AI to wipe out 98.8 per cent of the world's population by 2300, expert warns

News.com.au

4 days ago

Earth will have a dystopian population of just 100 million by 2300 as AI wipes out jobs turning major cities into ghostlands, an expert has warned.
Computer science professor Subhash Kak forecasts an impossible cost to having children who won't grow up with jobs to turn to.
That means the world's greatest cities like New York and London will become deserted ghost towns, he added.
Prof Kak points to AI as the culprit, which he says will replace 'everything'.
And things will get so bad, he predicts the population will shrink to nearly the size of Britain's current estimated population of close to 70 million.
The Age of Artificial Intelligence author, who works at Oklahoma State University, told The Sun: 'Computers or robots will never be conscious, but they will be doing literally all that we do because most of what we do in our lives can be replaced.
'Literally everything, even decision making in offices, will be replaced.
'So it's going to be devastating for society and world society. There are demographers who are suggesting that as a consequence, the world population will collapse and it could go down to as low as just 100 million people on the entire planet Earth in 2300 or 2380.
'Just 100 million, right now it's around 8 billion.
'So the whole world will be devastated. As I discussed in my book, I think people really don't have a clue.
'The great cities of our modern times will be abandoned if you only have 100 million people in the whole world, which is just a bit more than the entire population of Great Britain right now.
'It's likely. I have all the data in the book. This is not just my personal opinion.'
AI has advanced at a rapid rate in recent years.
Tools like ChatGPT, which launched in 2022, have now established themselves as essential for businesses and individuals.
But the growth continues to spark alarm about the future of employment.
In March, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said an increasing number of roles are being taken up by AI. She spoke as she unveiled plans to slash civil service jobs.
Prof Kak, who also wrote Matter and Mind, said birthrates will plunge because people will be reluctant to have children who will likely be unemployed in adult life.
'People have stopped having babies. Europe, China, Japan, and the most rapid fall in population right now is taking place in Korea,' he said.
'Now, I'm not saying that these trends will continue, but it's very hard to reverse them because a lot of people have children for a variety of reasons.
'One is of course social. In the back of your mind, you have a sense of what the future is going to be like.
'If you sense that there will be no jobs for children. A lot of people have that sense.
'And that translates into extreme costs of child rearing, as is happening in the US right now.'
Billionaire Tesla and X owner, Elon Musk, is among those who claim the human race could one day face extinction over AI and declining birthrates.
And Professor Kak refuses to rule out that being a possibility.
'Could humans go extinct? Who knows?' Professor Kak said.
'That's what some people like Elon Musk are saying. Or there could be disease, it's not necessarily for psychological reasons.
'There could be a new pathogen created by some monster which could wipe off humanity. And so nobody knows.
'That's why Musk is saying maybe humans should go to space, maybe build colonies elsewhere, so that should such a tragedy hit Earth then it could be reseeded.
'This is all like science fiction. Nobody really knows what's going to happen.
'But what is absolutely certain is that there is a population collapse occurring right before our eyes.'