No, AI Is Not Just A Trend–And It’s Not Going Away
2025
It’s 2025, and the future is knocking on our door. It’s not knocking quietly, it’s banging loudly, resolutely, and incessantly. In fact, it’s not even knocking: it kicks down the door, and is simply there! It’s not just AI, robotics, and the prospect of millions of jobs disappearing. It also has the old hits to go along with it: climate crisis, unfair financial distribution, wars, lack of digitalization, and a few others.
Yes, it’s like that: At least the part of the future that needs the world’s most urgent problems to be solved today, preferably yesterday, is right at your doorsteps. This is the part of the future where artificial intelligence becomes the dominant topic, no matter how much AI is already dripping out of your ears today.
AI is so much more than ChatGPT, even if we usually think of generative LLMs when we hear the term “AI”. AI is getting smarter every day, to the extent that humans will no longer be able to keep up soon, and the most intelligent being on the planet will no longer be human.
More than anything, I hope that everyone will finally realize the kind of times we live in. Ignoring the technical possibilities and the resulting consequences is not only a technical problem, but also a political and social one.
Another AI article? It’s annoying!
You know, it’s like the image of a car hurtling towards a wall at full speed: we see the wall, know the laws of physics, have the knowledge and tools to brake, but we’d rather talk about the entertainment system in the vehicle or who gets to ride shotgun. At the same time, we casually declare: “I’m getting closer and closer to the wall at top speed — and yet nothing bad has happened so far, even though everyone is warning me not to dive headlong into the wall at full speed.”
We can see a very good example of this behavior when it comes to the climate crisis: we have noticed the problem for decades, have the know-how, and are aware of the urgency, but don’t care enough to do anything about it. Perhaps it is because it doesn’t seem as acute to us as it did with the pandemic, for instance.
We’re not rebuilding the world, we’re holding on to little things. Can bratwurst be called bratwurst if it’s vegan? How do we address gender correctly? What rights should people who think, feel, or love differently from us have? Apparently, we’d rather discuss all these first, before we move on to think about how to tackle the climate crisis. Or the extinction of species and the associated loss of biodiversity. Or how we can defeat global injustice, poverty, and world hunger. Or ending wars. Or putting a stop to the dismantling of democracy and authoritarian power structures.
What is he talking or ranting about? What does this have to do with artificial intelligence? My point is that we are currently performing disastrously in society when it comes to recognizing the important things. We need to understand that and respond to it. Only then can we really deal with the opportunities and risks of AI. So, what do we need to do as a society? First of all, learn to listen — again. Right now, for example, I need your attention and your willingness to allow new information to reach you. We are at a crossroads, and that’s why I need you to keep your wits about you!
Our jobs are disappearing – and it’s already happening!
Two years ago, Goldman Sachs was already certain that automation and artificial intelligence could eliminate 300 million jobs worldwide. Although IBM has been able to create new jobs, it also informed the Wall Street Journal that “several hundred employees” have already been replaced by artificial intelligence. Microsoft is planning to cut around three percent of its workforce (around 6,000 full-time jobs), despite its bubbling billions in revenue. The reason here, too: “restructuring of the company” and focus on AI. Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon — transformation is taking place everywhere, accompanied by mass redundancies.
Eric Schmidt also recently came up with a fitting thesis when he said:
“[…] This is happening faster than our society, our democracy, our laws can cope with, and it has many implications. That’s why it’s so underestimated. People don’t understand what happens when you have intelligence at this level that is largely cost-free. That’s why we, as an industry, believe that in a year’s time, the vast majority of programmers will be replaced by AI programmers.”
In Schmidt’s opinion, programmers will be out of a job. And this will happen in the next few years. Of course, not every programmer will be affected. But it will affect most of them. “I’m not interested because I’m not a programmer!” Yes, I think too many people think that way. But it’s exactly the same paradigm as the climate crisis: “It’s a shame that tropical dream islands are sinking—but those are thousands of miles away!”
