As someone scripting a lot for my department in the tech industry, yea AI and scripts have a lot of potential to reduce labor. However, given how chaotic this industry is, there will still need to be humans to take into account the variables that scripts and AI haven’t been trained on (or are otherwise hard to predict). I know the managers don’t wanna spend their time on these issues, as there’s plenty more for them to deal with. When there’s true AGI, that may be a different scenario, but time will tell.
Currently, we need to have some people in each department overseeing the automations of their area. This stuff mostly kills the super redundant data entry tasks that make me feel cross eyed by the end of my shift. I don’t wanna be the embodiment of vlookup between pdfs and type the same number 4+ times.
There aren’t even natural reserves for every mineral/gas/etc in the US. A lot of the more advanced ones go into making computer chips, let alone their coveted Stargate AI chips. Setting up manufacturing/processing sites for each one based on imported raw materials isn’t a sudden feasible 4 year project either (yes yes I know assuming 4 years is all this crap lasts)