New startup aims to replace all human labor
A startup aiming to replace all human labor launched on Thursday, according to TechCrunch.
“Today we’re announcing Mechanize, a startup focused on developing virtual work environments, benchmarks, and training data that will enable the full automation of the economy,” Mechanize announced on X. The company said it plans to “achieve this by creating simulated environments and evaluations that capture the full scope of what people do at their jobs.”
Mechanize indicated that it hopes to replace the $60 trillion global workforce with AI programs and machines, claiming it will benefit the public. “Completely automating labor could generate vast abundance, much higher standards of living, and new goods and services that we can’t even imagine today,” the company said in its post.
When asked how people will pay for those goods and services if they are unemployed, Mechanize founder and AI expert Tamay Besiroglu said there are other sources of income besides wages. In his AI-run economy, Besiroglu explained, consumers can purchase goods and services with money earned through rent and dividends—options that are mostly available to the upper class—or government welfare.
“Even in scenarios where wages might decrease, economic well-being isn’t solely determined by wages. People typically receive income from other sources—such as rents, dividends, and government welfare,” he said.
Economic enslavement
Besiroglu’s vision, which aligns with that of other tech industry leaders, has raised concerns about a technostate in which omnipotent machines are controlled by the elite class, while the lower class subsists on government welfare.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for example, has been pushing for government control of AI while also advocating for universal basic income (UBI), a social welfare system in which the government provides every citizen with a standard minimum income. These payments are unconditional and transferred to citizens on a regular basis without any pre-qualification. The concept is in keeping with the Marxist ideal of wealth redistribution and has historically allowed the government to exert direct control over citizens.
In 2023, Altman and other tech billionaires launched Worldcoin, a company that scans people’s irises and uses the data to create digital IDs. Altman and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman plan to make Worldcoin the world’s “largest trusted network” and use it to distribute UBI.
Altman even raised $60 million for an experimental study on UBI, published last year. The researchers found that people who received UBI payments worked less and earned less. Their annual income dropped $1,500, and their participation in the labor market dropped by 2%. They worked on average up to 1.4 hours less per week. Even the partners of the participants reduced their workloads “by a considerable amount.”
