Letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal.
Vitaliy Katsenelson visited a distribution center and saw “The Robots That Handle Your Amazon Orders” (op-ed, Oct. 21). Yet what began as amazement turned to discomfort as he reckoned that, before too long, most of the facility’s humans would be unnecessary. Where will they go once artificial intelligence and robotics are fully deployed? The question seems meant to spark fear that AI is a job killer and must be stopped. History tells a more humdrum story: People will find new and better work as productivity increases.
Had Mr. Katsenelson lived 150 years ago, he might have asked the same question about farming. In 1860, 53% of Americans worked in agriculture, yet the rise of more advanced techniques posed a direct threat to their employment. Today barely 1% of Americans work in agriculture, but half the country isn’t unemployed and begging to go back to the fields. As productivity grew, former farmhands found more work in new industries.
AI is different from agriculture, but the laws of economics are the same. So is the American people’s capacity to innovate and adapt. AI will disrupt warehouses, factories and offices. But technology’s march will open new doors to more fulfilling and productive work—in current industries and in companies and industries that haven’t yet been created. Our task is what every generation has done: to imagine that future and build it.
Christopher Koopman
Abundance Institute
Salt Lake City