The Future of Jobs Global Report 2025 stated that 41% of companies are already thinking about reducing their workforce because of AI. “But new jobs are also being created”. Yes, I know! But not as many as will be lost, experts believe. Even the brand-new profession of a prompt engineer could be a thing of the past if AI can simply formulate better prompts for every occasion.
What is the new job of a bus driver, for instance, who has lost his job thanks to an autonomous bus? Let’s assume the human drove a bus for 30 years, and did it really well. How likely is it that, at the age of 55, he will now find himself in an IT job that he doesn’t know whether AI can do any better? In other words, the great new jobs won’t do us much good if the number of unemployed people and the number of new vacancies don’t match.
Young, intelligent talent is already being affected
There is also a huge problem hanging like a sword of Damocles over young people who currently have to decide on a course of study. How do you choose the right branch when we live in times when we don’t know today which profession will still exist tomorrow? Read the blog article at Blood in the Machine. In this very clever article, Brian Merchant refers to an observation made by the Atlantic. They found that the unemployment rate for university graduates is unusually high. Even in relation to the general unemployment rate, it is historically high.
After graduating, you usually begin your career with easier tasks. Precisely the easy tasks that AI is already brilliantly mastering today. Until now, young graduates have been a talent bank for companies: They’re keen, they have the right qualifications, and they work for relatively little money. However, we can already see that the so-called “new degree gap” — the gap between the unemployment rate of these young graduates and that of the entire workforce —is growing wider than it has been for four decades.
Do you work better than AI? Who cares?
Another noticeable change has less to do with AI itself and more to do with overambitious (or stingy?) companies. It turns out the economy is already relying on AI, even if what artificial intelligence produces is inferior to what human employees can achieve.
Duolingo is currently demonstrating this with its “AI First” strategy. The quality of the courses is deteriorating, but the company doesn’t seem to care for the time being. So if you think you’re safe because you’re watching the AI scene and know that your work can’t be replaced so easily, Sorry, but that doesn’t protect you. It doesn’t matter whether a company is acting out of stupidity or simply using the opportunity to get rid of staff with the AI excuse.
Of course, not every job will be affected and certainly not over the next 2 or 3 years — that’s logical. But please don’t feel too safe, even if you’re a tradesperson, because the next revolution is just around the corner with humanoid AI-supported robots! But let’s talk about robots separately.
We are facing a social ordeal
But when I tell you about the urgency of our problems, it’s certainly not just about jobs. Take our pension system: over in Germany, it looks like the pay-as-you-go system is reaching its limits. In the 1960s, six contributors were needed to finance one person’s pension. Today, there are already fewer than two, and the Federal Institute for Population Research predicts that there will only be 1.3 people per pensioner by 2030.
So, what will happen if AI and automation eliminate a significant proportion of gainful employment? Marginal adjustments will simply not be enough in a world in which AI turns entire occupational fields inside out. We are not facing an evolutionary adaptation of our social system, but a revolutionary reorganization.
While a few companies and individuals will amass enormous wealth in the future, the broad masses are at risk of being left behind in this change, and yes, this gap has a high tendency to widen.
You need to realize one thing here: There is no simple formula that will suddenly make everything run smoothly again. A utopian situation where creating a few jobs, letting a few fewer people into the country, and raising the retirement age no longer works. What social hammock is going to cushion the fact that we will have hundreds of millions of climate refugees in the world in the foreseeable future, and just as many will lose their jobs simultaneously?
New systems for a new era
But hey, it is not all doom and gloom: we have the chance to use this technological upheaval for a fairer, freer social model. To do so, we need to act now and take bold new paths. There are several ideas that could propel us forward:
For instance, a robot tax: anyone who replaces human labor with machines returns part of the resulting profits to society. These funds could flow directly into social security or education. Part of this tax revenue could also be used to finance an unconditional basic income.
This also leads to a second approach, which I find almost outrageous, that it currently plays no role at all in politics: The UBI, or unconditional basic income, which is a living income paid to every person in society regardless of their background or performance.
