Artificial Intelligence (AI) Heralds a Post-human Era of Economic, Social and even Moral Upheavals
By Rodrigue Tremblay
"Artificial Intelligence (AI) will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have."
Eric Schmidt (1955- ), former Google CEO, in a keynote address to University of Arizona graduates, that was booed by students, Friday, May 15, 2026.
"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire."
Sundar Pichai (1972- ), Chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and of its subsidiary Google. (Statement made in 2018, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland).
"The development of full Artificial Intelligence (AI) could spell the end of the human race... it would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded."
Stephen Hawking (1942- 2018),British physicist, in an interview with the BBC, December 2, 2014.
"Any technology that facilitates attacks without seeing the face of human beings lowers the moral threshold of conflict."
Pope Leo XIV (1955- ), in his first encyclical 'Magnifica Humanitas' (or Magnificent Humanity), May 25, 2026.
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and of work-automation is progressing rapidly with many potential applications and benefits in many areas. It is going to define the economic future.
However, there are important risk, threats and disruptions that could result from a blind and too-rapid adoption of all the features of the new technology. Its 'creative destruction' could become increasingly powerful and detrimental, especially for workers, but also for writers and artists, for businesses and, finally, for the entire economy and society.
In the emerging post-human world, humanity could face unprecedented challenges in an economic context where humans are no longer the primary focus. (There is already a growing market for NEO humanoid robots to be used in a variety of ways!)
The world could see some economic sectors where humans are relegated to a secondary role and even completely sidelined. For this reason, AI brings about technological transformations, but a number of these will drastically alter living standards and influence how humans perceive work, income, and life in society.
For the present, the fast-growing robotic technology is making work more productive and more complex in many industries, which could increase economic growth. Furthermore, a surge in investment in data centers and electric power plants is also likely to stimulate economic growth.
For workers, however, AI is replacing more routine white-collar low-skill and freelance work in numerous sectors, although there are other areas where special skill work would be more AI-proof.
Therefore, the question must be raised: In this post-work world, when many jobs are disappearing because of increasing uses of AI, where will future effective demand and incomes come from to maintain living standards? Indeed, if work and earnings for many categories of workers disappear, this does not bode well for the future macro economy.
That is why governments will have to think about how to deal with the coming phenomenon of AI-driven unemployment and possibly of sub-employment, especially for young workers who may face a future of dead-end jobs. Governments will also have to establish the levels of taxation and regulation required to avoid the worst excesses.
I- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the economy
On the one hand, we are already experiencing the effects of the futuristic generative Artificial Intelligence AI technology and software engineering on the economy, in terms of a rise in business profitability for some firms and individuals and organizations.
In this brave new world of the future, important disruptions in labor markets and in the overall macro economies can be expected.
This is likely to generate important transfers of wealth between groups of people, as some segments of society get richer while others get poorer. Investors and workers in the new tech sectors will greatly benefit. However, experienced workers hit by tech-driven layoffs are going to suffer a setback in their earnings growth, while young workers entering the labor force may have fewer opportunities. indeed, studies show that young adult graduates have begun finding it more difficult to find entry-level employment.
Since 1750, there have been four industrial revolutions and technological and scientific innovations that transformed economies from predominantly agricultural and artisanal ones into increasingly urbanized and more complex advanced commercial and industrial economies.
II- Past Industrial Revolutions
· 1. (1750-1840) - Mechanization, (the invention of the power loom and textile and clothing factories, of the steam engine for maritime and railway transportation with the use of coal as an energy source, etc.);
· 2. (1870-1914) - Factory mass production (the era of industrialization with the production of steel, chemicals and electricity, automobiles and internal combustion engines based on petroleum-derived fuels, etc.);
· 3. (1970-2000) - Automation and communication (the widespread establishment of radio and television and the advent of the computer and the development of the Internet computerized telecommunications through satellites and nuclear energy, in the context of lower maritime and air transport costs, economic and financial globalization and the liberalization of international trade, etc.);
· 4. (2010 to today) - Robotization, (the emergence of cyber-physical production systems that rely on data power plants and artificial intelligence models. Robotization, involves intelligent machines capable of replicating the flexibility of human work, and able to perform increasingly sophisticated repetitive or routine tasks, etc.)
III- The first industrial revolution was difficult for workers, but the second and third ones created enough new industries to incorporate an increased workforce.
The first three major technological breakthroughs significantly increased labor productivity and living standards. Moreover, they also led to the emergence of new industries and new job categories in many economic sectors.
Nevertheless, during the First Industrial Revolution in England, particularly between 1790 and 1840, there was a period of disruptive unemployment for workers. This was known as the Engels Pause, named after the German philosopher and Marxist theorist Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).
However, business owners reaped increased profits from the efficiency gains of new energy sources. This was particularly true of the steam engine, which revolutionized maritime and land transport during the First Industrial Revolution. This led to a boom in industrial production and the transport of raw materials, goods, and people between and within countries.
But for the average worker, real wages remained stable, or even declined, and average life expectancy in some industrial cities plummeted to just 35 years.
The other innovation that fostered increased employment opportunities during the second industrial revolution was the automobile and trucking industry, at the beginning of the 20th century. Several new industries, in addition to assembly plants, emerged with the construction of road networks and garages, and with the rise of the tourism industry, including motels, restaurants, and new resorts.
