Jeremy Siegel on the Citrini piece and the looming AI apocalypse:

Before the industrial revolution, humankind had to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week to produce the goods for bare-bones survival: food and basic shelter. Today, in the modern world, survival can be achieved by working less than a day. In 1800, 80% of American workers toiled in the farming industry. Today that is less than 2% and the US exports food to the rest of the world.

Pessimists maintain that the speed of the AI Revolution makes these historical comparisons irrelevant (although I remember predictions that Amazon and the internet would eliminate all retail by the middle of the 2020s). But that assertion fails to take account of the great flexibility of workers to adapt to sudden changes. Shifts in production during wars and even the recent pandemic showed how economies can adapt to changes in circumstances far faster than those induced by AI. Workers with highly developed skills will find great demand from the new industries that will be enabled by artificial intelligence.

AI will not bring an economic apocalypse. AI will lead us to the greatest increase in the standard of living since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Although some professions will clearly be impacted, the dramatic increase in consumer income will more than offset the loss of jobs caused by the new technology. The AI future is not one to be feared, but one to be embraced.