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Wondering what your career looks like in our increasingly uncertain, AI-powered future? According to Palantir CEO Alex Karp, it’s going to involve less of the comfortable office work to which most people aspire, a more old fashioned grunt work with your hands.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum yesterday, Karp insisted that the future of work is vocational — not just for those already in manufacturing and the skilled trades, but for the majority of humanity.
In the age of AI, Karp told attendees at a forum, a strong formal education in any of the humanities will soon spell certain doom.
“You went to an elite school, and you studied philosophy; hopefully you have some other skill,” he warned, adding that AI “will destroy humanities jobs.”
Karp, who himself holds humanities degrees from the elite liberal arts institutions of Haverford College and Stanford Law, will presumably be alright. With a net worth of $15.5 billion — well within the top 0.1 percent of global wealth owners — the Palantir CEO has enough money and power to live like a feudal lord (and that’s before AI even takes over.)
The rest of us, he indicates, will be stuck on the assembly line, building whatever the tech companies require.
“If you’re a vocational technician, or like, we’re building batteries for a battery company… now you’re very valuable, if not irreplaceable,” Karp insisted. “I mean, y’know, not to divert to my usual political screeds, but there will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with vocational work or manufacturing. The global economy runs on these jobs. But in a theoretical world so fundamentally transformed by AI that intellectual labor essentially ceases to exist, it’s telling that tech billionaires like Karp see the rest of humanity as their worker bees.
It seems that the AI revolution never seems to threaten those who stand to profit the most from it — just the 99.9 percent of us building their batteries.
I've had a conversation with one of my friends a few times. Even if she was filthy rich she would still work. People always claim various things like getting bored or needing something to do or wanting purpose.
I would find plenty to do without working and her take on it blows my mind. In fact every argument I've heard from people in general, my response (at least in my head) is that I could still accomplish that thing without employment.
I can keep myself entertained doing the things I enjoy, I can find purpose helping people with my boatloads of cash, I would have time to learn all kinds of new skills. I could start businesses to handle some niche ethically, if the main players are scummy. The possibilities are damn near endless and if I'm ever rich, I'm not going to continue spending my time making some other prick richer.
Some people truly are really boring people. They have no genuine interests or hobbies, which ends up being those people who often say things like they'd work even if they were rich. There's nothing for them beyond work.