Local Labor/left AI doom-mongering fizzles

 
 

Silicon Valley non profits and union groups are make wild claims about how AI hurts working people. Only problem: the opposite is true.

Still no evidence AI drives job displacement, new research shows

Taking an agnostic approach to defining treatment timing, we find that unemployment rates did not spike in summer 2026 relative to summer months in previous years and did not rise in a significant way relative to older college graduates or young workers without a college degree.

We also provide the first analysis of an expanded definition of unemployment that includes those who report 'wanting a job' which adds nearly two percentage points to the unemployment rate of recent college graduates but we find no evidence of a statistically significant increase in summer 2026 even after adding these 'sidelined unemployed.'"--Nber.org

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It seems to me I've heard that song before

AI is a transformative technology. Steam and rail freed our work from the limits of human and animal muscle. AI is doing the same for knowledge: It is a condensed, adaptable form of humanity’s collected knowledge, ready to be applied to our problems, both small and large.

Which brings us to the age-old question: A new tool may be the work of innovators and entrepreneurs, but who controls it? History features countless kings and aspiring despots who seized each new tool, wielding the power to control the technology and humanity itself to conform to their wishes.

Government-enforced monopolies don’t just threaten liberty; they stifle innovation. When AI leaders beg the government to regulate away competition, it’s the oldest trick in the book, and we shouldn’t be fooled by it. The central holding of technological power — in this case, of AI — is never a good solution. Perhaps these tech leaders and politicians fear AI will replace exactly one job: their own, as self-anointed high priests of central planning and moral arbiters of society.

Meanwhile, the private sector is already harnessing AI to solve our greatest problems. Hospitals adopting AI have cut mortality rates, and the first AI-designed medicines are already in human trials.

Every discovery comes with the possibility of construction and destruction. AI is certainly not risk-free. But if history has taught us anything, we will be far safer letting millions manage those risks and push us forward.--National Review

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christopher escher