
Photo by Jonas Gerlach on Unsplash
既然当牛做马那么辛苦,不如期盼AI早早取代人类把活都干完得了。
事实上,已经有不少人成立了one-person start-up,公司上下就老板一人,指挥十几个AI智能体干活。
据咨询公司BCG预测,在接下来的两到三年内,AI将重塑美国50-55%的工作岗位(Over the next two to three years, 50% to 55% of jobs in the US will be reshaped by AI)。
不过,重塑不一定意味着取代,只不过人类也得跟着调整自己的工作内容和方式。
话说回来,AI浪潮的来临还得追溯回 Chatgpt 3.0 的问世。我们来看看《经济学人》的分析:
The launch of Chatgpt in 2022 ignited the artificial-intelligence boom—and elicited a chorus of warnings from AI bosses of an impending jobs apocalypse. Never mind that they have reason to talk up the disruptiveness of their products, or that rich-world employment is near all-time highs—the dark message has landed. Seven in ten Americans think AI will make it harder for people to find work; nearly a third fear for their own jobs. A dearth of openings for college graduates—especially computer programmers—amplifies the dread
2022年,ChatGPT的问世掀起了AI热潮,AI巨头老板们纷纷发出警告,直指即将来临的“就业末日”。 a chorus of warnings from AI bosses of an impending jobs apocalypse,需要注意下from AI bosses插在warning与of an impending jobs apocalypse之间,不要被迷惑就好,of后面是warning的具体内容
且不说AI公司老板有充分理由去夸大自己产品的颠覆力量,也不论富裕国家的就业率正处于历史高位,起码这则“就业末日论”早已不胫而走。Never mind that=despite the fact that,语域上更随意一点。Dark message回指前面的jobs apocalypse warning
七成美国人认为认为AI会增加人类找工作的难度;近三分之一的人担心自己饭碗不保。应届生招聘职位(尤其是计算机程序员)“一位难求”,进一步加剧了这种恐惧。Dearth=shortage,openings=在招岗位,dread=fear

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The past offers some solace for the anxious. Labour markets constantly change. Today’s offices would be unrecognisable to a worker from 50 years ago. Never in modern history has technological progress hurt the overall demand for human labour. Economic historians now play down the magnitude of “Engels’ pause”, the period during the Industrial Revolution in which working-class wages grew more slowly than the wider economy
患上“AI焦虑症”的人们可以从历史中寻到一丝慰藉。人才市场从古至今不断变化。倘若让一名50年前的员工穿越时空,眼前的现代职场环境可能会让他感到完全陌生
倒装句Never in modern history has technological progress hurt the overall demand for human labour,我们还原下就是Technological progress has never hurt the overall demand for human labour in modern history
Engels’ pause(经济学术语,“恩格斯停顿”)指的是尽管技术不断进步,但工人的实际工资却停滞不前,并未跟上整体经济的发展
Yet history is not always a good guide to the future, as the Industrial Revolution itself showed. The top AI models are awesome. They can tackle much more complex coding tasks than people were predicting a year ago. The number of AI agents has exploded. Spending on AI by businesses is up dramatically. Annualised recurring revenue of Anthropic, a hot model-maker, is set to reach $50bn by the end of June. There is no evidence yet in the labour-market data of AI destroying many jobs. But given how fast it is improving, it would be rash to dismiss fears that it will. Society may be on the verge of a profound reallocation of resources, and political upheaval
然而,鉴往未必可以昭来,工业革命就是例证。顶尖AI模型表现出众,处理复杂编程任务的能力远超一年前的预期。AI智能体的数量暴增,企业大幅加码AI领域的投入
Anthropic是Claude的母公司,Annualised recurring revenue=年度经常性收入,即公司通过“订阅制”收到的钱换算成年收入,AI模型公司赚的都是“包月费”、“包年费”,很好理解
虽然目前的就业市场数据尚未显示AI导致了大规模失业,但鉴于其进化速度之快,贸然否定这种担忧略显轻率。人类社会可能正处于资源重新分配与政治动荡的边缘

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Economists’ prediction that work will stay plentiful is less reassuring than it looks, especially over a long horizon. Though the market will find uses for human labour even as models and robots become more capable, the quality of those jobs and the wages they pay are not guaranteed. Data centres will account for 8.5% of America’s peak power demand in 2027, up from 4.1% in 2025, predicts Goldman Sachs, a bank. As AI firms bid up the price of land and energy, the dollars people earn will go less far. Eventually humans could, like horses in the age of the car, become uneconomical. Income may go mostly or entirely to owners of capital, who then go on to spend it on things that are made by AI and robots using natural resources that they monopolise
Plentiful=多;over a long horizon=长期来看
Market will find uses for human labour,我们可以这么理解,AI时代,所谓“天生我材必有用”多了一丝心酸和无奈,因为紧接着作者就说了the quality of those jobs and the wages they pay are not guaranteed,呼应了前面的“恩格斯停滞”
Uneconomical=低性价比
Data centres will account for 8.5% of America’s peak power demand in 2027, up from 4.1% in 2025...As AI firms bid up the price of land and energy, the dollars people earn will go less far
我们稍微分析下本句的逻辑,(AI公司需要大量的数据中心)数据中心占全美高峰用电需求的比重将从2025年的4.1%上升到2027年的8.5%。价格又有供需关系决定,数据中心占地用电,地价和电价也会随之走高,老百姓住房用电的成本就上去了,(在工资不变的前提下)实际购买力也就下去了
This dystopian possibility is behind Silicon Valley’s admonitions that state intervention, and perhaps a universal basic income, will be necessary. That remains a long way off, if it ever happens. But governments may have to act sooner, for you do not need a cataclysm to stoke popular fury. Perhaps 2m Americans lost their jobs between 1999 and 2011 owing to China’s entry into the global trading system. That is no worse than a typical month’s lay-offs in America’s churning labour market. Yet the “China shock” helped propel Donald Trump to office and led to the highest tariffs since the 1930s
Dystopian=反乌托邦,与理想社会相反
Admonitions that state intervention, and perhaps a universal basic income, will be necessary. Admonition=warning,后面that引导的名词性从句修饰admonition,政府干预或全民基本收入可能是必选项,a long way off也就是说目前看来“反乌托邦的未来”还远在天边
以AI就业危机类比“中国冲击”,China Shock的论调在西方是老生常谈了,川普竞选也是玩的这一套说辞
The white-collar employees threatened by AI have more political and social clout than factory workers hurt by Chinese competition. Even a small number of lay-offs could provoke a backlash against the technology; furious opposition to new data centres is a hint of what may be to come. Severe disruption to the security and status of many people could lead to widespread unrest, even revolution
不同之处是AI浪潮直击白领岗位,小规模的裁员都可能引爆“反AI”的巨大能量。公众对新建数据中心的愤怒与抵制,恐怕是点燃未来矛盾的火星
Clout=power and influence
Hurt在此处就等于threaten也就是受到冲击之意
The security and status of many people=白领的物质保障与社会地位

Photo by Desmond Leung on Unsplash
说实话,目前没人知道AI会取代多少工作,造成多大冲击。大家都在猜。
就翻译而言,AI的发展既能抹杀大部分人的工作机会,也能提高一小撮人的质量与效率。
说白了,要么做到最好,要么早做打算。
AI会如何影响你的工作前景呢?
留言板聊一波!
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