The AI misutopia conundrum: the rise of zombie governments
By all accounts, AI should gut the government workforce, saving billions of taxpayer dollars.
But the public sector may *expand* first to mitigate against the AI (and later robot) job losses and associated societal instability. It all comes down to incentives.
Look at Canada: one in five (!!) Canadian workers are employed by the public service. There is a strong political incentive to keep these roles and to create "work" specifically to ensure continued employment to keep voters or get new votes.
I conservatively estimate we can cut 30% right now. We can automate and accelerate:
- Data entry
- Analysis and policy research (excel models, consultation summaries, jurisdictional scans)
- Briefing notes, gov response letters, and presentations
But this beast needs votes to live. And people need meaning in their lives.
So AI will usher in a new form of UBI: make work and give people meaning (exchanged for votes). Instead of having the population draw on social services, zombie governments will grow. A conundrum indeed.
By all accounts, AI should gut the government workforce, saving billions of taxpayer dollars.
But the public sector may *expand* first to mitigate against the AI (and later robot) job losses and associated societal instability. It all comes down to incentives.
Look at Canada: one in five (!!) Canadian workers are employed by the public service. There is a strong political incentive to keep these roles and to create "work" specifically to ensure continued employment to keep voters or get new votes.
I conservatively estimate we can cut 30% right now. We can automate and accelerate:
- Data entry
- Analysis and policy research (excel models, consultation summaries, jurisdictional scans)
- Briefing notes, gov response letters, and presentations
But this beast needs votes to live. And people need meaning in their lives.
So AI will usher in a new form of UBI: make work and give people meaning (exchanged for votes). Instead of having the population draw on social services, zombie governments will grow. A conundrum indeed.
❤️3👀1