Will AI take over all jobs? Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu weighs in: ‘We are nowhere close to that goal, but…’

As fears of job losses due to artificial intelligence (AI) takes over, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu weighed in on the scenario, saying that human beings will still have plenty of work to do.

In a post on X, Sridhar Vembu shared his views on how the society might evolve when and if AI takes over most kinds of work.

AI may take over some jobs, not all

Sharing his comprehensive view on the ongoing debate of AI taking over jobs, Vembu said that the human race is “nowhere close to that goal”.

“On the subject of AI and jobs: Hypothetically, if all software development were to be automated - I want to emphasize that we are _nowhere_ close to that goal - and all software engineers such as myself are out of work, it is not like human beings will have nothing to do,” he said on X.

So what is the problem?

According to Vembu, jobs will not be the problem if AI takes over.

“The problem is purely economic - how do people afford all the goods that pour out of automated factories that employ no workers?” he said.

The Zoho founder gave two solutions to the problem:

Solutions

The first scenario in terms of solution, Sridhar Vembu shared that the cost of AI-made and robot-made goods will fall massively, almost to zero – leaving no scope of complaint.

“The price of all the robot made goods and all the AI-made and AI-supported software would drop massively and be close to zero or zero. Breathing air costs us zero and we don't complain about it,” he said.

The second solution, according to Vembu, is human beings would get paid well enough for all other works that AI can possibly never do.

“The remaining things humans do, may get paid well - as an example, taking care of children, home cooked meals, nursing sick people, priests that minister to people, people who take care of soil health, water health, crop health and cattle health (we used to call them farmers), forest restoration specialists, local live performing musicians and so on may get paid much more and that circulates income widely enough for people to afford the goods pouring out of highly automated factories,” he said.

Not a technological problem, but economic

Therefore, if AI takes some jobs, human work would see a much higher pay which would be enough to sustain lives, the Zoho founder stressed.

“To state it differently, IF (again, a big if) robots and AI automate all production work, the remaining work humans do like taking care of children would pay very well in terms of purchasing power of those now-ultra-cheap or free goods,” he said.

Sridhar Vembu further noted that the problem is, therefore, not technological but economic.

“This is fundamentally an economic distribution problem, a problem of political economy and not purely a technological problem.”

The key role for the government is to crack down monopolies to ensure prices remain within range.

“One key part is for governments to crack down on monopolies, particularly tech monopolies. Only that will ensure that the prices of goods reflect the very low cost of production arising from AI and automation,” Vembu said.

“There will be at least one country in the world that would get the political economy right.”

(This is a developing story. Check back for updates)