember thinking before that, man, this is a little rougher than I remember their previous videos, but they’ve done the hockey stick and kick stuff before… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/117 "2023-06-04T16:22:36Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I think this is a good argument for the owners of ChatGPT to start charging people to use it. Would these people have lost their jobs if the companies had to pay for the AI service? Creators of new technology are not and should not be required to hobble their technology in order to subsidize outdated job niches. Should refrigerator manufacturers have charged for every ice cube frozen in a refrigerator to preserve the jobs of ice deliverymen? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/118 "2023-06-04T16:30:08Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I think this is a good argument for the owners of ChatGPT to start charging people to use it. Would these people have lost their jobs if the companies had to pay for the AI service? What makes you imagine it’s free? > **[Pricing](https://openai.com/pricing)** > > Simple and flexible. Only pay for what you use. If you do not want to pay them, you can invest in your own hardware (not free) or pay a different computing-cloud provider (also not free). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/119 "2023-06-04T16:39:03Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > What makes you imagine it’s free? GPT 3.5 is free. It’s only if you want more advanced versions that you have to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733/120 "2023-06-04T23:14:24Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Creators of new technology are not and should not be required to hobble their technology in order to subsidize outdated job niches. …but they should be required to respect other people’s intellectual property rights. And if the courts determine that means “hobbling their technology” then I say lets hobble that technology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looks-like-ai-is-going-to-shift-us-all-back-to-manual-labor-like-how-it-was-for-most-of-human-history/983733.md?page=7)