Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqueDog
Circling back to a post earlier in the thread that actually touched upon something worth talking about:AI shouldn't be low priority in the slightest, AI (and automation, by extension) should be one of their biggest issues. (Also 'having your own AI' is sort of an irrelevant take for the FedNDP to get behind as a policy specific to them.)
Let's think in terms of the FedNDP being the party of the worker, of labour. The biggest threat to workers right now is automation and AI, easily the biggest economic threat facing workers in decades. Amazon alone is targeting 600,000 warehouse roles for automation, and it won't stop with unskilled/low-skill labour. Middle management, clerical, logistics, and customer-facing jobs are all in the blast radius (Amazon has said as much).
The FedNDP should have a strong point of view on AI and automation's impact to the workforce, and my thinking is their point of view should advocate for some means for workers displaced by AI and automation to have a significant portion of their lost salary covered. This could be the start of a very plausible "universal basic income" concept that voters would likely be onboard with, because these things can impact both blue collar and white collar workers.
"AI will free humans from menial jobs to go do things they want to do," yeah sure, with what money from what job? AI and automation will make redundant far more jobs than it'll create. The idea that we're gonna re-skill every labourer displaced by AI or automation is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.
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Sorry, I was clunky in my wording. I specifically trying to say that "fear of AI" is low priority. AI policies are a big deal and I agree that the NDP (and all of the parties) should really wrap their heads around how to handle it.
I am curious on the different approaches that people would support whether it is "pro-labour" or "populist":
- Pro-Labour might try to fight against AI in order to save jobs and when that fails, try and pump a lot of money into re-skilling people to get them into new jobs
- Populists might put less emphasis on saving jobs, admit that AI is coming whether we want it or not, and take steps to soften the blow to the people. Taxing AI agents as if they are workers is going to need to become a requirement and then using those tax dollars to stand up a UBI will be a big deal as more and more of the workforce gets laid off. Then, while the people are in the UBI safety net they can then focus on re-skilling to get back into the workforce.
The Liberal party's plan looks to be "support AI Development and investment" and "ensure monitoring of the impact of AI" and then a $15,000 upskilling benefit for workers but that might just be for people who are employed, not people who have been replaced by AI... I would say they have the corporatist approach locked in. I do not really see anything that helps people in
their latest platform document.