en.Wedoany.com Reported - Artificial intelligence technology is now being applied to train robots that will replace human workers, presenting society with new ethical dilemmas. An AI-generated video shows workers in a textile factory wearing high-tech gloves embedded with electronic circuits, engaged in manufacturing, dyeing, and sewing fabrics. These gloves capture every movement of the wearer's hands and send signals to machines, enabling them to learn the workers' skills. Ultimately, these skills will empower enhanced AI robots to replace the current workforce.
This dilemma is not confined to manufacturing workers. Some of the world's finest mathematicians, currently employed by the largest financial firms and earning millions of dollars annually, also face the prospect of being replaced by technology. Almost every worker situated between these two extremes will, to some degree, be affected by the arrival of AI.
History shows that society has undergone similar transformations before. During the Industrial Revolution, steam engines and mechanized textile equipment replaced handloom weavers; calculators made manual mathematical operations unnecessary; personal computers turned typing into an essential new skill; and smartphones changed the way information is stored and remembered. At each stage, old skills vanished as new technologies became widespread.
However, technology did not deliver the convenience and productivity gains it promised. Instead, it fostered complexity. Gaps that appeared in workers' schedules were filled with new tasks, and the more steps added to a process, the more people were hired. Technology that records everything allowed bureaucracy to build itself through complexity. A simple planning decision can take months, circulating repeatedly between government, councils, architects, and planners before receiving approval.
Despite technological progress and the promise of increased productivity, society is burdened with unimaginable bureaucracy, paralyzed decision-making structures, and a productivity impasse. Cumbersome regulations make everything from building a single bedroom to a bridge excessively difficult, slow, and expensive. Last year, infrastructure consenting costs alone amounted to $1.3 billion, money that built nothing.
The government has begun to focus on this issue. Sean Sweeny, former head of the Central Rail Link project, criticized the ability to build infrastructure at the right scale, cost, and timeframe. The government plans to cut approximately 9,000 people from core government staff, saving $2.4 billion over four years, and has hinted that AI solutions are a key part of the efficiency drive.
The Finance Minister noted that the previous government increased the public service workforce by 17,000 people without significant improvement in services or outcomes. The current government faces repeated recessions, daily borrowing to sustain spending, and interest costs that have become the fourth-largest expense. AI presents an opportunity to simplify processes, eliminate rework, shed red tape, and achieve back-office cost reductions. Smart new tools can also support policy design, high-quality regulation, best-practice analysis, and better strategic decision-making support.
China has just completed the world's largest railway station, Chongqing East Station, in less time than it took for the 4-kilometer Auckland Central Rail Link project. Croatia spent four years building the 2.4-kilometer Pelješac Bridge across the Adriatic Sea. In New Zealand, preparing documents and consultation reports for a consent hearing takes longer than that.
The government deserves credit for announcing these difficult decisions, but execution and delivery are key. Society can no longer simply shift personnel to other parts of the bureaucracy, thereby creating obstacles to progress. As AI tools are introduced into government operations, honest and tough hiring decisions must be made to achieve genuine productivity gains.
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