Name: Jordan Rodriguez

Professor Orwig

English 110

Date: April 8th 2024

Imagine yourself as an executive at a large shipping company, like Amazon. Your hypothetical company employs 50,000 workers to drive trucks, move boxes, package items, clean the warehouse, organize it, and manage the workers. Each and every employee of yours works 12 hours per day, 6 days a week, at federal minimum wage. This means each of your employees gets $27,144 per year. Then, you hear about a robot that is intelligent and skilled enough to replace your workers. It can package items, clean the floors, drive your trucks, and do every single task in your warehouse. It costs $20,000, and can work 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. It never gets sick, it never needs a lunch break, and can plug itself into a charger when it’s running out of battery, and then continue to work. Obviously every company would choose the robot, and that’s the problem. Every company purchasing robots to replace their employees would lead to millions and millions of lost jobs. For this reason, I believe that The US government should regulate the right to use Artificial Intelligence to replace human jobs. If the government does not, it is clear that the unemployment rate would increase dramatically. This could lead to economic collapse, or at least a larger contrast between lower and upper class.

Tesla and Figure Artificial Intelligence have both individually shown off physical robots that are designed to complete physical tasks, with the goal in mind of being sold to businesses to complete these tasks. The Figure 01 robot is more advanced, so that is what I will focus on. Figure 01 is a collaboration between Open Artificial Intelligence (the creators of ChatGPT, powering the intelligence of the robot), Figure Artificial Intelligence (the designers of the robot), and BMW (the manufacturers of the robot). Kimberly Gedeon from Mashable described the Figure 01 robot as “recognizing what’s trash (and what’s not) and placing the proper items into what Figure 01 identifies as a bin, the robot explains that it offered the man an apple because it was the only thing in front of him that can be eaten” (Gedeon). This describes the figure ones physical capabilities as well as intelligence, showing it is capable of completing a task based on a command. Completing tasks in a human-like fashion is proof that it will one day be capable of completing commands asked to it by humans. Furthermore, the article asks what the founder of the company, Adock’s, ultimate goal for the robots are. “To train a super-advanced Artificial Intelligence system to control billions of humanoid robots, potentially revolutionizing multiple industries” (in-text citation). This is further proving that this robot will one day be capable of human tasks, and replacing human jobs. While some may believe robots will do more dangerous tasks allowing people to do the safer jobs, there is no assurance that will happen. Companies who replace humans with these robots will have no legal obligation to open new positions for these employees. A lot of employees working blue collar jobs do not have the education to work an office job, and so millions of people would suddenly be unemployed with nowhere to go.  

On the opposite end of this issue, more well known Artificial Intelligence tech like ChatGPT and Google Bard have become very popular recently. ChatGPT is a Large Language Model that is capable of human-like conversations. Large Language Model is the name for the current generation of Artificial Intelligence tech, and the name of the technology that powers all of the chat bots. Previous Artificial Intelligence technologies like Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google assistant were not capable of human-like interaction, and could only follow basic commands. This Large Language Model revolution has reasonably led to the expectation that white collar jobs will start being replaced, similarly to how humanoid robots may one day replace blue collar jobs. In a Tech.co article, Isobel O’Sullivan describes what companies are planning on replacing human jobs with Artificial Intelligence, and which ones already have. She says that, “Tech giant IBM plans to gradually replace around 30% of its back-office roles with artificial intelligence within the next five years, equating to around 7,800 positions overall. The firm has already slowed or stopped hiring for certain clerical positions, like those working in human resources.” (O’Sullivan) This is clear evidence of an existing company replacing human jobs with Artificial Intelligence. It also says they are slowing and stopping hiring in some areas, leaving people who would have applied for that job with one less option. On the other hand, the article does suggest that some companies are giving employees new jobs. “..unlike most companies on this list, Ikea is planning to upskill affected employees and has already begun training thousands of call center workers to become interior design advisors.” While this may be true, the article does not say this for most of the companies on the list. It is assumed that Ikea’s decision to reallocate its employees rather than laying them off is done out of good heart rather than being the best financial decision. With no incentive, I believe most companies who replace their employees with Artificial Intelligence will simply lay them off.

