I just read a piece arguing that artificial intelligence is advancing so quickly it could push half the population out of work within five years. I don’t know whether that number is accurate. But the larger point is hard to ignore: AI is improving faster than people, workplaces, and governments can realistically adapt.
So what happens in a world where machines can do most people’s jobs?
The most obvious concern is economic. If machines do the work, how will ordinary families pay rent, buy food, and live with dignity? The transition could be brutal. Entire industries may shrink quickly, and many people will feel displaced, unneeded, and left behind.
Still, I’m not convinced the economic question will be the deepest one over time. If AI truly boosts productivity, it should also expand abundance. Societies will likely stumble toward new norms and safety nets that prevent mass deprivation. It won’t be smooth or fair, and it may take years of instability, but it belongs to the category of problems humans can eventually solve.
The harder problems are spiritual and psychological.
First is meaning. Work has never been only a paycheck. It structures time, gives identity, and provides a sense of usefulness. If millions wake up in a world that no longer needs their labor, what fills the day? And what will provide meaning for those people? Entertainment can swallow hours, but it doesn’t nourish the soul.
Second is jealousy. Even if everyone’s basic needs are met, people don’t experience life only through absolute comfort. We experience it comparatively. A society can provide a high baseline and still breed resentment if some retain vastly more status, wealth, and influence while others are merely “taken care of.” We have made extraordinary progress in technology, but we have not made comparable progress in mastering envy.
So what’s the alternative?
The key solution is a shift to something with intrinsic value: developing our souls by redirecting our focus and energy toward learning and inner development, especially Torah learning and the broader pursuit of understanding. People need an outlet for their unspent energy. Learning provides an infinite one. The pursuit of knowledge and understanding brings joy, meaning, and purpose. With learning, the act itself is rewarding.
Serious learning doesn’t merely add information. It changes the way we perceive the external world and the way we think. It illuminates our inner world and reshapes our personality.
Learning offers meaning that does not depend on being economically “necessary.” AI can generate, summarize, and analyze. But it cannot become you. It cannot build your character. It cannot do the most important work a human being is here to do: to grow, to refine, and to seek truth, including the truth of Hashem through Torah and through the wisdom embedded in the world G-d created.
That is why AI, however powerful it becomes, cannot provide what human beings most need. In fact, the more we outsource our thinking and discernment to machines, the more we risk hollowing out our inner world.
Perhaps learning can help fill the void AI creates in our lives. But can it eliminate envy?
No, it can’t. But do we really want to eliminate jealousy and live in a world entirely free of relative comparison? Leaving aside whether such a thing is possible, the more fundamental issue is that it’s not even something we should aim for.
There is good jealousy and there is bad jealousy. We want to reshape the way we view the world so that our jealousy is of the good type and not of the bad type.
Bad jealousy is fueled by ignorance and fantasy. Ibn Ezra, commenting on the Aseres HaDibros, notes that a peasant doesn’t covet the king’s daughter because he knows it isn’t a realistic possibility. Envy often thrives where the mind entertains impossible comparisons and imagined lives.
Learning also helps us separate what is significant from what is superfluous. It is far easier to be happy when you realize you already have what you truly need. Desires born from ignorance are limitless. When you redefine what matters, you shrink the space where bad jealousy thrives.
Bad jealousy is jealousy directed at things that don’t have intrinsic value, like money and material possessions. There will always be someone who has more than you. Even in a world flush with abundance, someone will still have more. But these things are only means to ends.
Good jealousy, by contrast, is fueled by knowledge of what is important. Rashi in Bereishis 30:1 tells us that Rachel was jealous of her sister Leah’s good deeds. And the Gemara in Bava Basra 21a says that jealousy between educators increases wisdom. These are good traits.
Wisdom and good actions are infinite goods. One person having wisdom does not preclude you from having it too. In fact, the opposite is true. The more wisdom increases in the world, the more we can all share in it.
The true end is developing your only real possession: your soul. That is something that can be good to be jealous about. If you see someone investing more time and energy than you in pursuing knowledge and doing good deeds, that can motivate you to invest more in yourself.
Will knowledge automatically cure jealousy? Of course not. But it can cultivate the maturity that makes envy less controlling and makes it easier to be content with what we have.
However intelligent AI gets, and however much material plentitude spreads throughout the world, the great truth about human existence remains: you still only get one life and one soul. The external world may change dramatically, but the inner work remains yours alone. Fortunate is the person who finds something of intrinsic worth to dedicate themselves to.