What is the AI impact on society future?
Will automation and digital transformation destroy our society as we know it?
And this is a good thing?
Probably.
Depending on what we do right now.
The Promise: A World Without Traditional Work
AI and robots will change how our society works completely.
The world of work is poised for a complete transformation.
Many people won’t have a job anymore.
Not working sounds great.
More time to watch the mediocre AI-made TV shows on your favorite streaming platform.
But our complete system, at least in the Western World, is built upon work.
Taxes, social security and consumption.
Without work, we can’t finance the system.
A collapse is inevitable.
But after the climate, biodiversity, democracy and war crises, what’s one more?
Or are they all just part of one big crisis?
That’s what I am talking about in this article.
The Reality Check: When the System Breaks Down
The good news first.
In the future, you can sleep as long as you want.
You can do whatever you want whenever you want because you have a lot of spare time.
Your job is made by AI or a robot. Even your household chores are outsourced to machines.
So can take walks in the street, where you will certainly not be killed by a self-driving car.
Or binge-watch the latest telenovela with digitally created actors directly streamed into your consciousness.
The dream.
But unfortunately, there is bad news, too.
If you are no CEO or at least shareholder of an AI or robot company, you do not have any money to enjoy it.
While machines will take over your job, our system isn’t prepared for that.
It is built around us, the humans, working.
Most of the state finances come from income taxes, social contributions and consumption taxes.
All of this is gone if nearly nobody works anymore.
That means no social security, no public health or education.
We have to rethink the whole system.
Will there be a machine tax, increased production tax, taxes on wealth and private property?
Will there be a kind of unconditional basic income?
All these are questions we need to ask now.
But if you ask them right now, you are a far-left-eco-socialist-woke-tans terrorist.
Conservatives hate these questions.
And of course, AI companies don’t want to talk about it either.
They want to disrupt and make money.
Corporate Control: The New Digital Aristocracy
This is the next elephant in the room.
Most of the AI tools are owned by already powerful and wealthy companies.
Which will become even wealthier and more powerful.
While countless people will lose a lot of money, the fortune will shift even more.
A small group of people will be powerful, and most of the people do not have a job.
Politicians could regulate the development.
But, of course because the companies are already rich, they bought themselves into the government.
All the big AI firms were in the front seats of Trumps inauguration, for example.
So they can now destroy or disrupt as they say the whole market and with it our society.
They aren’t concerned about the damages they may cause. As long as they do not occur to themselves.
They may fix it afterward or not.
Climate Crisis Meets AI Crisis: A Perfect Storm
But the takeover of the machines is not the only crisis we have. It is further part of a big systemic crisis.
Enter the climate crisis.
Ok, it’s not fair, everything we do in our current system is connected to the climate crisis.
But AI plays a more relevant role than taking the train to your vacation.
It uses an enormous amount of energy and water.
And it needs many electronics, that may end up as e-waste in a short amount of time.
Although, to be fair, with more renewable energy, the energy consumption is not that big of a problem.
Furthermore, the energy can partly be used to heat other buildings in the local area around the data centers.
E-waste could be recycled or reused.
However, the water consumption is already causing issues for people living near data centers.
But globally, livestock farming is a far more bigger problem.
And when we consider, that AI could help us in the fight against climate change, although this has to be proven, its climate balance may not be so bad.
But since I am no climate scientist, take a look at the video of Simon Clarke about AI.
https://youtu.be/5sFBySzNIX0?si=_GY-1RCSzFSiEBk-
War, Weapons, and Automated Destruction
Another impact of AI and robots can be seen in the Ukraine war.
Drones and other automized weapons are dominating the war.
Ukraine uses AI to identify targets in Russia.
Russia surely uses AI in their cyberattacks against Europe and other countries.
Which is destabilizing our democracies.
Another crisis where the usage of AI only worsens it.
One can argue that it is a good thing that machines are fighting machines in war and so fewer soldiers die.
And while it is true, that every human life saved is a good thing, ok most human lives saved, is a good thing.
The counterargument is that, not having to fear, that your countrymen will die, leaders won’t hesitate to start a war or a special operation.
It doesn’t to be a war, either.
Terror attacks will be easier to do and will be more effective than suicide bombers.
And even if fewer soldiers die.
War is always bad.
Many people will suffer and die.
Cities will be destroyed.
And war is one of the biggest drivers of climate change.
Furthermore, the only ones profiting of a war are those who have already more than others.
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And if not regulated, AI will, as I said, shift the wealth even more, even in times of peace.
Furthermore, the gap in who has access to the best resources will grow.
Who has access to the information or to the working robots?
Who produces this information and for whom?
Will mankind someday completely rely on machines?
There are many open questions.
Question that we have to ask now.
Even, if the ones in charge don’t want to hear them.
In the end, AI is just a tool.
You can make good things or bad things with it.
It can make profit for a few people, or mankind can profit from it.
Or maybe it is completely overhyped and will be forgotten in five years and writing this blog article was senseless.
But we need to make the decision in which direction we go now.
The Wealth Gap Widens: Who Controls the Future?
AI will change how we work and with that how our society works forever.
Most work will be done by machines, either software or robots.
The good thing is, we have more spare time.
But to enjoy it, we need to change our social system.
The tax system, social security, labor law and education are the first things that come to mind, we have to adapt.
Boycott or prohibiting AI won’t solve the problem.
We have to regulate it, so it works for the common good and not only to make the already wealthy and powerful even richer and more powerful.
At best, we make AI public, open source and non-profit.
So everyone can profit from it.
The USA won’t do it. At least right now in 2025.
But luckily, Europe has no significant AI industry.
That’s why once more the EU could be the grinch for the tech bros and make some or in the case of the EU, many regulations.
But it is also important to say, we can use AI for good things, like the fight against the climate crisis, education and maybe democracy.
Perhaps that helps to prevent us from going into war as much.
However, that is just a hope, I don’t have any solution for that.
AI and robots can make our future bright or dark.
We decide it now.
And it shows, once more, that we need to change our system for the good.
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