Technology cares not whether it eliminates the need for human labour. Unions negotiating for higher pay and protection for its members only serve to hasten an already runaway train going downhill faster and faster. Why? The extent to which human labour increases its cost as a component of goods and services is the extent to which machine labour increases its competitive advantage.

As an example, consider the cost to secure musicians for a short run of an off-Broadway or regional musical. Ten to twenty thousand in recurring costs per week for live musicians a decade ago is increasingly becoming a one time expense of a few thousand to create tracks with no marginal cost. Once you have the digital tracks produced, a new production half a world away can use the same exact music for the cost of sending a few gigabytes of data over the internet. The difference in cost no longer goes into the pocket of musicians as income and instead finds its way into the hands of producers.

The only way unions could prevent accelerating erosion of member bargaining power is to secure union membership for ChatGPT and the other emerging AI technologies that are changing our world at breakneck speed. As absurd as that may seem, it is exactly what society is facing.

Time for a new paradigm.