Tamay Besiroglu, a renowned AI researcher, has launched a contentious startup called Mechanize, with the goal of fully automating all work and handing the entire economy over to AI.
TechCrunch reports that Tamay Besiroglu, a prominent AI researcher and founder of the non-profit AI research organization Epoch, has launched a controversial new startup called Mechanize. The company’s mission, as described by Besiroglu on X, is “the full automation of all work” and “the full automation of the economy.” This announcement has sparked a heated debate on social media, with many questioning the ethical implications of replacing all human workers with AI agent bots.
Besiroglu’s vision for Mechanize involves providing the necessary data, evaluations, and digital environments to enable the automation of any job. He even went as far as calculating the startup’s total addressable market by aggregating all the wages currently paid to human workers, estimating it to be around $18 trillion per year in the United States alone and $60 trillion globally.
While Besiroglu clarified to TechCrunch that Mechanize’s immediate focus is on automating white-collar work rather than manual labor jobs that would require robotics, the response to the startup has been largely critical. Many X users expressed concerns about the potential negative impact on human workers and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of those who own the AI agents.
The controversy surrounding Mechanize is not limited to its mission alone. Besiroglu’s involvement in the startup has also raised questions about the impartiality of his AI research institute, Epoch, which analyzes the economic impact of AI and produces benchmarks for AI performance. Some social media users have suggested that Epoch’s research may have been directly feeding into work that resulted in the new company, despite the institute’s perceived neutrality.
Besiroglu has defended his vision, arguing that the complete automation of labor could lead to “explosive economic growth,” higher standards of living, and the creation of new goods and services that are currently unimaginable. He points to a paper he published on the topic to support his claims. However, critics have pointed out that if humans are replaced by AI agents in all jobs, they will not have the income necessary to purchase the goods and services produced by these agents.
In response to concerns about the potential decrease in human wages in an AI-automated world, Besiroglu suggested that people could receive income from other sources, such as rent, dividends, and government welfare, an apparent argument for universal basic income (UBI). This statement has been met with skepticism, as it remains unclear how such a system would be sustainable if AI agents are not paying taxes.
Despite the criticism, Besiroglu maintains that Mechanize is working to solve a legitimate technical issue. He believes that if each human worker has a personal crew of AI agents to help them produce more work, it could lead to economic abundance. However, he acknowledges that current AI agents are unreliable, struggle to retain information, and have difficulty executing long-term plans without going off the rails.
While Mechanize’s mission may be controversial, it is not the only company working on improving AI agents. Giant companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, and OpenAI are also building agentic platforms, and numerous startups are focusing on various aspects of AI agent technology, from task specialization to training data and pricing economics.
Read more at TechCrunch here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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