THEIR WORK, OUR WEALTH, WHO'S PULLING AHEAD?:

Because machines can learn faster than people, it would seem just a matter of time before we will be outranked by them. Today, about 75 percent of the United States workforce is employed in offices--and most of this work will be taken away by AI systems. A single lawyer or accountant or secretary will soon be 100 times as effective with a good AI system, which means we'll need fewer lawyers, accountants, and secretaries. It's the digital equivalent of the farmers who replaced 100 field hands with a tractor and plow. Those who thrive will be the ones who can make artificial intelligence give them superhuman capabilities.

But if people become so very effective on the job, you need fewer of them, which means many more people will be left behind. That places a lot of pressure on us to keep up, to get lifelong training for the skills necessary to play a role.

The ironic thing is that with the effectiveness of these coming technologies we could all work one or two hours a day and still retain today's standard of living. 

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