Re: “Artificial intelligence could cost millions of jobs. The White House says we need more of it,” Dec. 21 business news story.

There is an inherent dichotomy within those of us who live in societies with modern economies: we want goods to be cheap (mostly meaning produced with cheap labor), but at the same time we want plentiful jobs that pay well. The scale is tipped in favor of cheap goods because 1) though most Americans are both consumers and workers, we tend to more often think like consumers, and 2) companies, naturally, are more interested in making less expensive goods than they are in paying well.

Your article discusses the expanding role of artificial intelligence in increasing worker productivity; this, at its heart, means producing goods with less labor. The article says that an un-named White House report concludes that this loss of jobs is OK because it “could ultimately lead to higher wages and fewer work hours.”

Two points yearn to be made here. First, AI may lead to higher wages but only for a relatively few highly trained, well-educated workers; AI will be the enemy of the much larger number of workers it displaces. Second, fewer work hours, though our friend when we wear our consumer hat, is our foe when we wear our worker hat.

We should consider the tradeoffs we make when we prioritize price as we shop. As long as our consumer side dominates our worker side (i.e., we make price our primary purchasing criterion), well-paying jobs will remain relatively scarce and an increasingly large number of Americans will find themselves in low-wage jobs or unemployed.

Bill Moore, Denver

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