Based on the previous paragraph, I believe it is very reasonable to assume that companies will continue to replace white collar jobs. And based on the second paragraph, it is reasonable to assume it will begin to replace blue collar jobs with the introduction of humanoid robots. In an Oxford University article by Mark Talmage-Rostron, he states that, “The World Economic Forum has estimated that artificial intelligence will replace some 85 million jobs by 2025. Freethink says that 65% of retail jobs could be automated by that year”. (Talmage-Rostron) This is more evidence that jobs will continue to be replaced by robots over time. Because of all of this continued evidence, I think the United States government needs to pass laws preventing companies from replacing all employees with Artificial Intelligence. The US Government has in fact created regulation of use of Artificial Intelligence to protect consumers. In a statement from the White House signed by Joseph R. Biden JR, “The interests of Americans who increasingly use, interact with, or purchase AI and AI-enabled products in their daily lives must be protected.  Use of new technologies, such as AI, does not excuse organizations from their legal obligations, and hard-won consumer protections are more important than ever in moments of technological change.  The Federal Government will enforce existing consumer protection laws and principles and enact appropriate safeguards against fraud, unintended bias, discrimination, infringements on privacy, and other harms from AI.  Such protections are especially important in critical fields like healthcare, financial services, education, housing, law, and transportation, where mistakes by or misuse of AI could harm patients, cost consumers or small businesses, or jeopardize safety or rights.” (Biden) This quote shows that the US Government is aware of racial bias, fraud, discrimination, and other things found when companies use AI in certain situations. However, I believe the US government should take it further and create precautionary laws. Similarly to how the US created tariffs to incentivise companies to make things locally in the US, they could incentivise companies to use humans. They could have a tax on goods made by robots, extra taxes for companies, or just an outright legal limit on how much can be done by Artificial Intelligence. Ultimately, a system needs to be created to severely limit the use of Artificial Intelligence by companies. While the US is a capitalist nation that believes strongly in the free market, when kept unchecked, companies will continue to be greedy and make more and more profit. Therefore, I strongly believe that the government should begin preparing to pass Artificial Intelligence regulation laws. 

It is very clear that digital Artificial Intelligence will come for more and more human jobs. I have shown that it is cheaper to hire Artificial Intelligence to do both physical labor and jobs that require intelligence and skill, and so companies will definitely choose to replace employees with Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is quickly advancing, and as a society we need to be cautious of its upcoming capabilities. Artificial Intelligence will continue to come for more and more jobs, and could take the job of you and your family. Therefore, We need legal regulation on Artificial Intelligence by the US government to prevent this. I think that a government tax on goods made by Artificial Intelligence, and just overall regulation will protect the working class and the economy. 

Works Cited

Gedeon, Kimberly. “It’s like ChatGPT with a Body: Watch Creepy Demo of OpenAI-Powered Robot “Figure 01.”” Mashable, Ziff Davis, 14 Mar. 2024, mashable.com/article/figure-01-open-ai. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.

O’Sullivan, Isobel. “Companies That Have Already Replaced Workers with AI.” Tech.co, Marketing VF Ltd, 6 Feb. 2024, tech.co/news/companies-replace-workers-with-ai#:~:text=IBM. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.

Talmage-Rostron, Mark. “How Will Artificial Intelligence Affect Jobs 2023-2030.” Www.nexford.edu, Nexford University, 10 Jan. 2024, www.nexford.edu/insights/how-will-ai-affect-jobs. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.

Biden JR, Joseph R. “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” The White House, The White House, 30 Oct. 2023, www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/#:~:text=The%20Federal%20Government%20will%20enforce. Accessed 1 May 2024.