The UBI could also feed a global financial transaction tax. At a time when high-frequency trading and AI-controlled algorithms move billions across the financial markets in milliseconds, even a minimal tax on every transaction could flush considerable sums into national budgets without burdening the economy. Robot or financial transaction taxes could help to secure the social system, or they could flow directly into the UBI.
When it comes to UBI, people often ask who will still go to work if the money is available without benefits. Here’s a counter question: If hardly anyone is still working anyway due to automation, who is going to buy everything that the economy produces?
It will be about giving people the opportunity to develop their potential beyond traditional gainful employment. In a world in which AI and robots are taking over more and more routine tasks, we could then devote more time to creative, social, and caring activities.
The bomb is ticking: Why we need to act now
Let me be clear: We’re not talking about visions of the future here. This is all happening now, right now! The speed at which AI is developing is outstripping all previous technological revolutions. While the industrial revolution took decades, the AI revolution is taking place in just a few years — remember the Eric Schmidt quote above.
We face a time of extreme social tensions if we do not set a new course NOW. This is because the greatest danger is not AI itself, but our damned inability to adapt our social order to this new reality. We can’t press the pause button either. The genie is out of the bottle! Every company and every state that slows down now because it wants to ensure control over AI first will be overtaken left and right, by companies and states with a different ethical understanding that don’t give a damn about our values and ideas.
Without far-reaching reforms, the following threat looms: A small elite group controls the most powerful AI systems, while the broad masses sink into unemployment and dependency. This dystopia is not inevitable, but it will become a reality if we do not take countermeasures now. Mo Gawdat, ex-manager of Google X, shared two thoughts with us:
- A really bad phase is coming with an even more divided society with even richer elites. The question is not whether it will come, but how long it will last.
- We, as a society, have a say in how long this bad phase that separates us from utopia lasts.
What we can do as a society: The road to digital utopia
AI in itself is not good or evil. It is neutral. In the wrong hands, it can wipe out or enslave humanity, and in the right hands, it can save the whole world. The good news is that we have the power to turn the AI revolution into an opportunity for everyone. Here are some concrete steps:
1. Begin the education revolution
Our education system is still preparing people for jobs that will no longer exist tomorrow. We have already discussed this above. We need a radical reorientation that helps young people develop critical thinking, creativity, and social skills. Skills in which humans are (still) superior to AI. Here’s an essential survival skill: being flexible to adapt to new situations.
2. Demand democratic control of AI
AI systems with social implications must not be controlled solely by tech companies or individual governments. We need regulation, effective public oversight, and democratic co-determination.
3. Develop new tax and social systems
We must begin to develop and test new tax and social systems now that distribute the wealth of an automated economy fairly. Robot tax, financial transaction tax, and unconditional basic income are not utopias — they are pragmatic responses to real challenges.
4. Drive AI development forward for the common good
AI must serve the common good and not just private profit interests. We need public investment in AI research and development that is explicitly geared towards societal challenges such as climate change, healthcare, and education.
Conclusion: The time to act is now
We are at a historic turning point. The AI revolution will change our society more profoundly than any technological revolution before. Whether this change leads to a dystopian or utopian future is now in our hands. Please don’t pin me down to a specific year. Because if someone like Eric Schmidt believes that almost all code will be generated by AI in a year’s time, it doesn’t matter whether it happens “only” in 2027 or even 2028. You still need to look for alternatives today!
A temporary dystopia — a phase of profound upheaval and uncertainty is probably unavoidable, the way I see it. However, we can influence the duration and intensity of the dystopia. We can also ensure that the end result is a fairer, freer society in which people can lead a fulfilling life, not despite, but thanks to technological progress. A life in which the meaning is no longer “40 years of wage labor”.
The alternative to action is not preserving the status quo. The alternative is an uncontrolled disruption that disrupts our society, or at worst, destroys it. The decision is ours, and the time to act is now! Keep an eye on developments. Get involved with AI both professionally and privately and step on the toes of your politicians. Do anything but please don’t disappear in fear or annoyance when you encounter the topic of “AI”. I implore you to do so! Thank you for reading this somewhat lengthy rant!