Today, Explained (Vox)

Episode: “Let AI Replace You”

Release Date: December 14, 2025
Host: Jonquilyn Hill (JQ)

Episode Overview

This episode explores the rapidly expanding influence of artificial intelligence in daily life and work, focusing on the concept of “AI Abundance”—a possible future where much of our labor is automated, and we gain unprecedented free time and wealth. The hosts and guests critically examine historical parallels, potential disruptions, and the philosophical questions around work, meaning, and how humanity might shape or adapt to an AI-driven future.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. AI in Austin, Texas: Automation in Action

• AI is already changing city life: From delivery robots on sidewalks to the use of AI for public safety and firefighting logistics.
• Daniel Colada (Department of Organizational Excellence, Austin):

  “People saved, you know, between four and like 12 hours a week of productivity time.” (04:44)

• Personal impact of AI: Resident “Snow White” explains how delivery robots allowed her to care for her sick mother while managing daily errands.

  “For me, for that specific time, it was really needed and it helped so much.” (03:34)

2. AI Abundance: A Utopian Scenario?

• Definition: If AI advances, it could produce so much wealth that society’s material needs become easily met.

• Anton Korinek (Economics Professor, University of Virginia, TIME Top 100 AI Influencer):

  “AI Abundance essentially carries the notion that we could all be so much more wealthier than we can even imagine today.” (05:00)
  “AI and robots and so on will be able to produce a lot more goods and services... and make us essentially an order of magnitude wealthier and better off.” (05:22)

• Work's future depends on our relationship to it:

  • For those who love work: More exciting and less time-intensive jobs.
  • For those who dislike work: The possibility to work less while maintaining standards of living.

  “We may enter a world where they can just press a button and have one more AI worker or... robot.” (06:30)

3. Historical Parallels: Lessons from the Industrial Revolution

• Comparison drawn: The rise of AI is likened to the seismic shifts of the Industrial Revolution, which transformed economies from land-based to machine-driven production.
• Economic transformation brings prosperity and pain:
  • “Artisan weavers... lost their livelihood essentially overnight, and they were impoverished. But... their descendants lived in a world where you had cheap textiles and... were much wealthier.” (11:20 - 12:15)
• Disruption and adaptation: Technological change is slow and contentious; society will debate how to respond as larger sectors are impacted.

  “Whether or not that's going to happen is a story that is yet to be written. And it's going to be challenging.” (12:54)

4. The Meaning and Value of Work

• Cognitive Automation:

  • Initially, computers automated “routinized” tasks; now, AI tackles more complex cognitive work.

• Existential question:

  “Where will this stop and will [AIs] leave anything for us?” (14:52)

• Economic anxiety & future of income:

  • If labor is devalued, current systems will be challenged.
  • Options for redistribution: Universal Basic Income, compute allotments, job guarantees.

  “If labor does get significantly devalued by this technological change... it would be such a failure if we don't use that additional abundance to make sure that nobody's left behind.” (16:24)

5. What Will We Do With All Our Time?

• Familiar scenario: Pandemic lockdowns prompted big ambitions for self-improvement and creativity, but many people defaulted to passive or escapist activities (gaming, doomscrolling).

  “Most people just game[d], and post[ed] and doomscroll[ed] and binge watch[ed] and cultivate[d] their mental illnesses.” (21:00)
  — (Referencing James Smith, author of Work Won’t Work)

• Work and purpose:

  • Many people are defined by their jobs—removing traditional “work” raises questions about meaning and fulfillment.

  “One of the things that being busy and having a full life gives you is purpose... But those ways [to fill our time] aren't as meaningful without the purpose that that busyness gives you.” (19:14)

6. Reimagining Work and Social Infrastructure

• Tom Whyman (Dazed writer, Reports on tech/culture):

  • Artists and creatives could have more freedom if removed from market pressures:

    “I would still write because I value communicating with people... I actually think I would have a lot more freedom as a writer if I didn't have to kind of fit the specifications of... the market.” (21:33–22:22)

  • “Work” should encompass caregiving, unpaid labor, and other undervalued forms.

    “Work is much more flexible and fluid... it can include things like childcare and care for the elderly.” (23:33)

• A future of abundance requires systemic change:

  • Universal Basic Income, public luxury (improved infrastructure) as redistributive measures.

    “[In] countries like China or Singapore... they've been using a lot of this excess kind of capital that's generated by introducing machines into, like, really good public infrastructure and public luxury. And I think that is... a huge cause for optimism...” (24:25)

7. Agency and the Positive Vision for AI

• Can everyday people shape AI’s impact?
  • Individual agency may be limited, but collective visions matter:

    “What there is really space for now is a positive vision of the future that benefits everybody... these technologies are inevitable and... could be used to make a better world. But nobody has really put forward that vision yet, at least for people like you and I...” (25:51)

  • Critique of tech billionaires' framing:
    • Elon Musk’s rollout of “Optimus” robots:

      “With autonomy, you get your time back. And what can it do? It can do anything you want.” (27:09) “If I'm getting more time, if something's automating parts of my life, I want it to automate the boring stuff. I want technology to enable me to spend more time doing the things that I want to do...” (27:54)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Anton Korinek:

  “If everything goes well with AI... we could all be so much more wealthier than we can even imagine today.” (05:00)

• Snow White (Austin resident):

  “...for that specific time, it was really needed and it helped so much.” (03:34)

• Tom Whyman:

  “I think the problem here is that we have a really narrow definition of work...” (23:33)

• James Smith (paraphrased by Tom Whyman):

  “Most people just game, and post and doom, scroll and binge, watch and cultivate their mental illnesses.” (21:00)

• Tom Whyman on agency:

  “It's difficult to feel like you have agency in this kind of new world of billionaires and robotic automation. For sure, I don't know how much agency any individual has beyond their kind of like, part in a wider collective.” (25:51)

Key Timestamps

• 02:31 — Daniel Colada (Austin) on citywide AI efficiency
• 04:57 — Introduction of “AI Abundance”
• 05:12 — Anton Korinek on future wealth with AI
• 07:00 — Parallels to Industrial Revolution
• 09:25 — IMF: AI could impact 40–60% of jobs
• 11:16 — Industrial Revolution’s impact on workers
• 13:54 — Comparing AI disruption to computers in the 1980s-90s
• 15:28 — Korinek on the need for new income distribution systems
• 19:12 — Host’s fear: “We are just going to keep working... and be expected to do even more.”
• 20:03 — Tom Whyman: Pandemic as glimpse of extra free time’s reality
• 21:00 — James Smith’s critique of lockdown aspirations
• 22:22 — Artist perspectives on work under abundance
• 23:33 — Redefining “work” to include unpaid labor
• 24:25 — Universal basic income; infrastructural optimism
• 25:51 — The importance of ordinary people creating AI visions
• 27:09 — Elon Musk and “Optimus” robot vision

Tone & Language

The episode blends thoughtful optimism with caution, using real-world anecdotes and the voices of both experts and everyday people. The hosts and guests speak plainly and directly, often posing reflective or challenging questions while maintaining curiosity about the potential for radical improvements to human life.

Summary

“Let AI Replace You” imagines a world where automation frees humanity from mundane labor, but asks: What happens then? Through expert interviews, everyday experiences, and historical context, the episode investigates whether abundance will bring new opportunities or fresh anxieties—and, crucially, who gets to decide what kind of society we build with this new power. The answer, the hosts suggest, depends not just on technology, but on how intentionally—collectively and politically—humans choose to shape the future.