AI is reshaping the labor market, creating concerns over the potential devaluation of skills instead of outright unemployment. Economist David Autor warns that automation might produce a 'Mad Max' scenario, where jobs exist but valuable skills become commoditized, leading to competition over scarce resources. He points to examples like touch typists and factory technicians, whose valuable skills have diminished in worth due to technology. The risk lies in making once-coveted skills overly abundant, thus reducing their value in the job market.
"The more likely scenario to me looks much more like Mad Max: Fury Road, where everybody is competing over a few remaining resources that aren't controlled by some warlord somewhere."
"The threat that rapid automation poses - to the degree it poses as a threat - is not running out of work, but making the valuable skills that people have highly abundant so they're no longer valuable."
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