There have been several articles in recent weeks about the potential of large language models to take over several aspects of professional work. Some have argued that it would be like before, where people just did other things. Some have said it maybe more than just that. Some have advocated for universal basic income, UBI.
Many of the arguments, for or against, seem to be aerial, where discussions are based on categories of people not on individuals. There may be people whose jobs would be displaced by LLMs that may spiral into depression, substance abuse or worse.
There were people in recent decades who lost jobs to globalization, making them abuse alcohol, losing themselves and what mattered to them. It is possible to argue that some may have had the problem before, exacerbated by being furloughed, or that they should have been more responsible rather than give up; maybe, but the possibility that job losses had resulted in that outcome for individuals in the past, should make it concerning, not something to dismiss.
What can be done against job losses? What should be done about mental health problems? What should be done about substance abuse? There are questions on the ethics of AI, and its risks, but its labor affect and mental health effects to people, should also be highly considered.
First, it may become important to redefine what work means. Usually, it is a setup of labor, pay and duration, for what is supposedly valuable. But in recent years and several economic waves that has included high unemployment, the weaknesses of the rigidity of the labor market unraveled. It may get worse with LLMs, since it is able to do some tasks for which people train for, and do better in the education required.
Work is simply doing. There are several things that can be done in any community or society but are not often done, because no one would pay for them. Pay is also mostly near term and in a common currency. Listing doings and alternating pay could become a way to get the labor force engaged, as the competence of LLMs grows and accommodation is made for work, earnings and meaning.
There could also be a new tier for work, where pay is lower than the minimum wage, but for capped hours, over intervals, exceeding what UBI should do, without people feeling like they contributed.
Fighting addiction and mental health problems may also need to be pivoted to the mind, where the outcomes and experiences proceed, rather than focus on the brain, which does not offer a direct answer.
The mind is where depression, anxiety, worries, hurt, pain, regret, guilt, lack of meaning, despair and so forth are based. It is also where substances may provide what is experienced as shifts, pleasure or temporal relief.
Providing how the mind works across may be useful to easing some of the problems or prevent many from spiraling.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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