Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Does JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon have a point about AI?

If you don't know him, Jamie Dimon is the boss of JP Morgan and quite a smart guy, obviously.

I've mentioned him a few times on this show because he's a good thinker - and says some pretty reasonable and practical things about big issues.

He's spoken about AI and reckons we need to slow down. If we don't slow down, society, he reckons, could tear itself apart. And he's not talking about in ten years. He's talking about soon.

In the US, there are 2 million truck drivers who could soon be out of a job when driverless trucks hit the road. That's 2 million men and women going from a pay packet of up to $150k a year to unemployed. And the skills are not transferable.

His answer is to slow it down. Phase the technology in rather than hit society all at once, and then you'll probably have to get some Government payouts to compensate workers. Otherwise you'll get civil unrest and chaos in the streets.

In New Zealand we have Ubers and taxis ripe for an AI takeover. The same goes for public transport.

Robots will drive probably buses before long, which will certainly stop the violence they face in the driver's seat from nutty passengers - but it leaves them out of work without a meaningful alternative or transferable skills.

Driverless Waymo taxis in the US are taking off and the serious crash rate is 90 percent better than humans. Go figure.

The problem with phasing things in slowly and pumping the breaks, is that you miss out on the productivity gains. And just because you pump the breaks, it doesn't mean your competitors, and other countries, will do the same.

So nobody's going to get in the way of progress. Which leaves us with the social problem that Jamie Dimon was getting at.

How do we make sure the world doesn't go to hell in a hand-basket when the robots come for our jobs and livelihoods?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you don't know him. Jamie Diamond is the boss
of JP Morgan and quite a smart guy, which obviously
you need to be to run a bank. Well, one
would assume you need to be quite smart to run
a bank. I've mentioned him a few times on the
show because he just says some reasonable and practical things
about some big issues. And he's spoken about AI. He reckons,
we need to slow it down, calm the farm a

(00:20):
little bit, and if we don't slow down, society, he
reckons could tear itself apart. And he's not talking about
in ten years, he's talking about soon. And he gives
an example in the US, there are two million truck
drivers who could soon be out of a job when
driverless trucks hit the road. That's two million men and
women going from a pay packet of up to one

(00:42):
hundred and fifty thousand American dollars a year, too unemployed,
the skills not transferable. His answer, slow it down, phase
the technology in rather than hit society all at once,
and then you'll probably have to get some government payouts
to compensate them. Otherwise, he says, you will get civil unrest,
you'll get chaos in the streets. In New Zealand, we

(01:05):
have ubers, we have taxis, right for a robo takeover,
same goes for public transport. Robots will probably drive buses
before long, which will certainly stop the violence unfortunately that
they face, especially in Auckland and the driver's seat from
nutty passengers, but it does leave them out of work
without a meaningful alternative or transferable skills. Driverless waymo taxis

(01:29):
in the US are taking off, and the serious crash
rate is about ninety percent better than we're humans, I know.
Go figure. The problem with phasing things in slowly though
pumping the brakes is that you miss out on the
productivity gains. And just because you pump the brakes, it
doesn't mean that your competitors will. It doesn't mean that

(01:51):
other countries will do the same. And nobody's going to
get in the way of progress, are they, Which leaves
us with the social problem that Jamie Dimond was getting
it in the first place. How do we make sure
the world doesn't go to hell in a handbasket when
the robots come for our jobs and our livelihoods. For
more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive Listen Live to News Talks.

(02:13):
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