IV- The Fourth Industrial Revolution could create permanent unemployment and underemployment
The primary goal of generative AI is to replace lower-skilled jobs and especially white-collar jobs and repetitive service employment, where feasible, with intelligent robotic machines or computer-run algorithms, in order to lower labor costs and to increase the profitability of companies.
Unlike other technological innovations, however, it is uncertain that AI—due to its very nature and the shock of the increasing automation of many jobs—can generate many new industries and many new jobs in the rest of the economy, sufficiently to support economic growth.
Therefore, depending on where an economy is during the business cycle, we could observe a persistent rise in unemployment or underemployment for entire categories of workers left behind, young or old, men or women. These individuals would then find themselves deprived of their livelihoods and personal dignity, and this would negatively impact their living standards and prospects.
Furthermore, significant wage and income reductions among lower- and middle-income members are likely to slow overall consumer demand and spending, and this would hurt overall economic prosperity. Indeed, in the largest advanced economies, namely the G7 countries, income and wealth inequality is greater today than it was some forty years ago, in the mid-1980s. It remains to be seen whether the displacement of human labor by automation and artificial intelligence will exacerbate these inequalities.
One might think that governments could compensate for such inequalities through new social welfare programs.
However, two situations make this option unlikely. First, most governments are currently heavily indebted and will face fiscal crises in the coming years. Second, in some democracies, ultra-wealthy citizens and billionaires have been granted the right to spend unlimited sums of money to install people in power who defend their private interests.
This could mark a return to the era of the 'Robber Barons' in the 19th century, when governments were under the control of super rich oligarchs.
The applications of generative AI and the weakening of some job markets are occurring at a difficult time, namely when the economic policies of the current U.S. administration threaten international trade and while some heavily indebted economies are on the verge of an economic recession.
V- Could Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) pose a risk to humanity?
In the not-too-distant future, advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), such as the algorithms of Anthropic—which would be capable of equaling or even surpassing human intelligence and overriding human judgment and common sense—could pose a serious threat to humanity. This could certainly be the case, especially if these technologies were to fall into the wrong hands, both within and outside governments.
Indeed, unlike past technological advancements, from the printing press and steam engines to electricity and computers, humans have always maintained control over such innovations. This would not necessarily be the case with GAI, because decision-making with GAI could one day be autonomous, and no longer be in human hands.
Artists are already complaining that unscrupulous generative AI operators are perfectly imitating their physical appearance and style, and copying their works , without giving them credit or payment. Indeed, AI makes forgery and fraud easy.
Governments will have to legislate to protect copyright before the piracy of public figures, artists, and existing works becomes commonplace. We must also be wary of warlike and predatory governments rushing to adapt artificial intelligence to their war plans.
Some impersonal and totally amoral AI models playing wargames can go as far as to simulate the launching of nuclear weapons on another country, when nuclear-armed countries are involved in a war standoff. This could be cause for alarm when only 'efficiency' outcomes are considered by such models, irrespective of any lawful and moral considerations. This could lead to human disasters and atrocities.
The mere fact that such possibilities exist should dictate a cautious approach to advanced developments in generative AI and AGI. Before we truly enter an era of human obsolescence and the domination of autonomous artificial intelligence agents, it would be wise to consider the consequences for humanity and how to manage them.
Conclusion
A new age of 'Robber Barons is unfolding under our very eyes, where important private companies make large-scale layoffs and increasingly rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to partially offload their social responsibility to recruit, to hire and train people, while raking in large profits.
In the medium and longer run, entire categories of workers could become economically unemployable in the eyes of employers, and this will affect the entire population and the overall economy. The replacement of humans by intelligent robots in many fields of activity will be a factor of alienation for a large part of the population.
A serious labor crisis is looming on the horizon, and income and wealth disparities between rich and poor can be expected to increase.
For now, however, some optimistic and ultra rich oligarchs are going full speed ahead in implementing the Artificial Intelligence industrial revolution, without worrying too much about the consequences of the fundamental transformation that is likely to hit labor markets and the entire economy in the short and medium-term. But once irreparable economic damage is done to large segments of the population, this could herald decades of dramatic economic decline and social unrest.
It is therefore incumbent upon governments and international organizations to take appropriate fiscal measures and to establish regulatory criteria and guidelines concerning the riskiest developments in Artificial Intelligence, in order to respect human dignity and liberty.
They should also prepare themselves to face higher rates of unemployment in some economic sectors and more under-employment, especially for younger workers and also for writers and artists, on top of all the economic, financial, fiscal and social consequences that may also arise in this new industrial environment.
Educational institutions, and especially universities, should be prepared to review their teaching programs and adapt them to the new realities of the labor market.
Furthermore, there is a moral risk. Indeed, the world should be concerned that governments with totalitarian and malevolent instincts might be tempted to use AI for disinformation and to better control the population.
It is not inconceivable that belligerent, imperialist, and predatory governments could exploit generative AI to make current and future wars even more frequent, deadly, and destructive. For example, they could entrust generative artificial intelligence algorithms with the task of developing new, inexpensive weapons, such as biological, chemical, or radiological weapons, which would make wars of agression even easier and less costly.
Consequently, basic caution should guide policymakers in the face of the economic, social, industrial, and even military upheavals that are about to hit industrialized societies hard in the coming years.
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International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and of his recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018".
He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.
Please visit Dr. Tremblay's site or email to a friend here.
Posted Monday, June 1, 2026.
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