My book on #AI and job losses, The Lights in the Tunnel, is now available as a free download. (The download link is in my reply to this post.) Recent advances in #AI, such as DeepSeek R1, make it clear that ever more powerful artificial intelligence is destined to become commoditized, cheap and ubiquitous. It is inevitable that this machine intelligence will be directed toward automating jobs, and the impact of this may come much sooner and more suddenly than we expect. Given this, I am releasing a free version of my first book, which argues that AI will eventually lead to widespread job automation and technological unemployment, and that this will be a threat not just to individual livelihoods but to the economy as a whole. The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future was published in 2009 — 16 years ago and 3 years before the first deep learning algorithms powered by Nvidia chips caught the world's attention by proving to be remarkably adept at identifying the objects in digital images. The book uses a thought experiment (or imaginary simulation) based on "lights in a tunnel" to speculate about the impact of widespread job automation on the economy and society. While the book was written in the context of technology as it existed in 2009, I believe it has proved to be quite prescient. For example, I wrote 16 years ago that "...Microsoft and hundreds of other software companies are actively seeking the next killer app — something that will fully leverage the vastly increased computer power that will be available in the coming years and decades. I think that there are good reasons to believe that this next killer app is going to turn out to be artificial intelligence (AI). AI applications are highly compute intensive and will take full advantage of all the computational power that new processors can offer." More importantly, the thought experiment that I presented in 2009 is completely independent of the details of the technology and is clearly far more relevant to the world today than it was 16 years ago. I hope you will consider downloading the free book and giving it some thought. I believe the impact of AI of the job market may be one of the most critical forces that shape the future. The book proposes a solution that can lead to a future of abundance. Please consider sharing this post. The download link is in my reply to this post.

RT @MFordFuture: My book on #AI and job losses, The Lights in the Tunnel, is now available as a free download. (The download link is in my…

RT @MFordFuture: Is #AI already impacting software developer jobs? Remember "learn to code"? (banned by Twitter) #RiseoftheRobots H…

Is #AI already impacting software developer jobs? Remember "learn to code"? (banned by Twitter) #RiseoftheRobots HT @tylercowen

RT @AnthropicAI: Today we’re launching the Anthropic Economic Index, a new initiative aimed at understanding AI's impact on the economy ove…

@RichardHanania Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@stats_feed Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@pkedrosky Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@rwang07 Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@Kanthan2030 @cynthiapace1 Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@RichardHanania I think there will be a massive impact on white collar jobs especially. Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@NateSilver538 Neither party is prepared for the massive coming impact of #AI on jobs. Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@sharptechpod @benthompson There will ultimately be a massive impact on white collar jobs. Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@elonmusk Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@dw2 Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@theDeepView Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@minchoi There will be a massive impact on white collar jobs. Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@farzyness Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...

@elonmusk Download my free book about #AI and unemployment (reviewed or written about in The Economist, The Washington Post, and many other major media publications)...