Travis Kalanick: Automation won't make humans less important
Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder, thinks automation isn't making people less important — in fact, he says it's the opposite.
On a recent podcast, he shared, "Until we get super AGI, humans are valuable and they are going to become more and more valuable because they will be the long pole in the tent to progress."
In a fully automated future, skilled workers will be gold
Kalanick painted a picture of a future where almost everything is automated, even building 1,000 buildings a day.
But he pointed out that jobs like plumbers or skilled workers will be even more valuable, he jokingly compared them to being as sought-after as LeBron James.
Waymo's self-driving tech and the human factor
Even with big leaps in self-driving tech such as Waymo, which currently use human supervisors, and where the ratio could shift from roughly five cars per supervisor to potentially hundreds or thousands per supervisor, Kalanick says humans are still needed for the tricky stuff, at least until super-intelligent AI comes along.
Kalanick's new venture Atoms
Kalanick also revealed his company City Storage Systems (behind CloudKitchens) just rebranded as Atoms this week.
The new focus? Real estate meets robotics and delivery, with hopes of bringing prepared food prices closer to grocery-store levels.