Tick, Tick, Tick rev II

Palantir CEO Alex Karp at a July 2019 conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)

Outside of this wannabe tough guy running Palantir, the company named after The Lord of the Rings ultimate spy device, the fact of AI replacing millions of jobs is nigh as said tech is now powerful enough to make it happen, something most disquieting as the wheels continue to fall off regarding not only the once great nation known as America but also entities in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa as well.

To whit ...

It’s the ticking time bomb in the global economy, and every CEO knows it: AI is already powerful enough to replace millions of jobs. So why haven’t the mass layoffs begun? The answer has little to do with technology and everything to do with fear. Corporate leaders are quietly waiting to see who will be the first to pull the trigger.

My discussions about Generative AI reveal a stark generational divide. Most people under 35 are convinced that AI is a reality, not a gimmick, and that the displacement of human workers is an urgent, present-day issue. For many over 35, the assessment is more cautious; they believe the replacement will happen, but not for another five or ten years.

The problem is that the second group is several steps behind. The AI revolution isn’t being held back because the technology isn’t ready. It’s being held back for political reasons. CEOs are nervously looking at each other, waiting for someone else to make the first move and announce that they are eliminating a significant number of jobs because AI can do the work faster and cheaper.

They are tiptoeing around what they already know. And they are telegraphing their intentions subliminally.

Remember, it's all about the money, always has been, always will be.

In Peter Jackson's The Two Towers, Saruman uses the Orthanc Palantír,
the camera giving an overview as shown, and then zooming in,
like a Palantír itself, providing the viewer with
an omniscient picture of the whole of Middle-earth.[9]