Advanced artificial intelligence is being rapidly deployed, making knowledgeable people nervous about how it may change almost everything in our world. These are things that should concern us about AI. Some are already happening; some are potential risks.

• AI may destroy trust in authentic information.
• Digital communications may no longer be trustworthy.
• Propaganda is being tested and refined.
• AI may enable mass political manipulation.
• AI may greatly expand crime and fraud.
• AI-assisted cyberattacks may disable vital infrastructure.
• AI may eliminate or degrade large numbers of jobs.
• AI may enable targeted discrimination and pervasive surveillance.
• AI-controlled weapons may act faster than humans can intervene.
• AI may help extremists develop biological or chemical weapons.
• Highly advanced AI may escape meaningful human control.

Many of the listed risks are theoretical. One item is concrete today. AI is leading to fewer jobs. Various shocks are hitting the economy, but none are having more effect than AI. A few years from now, we will look back at 2025 and wonder why more attention was not paid to AI and the handful of individuals who control those systems.

It will be argued that AI makes everyone more productive, and there’s no need to worry today because the future cannot be predicted.

Sadly, we don’t even have the capacity to identify rapid changes in the economy. We may know how many jobs are gained or lost in a given month, but we know little about which jobs have disappeared. The industry categories used today were established decades ago. We don’t reliably track what happens with recent college graduates on a month-to-month basis.

Various private organizations are assembling comprehensive job data, but they’re all telling different stories, and these may be contradictory. We do know that jobs for entry-level workers are being wiped out by AI, but this is happening at other levels as well.

Amazon cut thousands of jobs in the past year and bluntly blamed AI. Other companies announce big layoffs because they are taking advantage of AI and their stock prices go up, and when that happens, executive compensation goes up as well. Rinse and repeat. Most corporate leaders are guided by self-interest, not the national interest.

AI technology is spreading quickly and rapidly developing capabilities. These changes may be occurring more quickly than any seen before. It is impacting our economy, our labour force, and our lives. We know that companies are adopting it rapidly. Yet the public ability to evaluate and regulate AI is close to nonexistent.

Because AI is new, we may not be in the rapid growth stage. A technology J-Curve has three phases: launch, dip, and rise. We have not yet reached the third stage for AI.

Are people who worry about artificial intelligence just 21st-century Luddites? They are probably not completely opposed to this technology but are primarily concerned with corporate control, labour exploitation, and human well-being. Raw economic efficiency is less important.

If the effects of new technology are slowed and well considered, we can cope with disruptions, as we have done before. But we must demand the makers of public policy consider these issues, talk about available ways of managing AI, and create comprehensive plans of action that are broadly accepted by citizens.

Perhaps we need to embrace a guaranteed annual income program. A mostly forgotten Manitoba experiment in the 1970s suggested this was a useful policy. Mincome improved health and education and showed minimal drops in job participation.