AI doesn't replace us, but commodizes us
The article explores the concern that AI may not replace human workers but instead render them interchangeable commodities in the workforce. It suggests that even when humans remain in the loop, their individual identities might become irrelevant, shifting power to capital owners. The author expresses a preference for a world without work over one where humans are reduced to low-wage, easily replaceable roles dependent on costly AI tools.
- ▪AI might not replace humans but could make individual workers interchangeable in human-AI collaborations.
- ▪Policies may require human involvement in decisions, even if AI does most of the work, to preserve human roles.
- ▪The value produced by AI could lead to higher token prices, potentially forcing workers to pay a significant portion of their earnings for AI access.
- ▪If humans become commodities, economic power could shift drastically toward owners of capital and AI systems.
- ▪The author would prefer a work-free society over one where everyone holds minimum-wage jobs due to job commoditization by AI.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
[What if] AI doesn't replace us, but commodizes us¶ Published: 2026-05-01 I am having random thoughts on how the advances of AI affects our society. One of the most discussed fear is echoed through discussions are knowledge workers losing their jobs. I am picturing a more concerned another dystopian world. My assumptions are: There will be a period where AI + robotics is not sufficiently good to replace everything people do. And human+AI still can accomplish more than just AI or just human. There might be artificial barriers, like policies, that enforces a human in the loop. This would be done either because of legacy or by design, to make human irreplacable. Say, requiring a human to show up physically (to stand in a line, to vote, to sign off something).
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Github.
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