Beyond providing expert advice to all, AI combined with VR/Neuralink could make unique life experiences—like adventure and exploration—scalable and accessible to everyone. This could collapse one of the biggest differentiators between the haves and have-nots: access to experiences.
As AIs increasingly perform all economically necessary work, the incentive for entities like governments and corporations to invest in human capital may disappear. This creates a long-term risk of a society where humans are no longer seen as a necessary resource to cultivate, leading to a permanent dependency.
Instead of building a single, monolithic AGI, the "Comprehensive AI Services" model suggests safety comes from creating a buffered ecosystem of specialized AIs. These agents can be superhuman within their domain (e.g., protein folding) but are fundamentally limited, preventing runaway, uncontrollable intelligence.
While the caring economy is often cited as a future source of human jobs, AI's ability to be infinitely patient gives it an "unfair advantage" in roles like medicine and teaching. AI doctors already receive higher ratings for bedside manner, challenging the assumption that these roles are uniquely human.
People increasingly consume real-life events as passive entertainment. AI can economically enable mass-market interactive media where user choices create different outcomes. This could help teach that the future is contingent on our collective decisions, not a pre-written script to be watched.
Despite dreaming of self-driving cars for decades, the host found himself bored and checking his phone within minutes of his first ride. This reveals how quickly truly revolutionary technology can shift from a marvel to a background utility, losing its novelty upon proving its reliability.
Software engineering is a prime target for AI because code provides instant feedback (it works or it doesn't). In contrast, fields like medicine have slow, expensive feedback loops (e.g., clinical trials), which throttles the pace of AI-driven iteration and adoption. This heuristic predicts where AI will make the fastest inroads.
The most profound near-term shift from AI won't be a single killer app, but rather constant, low-level cognitive support running in the background. Having an AI provide a 'second opinion for everything,' from reviewing contracts to planning social events, will allow people to move faster and with more confidence.
