As supply or capacity increases, customers will simply demand more and better products. Latent demand grows over time, as consumers see what’s possible today and demand more and better tomorrow. 

This is apparent in the world of atoms, where induced demand was born. When we get cheaper energy, we simply demand more and better energy-consuming products. When we get more lanes, we simply demand more driving. 

I suspect the same will be true for intelligence. 

Will AI take lawyers’ jobs, or will we simply sue each other more? 

Will it take designers’ jobs, or will we demand better design? 

Will it take doctors’ jobs, or will we all demand our own concierge doctors? 

Will it take engineers’ jobs, or will we demand more personalized and higher-quality software?

Will it replace startups, or will we demand more diverse and better instantiations of founders’ visions, faster?

Will it take writers’ jobs, or will readers just demand higher-quality, more well-researched, more original work? 

On the surface, AI looks like an opportunity for humans to do the same work with less effort, and that’s certainly one possibility.

I suspect that the increased supply of work will induce demand for that very human skill of figuring out just what we should be working on. It would be a tragic self-own if we used our new superpowers to endlessly sue each other back and forth. 

Will it force us to change how we work? Of course. Will it push us to differentiate? Absolutely.

But that could be a wonderful opportunity. Instead of worrying yourself into paralysis, digging your heels in to do more of the same thing, or planning your next lawsuit, I’d encourage you to take some of your newfound free time to paint a vision of the future you want to build with superabundant intelligence, and then get to work.