Futurist Adam Dorr on how robots will take our jobs: ‘We don’t have long to get ready – it’s going to be tumultuous’ – Researcher says tech could replace nearly all human labour within 20 years and societies urgently need to prepare
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/futurist-adam-dorr-robots-ai-jobs-replace-human-labour
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From the article
Dorr heads a team of researchers who have studied patterns of technological change over millennia and concluded that the current wave will not just convulse but obliterate the labour market by 2045. What cars did to horses and carts, and electricity to gas lamps, and digital cameras to Kodak, are templates for the coming shock, he says. “Technology has a new target in its crosshairs – and that’s us. That’s our labour.”
Whatever you do in whatever sector, within a generation machines will be able to perform the same task just as well, if not better, and for a fraction of the cost, says Dorr. “Costs are improving consistently, capabilities are improving consistently. We’ve seen that pattern before. If I can get the same thing or better for the same or lower cost, switching is a no-brainer. We’re the horses, we’re the film cameras.”
Best be working hard now and saving so you’re part of the have and not have nots when this happens.
Technically speaking, it’s not that robots will take our jobs.
UBI will allow people more freedom to refuse paid work. And the more robots we invent? The higher our UBI can go.
If we keep UBI stuck at $0 and keep inventing robots, then we just end up with unnecessary jobs.
People are stuck working for wages not because the economy needs more jobs, but because people need an excuse to get paid. UBI solves this problem.
That’s why we need to vote for UBI.
If you don’t believe in UBI, please share your solution.
Tax robots like 80% of market rate for every job they replace and put it into the ubi fund, the more bots, the more ubi
Chicken and egg issue. One cannot be done without the other.
The only real prep every country needs – get the GOVERNMENT ready to change/update everything they do – as the real issue is the current speed of government. But… again… AI will be needed for that as well…
The big for now fix – training. People are going to loose crappy jobs that hurt the body – yep, and on mass. BUT the issue is not jobs, it is jobs people are qualified for. So training is needed to re-train people to do other jobs. As well as more jobs need to do on the job training – like they used to.
Another consideration, were this to look increasingly likely, is how financial markets (particularly credit markets) will react well in advance.
If banks are mortgage lending with 30 yr horizons, then risk models will need to increasingly account for the likelihood of a loan applicant becoming unemployed.
This will significantly impact lending and have a major effect on property markets and the banking system as a whole.
We are told that if managed well, AI could usher in an era of “super-abundance,” where essential goods and services are nearly free (a la Star Trek). But poorly handled transitions could deepen economic divides and concentrate power among tech elites. Dorr urges a rethinking of ownership in a world where traditional employment may likely be no longer be viable. Governments and institutions must act now to explore new economic models, such as universal basic income, and ensure access to AI benefits.