Comedian Jon Stewart is sounding the alarm on AI, saying rapid adoption will result in lost jobs on a massive scale. Jon Stewart devoted a large segment of Monday’s episode of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to exploring the ramifications of artificial intelligence technology.
“We have been through technological advances before and they all have promised a utopian life without drudgery,” Stewart said. “And the reality is they come for our jobs.”
Stewart then played clips of AI company executives giving assurances that the technology won’t replace humans, followed by clips of other executives talking about AI as a “labor saving tool” and AI removing the “tax of more people.”
AI is “replacing us in the workforce, not in the future, but now,” Stewart said, later adding, “this is some shit you have going on over here.”
Watch below:
Will AI replace humans in the workforce? Jon Stewart dives into the frightening realities of AI pic.twitter.com/8YSBYQBSrh
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 2, 2024
Stewart continued the segment with a mounting sense of existential dread.
“But that’s the game. Whether it’s globalization or industrialization, or now artificial intelligence, the way of life that you are accustomed to is no match for the promise of more profits and new markets,” he said. But, “at least those other disruptions took place over a century or decades. AI’s going to be ready to take over by Thursday.”
“And once that happens, what the fuck is left for the rest of us to do?”
Jon Stewart is the latest Hollywood figure to sound the alarm on AI.
James Cameron warned that AI will lead to a Judgement Day-style cataclysm with out-of-control algorithms seizing the methods of warfare.
Blade Runner director Ridley Scott called AI bad for humanity, comparing it to a “technical hydrogen bomb.”
Christopher Nolan said AI is about to reach an “Oppenheimer moment” — or a point of no return — and that people need to be “held accountable” for its development.
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