'Mechanize' claims 'full automation' of economy as AI threatens millions of jobs

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Amid the global threat of AI taking away millions of jobs in the near future, a US entrepreneur and famed AI researcher Tamay Besiroglu has launched ‘Mechanize’ startup which claims “the full automation of all work” and “the full automation of the economy.”

Founder of non-profit AI research organisation called Epoch, Besiroglu says he is starting a new company: Mechanize.

“Mechanize will build virtual work environments, benchmarks, and training data to enable the full automation of all work,” he posted on X social media platform.

Mechanize is focused on developing virtual work environments, benchmarks, and training data that will enable the “full automation of the economy”.

The market potential here is absurdly large: workers in the US are paid around $18 trillion per year in aggregate.

For the entire world, the number is over three times greater, around $60 trillion per year.

“The explosive economic growth likely to result from completely automating labor could generate vast abundance, much higher standards of living, and new goods and services that we can’t even imagine today. Our vision is to realise this potential as soon as possible,” according to the startup.

It claims to achieve this by creating simulated environments and evaluations that capture the full scope of what people do at their jobs.

This includes using a computer, completing long-horizon tasks that lack clear criteria for success, coordinating with others, and reprioritising in the face of obstacles and interruptions.

“We’re betting that the lion’s share of value from AI will come from automating ordinary labour tasks rather than from ‘geniuses in a data center'. Currently, AI models have serious shortcomings that render most of this enormous value out of reach. They are unreliable, lack robust long-context capabilities, struggle with agency and multimodality, and can’t execute long-term plans without going off the rails,” according to a Mechanize post on X.

To overcome these limitations, Mechanize will produce the data and evals necessary for comprehensively automating work.

Mechanize is backed by investments from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Patrick Collison, Dwarkesh Patel, Jeff Dean, Sholto Douglas, and Marcus Abramovitch.

—IANS

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