Jon Stewart Explains the AI ‘Bait and Switch’: ‘The Reality Is They Come for Our Jobs’ | Video

On Monday’s “They Daily Show,” Jon Stewart devoted a long portion of the show to the discussion of so-called “artificial intelligence.” And in addition to throwing heavy, heavy skepticism on the utopian claims made by AI boosters, he also slammed the inherent “bait and switch” in those claims.

“The reality is they come for our jobs,” Stewart said, while providing examples demonstrating not only that AI boosters appear to be just trying to find a way to shed employees, but also of how unequipped and often unhelpful elected officials are likely to be in response.

“AI gets better and better,” Stewart said, teeing up the discussion with examples of “AI”-created misinformation. “It’s only going to make it more difficult to separate fact from fiction, which can be terrifying. Luckily the people in charge of AI have told us that just like with the internet and social media, it’s actually going to make everything much much better.”

This was followed by clips of various AI proponents — all of whom of course have large financial incentives — making ludicrous claims, including that it is already “more profound than fire or electricity.”

“Yeah! Suck a d—, fire,” Stewart interjected. “That’s right, you heard me. Oh I’m sorry, do I need to turn that up? Suck a motherf—ing d—, Fire. And oh, what are you giggling at, electricity?”

“Ok, listen,” Stewart said as he returned to the commentary. “I’m sure AI is good, but like fire good? How so?” This was followed by clips of even more ludicrous claims, including that AI will somehow address climate change and “help scientists cure, prevent and manage all diseases.”

“I completely trust you and your enormously wide eyes and very human cadence,” Stewart continued, referring to the fact that the speaker in the clip had very odd diction. “But benefit of the doubt, it can cure diseases and solve climate change. What are we using it for now?”

The answer came in the form of a clip of Mark Zuckerberg bragging about an AI app that can help make toast. Stewart mocked that with particular zeal, noting that humans already have toast figured out.

“I’ll tell you what, why don’t you get to work on curing the diseases and climate change and we’ll hold down the fort,” Stewart joked.

Then he got to the meat of his point, noting how previous eras of technological breakthrough have actually ended up destroying jobs and lives on a widespread basis.

“We have been through technological advances before and they all have promised the utopian life without drudgery,” he said. “And the reality is they come for our jobs.”

Noting how AI boosters promise this won’t happen, Stewart continued, sometimes “they do let the real truth slip out.”

Here, he rolled a clip of someone admitting the goal is actually just to employ fewer people, albeit using the Orwellian euphemism “without the tax of more people” to describe it.

“‘Without the tax of more people,’ ‘other people tax,’ formerly referred to as ’employees,'” Stewart continued as he cued up a clip of someone he joked looks “like a bond villain” stating the same thing, followed by another clip of someone who, as Stewart characterized, “looks at losing employees as a feature of AI and not a bug.”

Stewart then cast a skeptical glance at the concept of “prompt engineer,” a commonly used term to describe what AI boosters say will be an essential job once AI is established in the way they claim it will be. Stewart dismissed it as nothing more than “text question guy,” and argued that such a job would be extremely replaceable by AI.

Next, after showing clips demonstrating how much elected officials don’t seem to know about the technology, he connected this to previous tech cycles. Specifically, he showed a supercut of Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden from the early 90s until just a few years ago promising that workers displaced by technology could simply retrain to work on that technology

“But that’s the game. Whether it’s globalization or industrialization, or now artificial intelligence, the way of life that you’re accustomed to is no match for the promise of more profits and new markets, which sounds brutal. If you’re a human,” Stewart declared.

Watch the whole thing above now.

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