/Tech1h ago

Imbue CEO Kanjun Qiu warns that the rapid pace of AI labor impact risks destabilizing society faster than the Industrial Revolution

Herbie Bradley argues economic lags will stagger the disruption

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I generally agree with Alex Imas’s take, but the *speed* of impact to labor is the primary difference between this wave vs the Industrial Revolution. On net it might have similar-scale multiples of economic impact, but I expect impact per unit time per worker to be much higher, which I suspect is more likely to destabilize the economic/social/political fabric.

Herbie Bradley@herbiebradley

I don't think so? the industrial revolution was a seismic shift that moved the population rapidly towards new kinds of jobs, just as agriculture did previously

I think the post-ASI future looks a lot like the relational labor described in Alex Imas's recent substack, which means the industrial revolution comparison is equivalent in magnitude

11:16 PM · Jun 6, 2026 · 20 Views

/Tech1h ago

Imbue CEO Kanjun Qiu warns that the rapid pace of AI labor impact risks destabilizing society faster than the Industrial Revolution

Herbie Bradley argues economic lags will stagger the disruption

110029

#504

Original post

Kanjun 🐙@kanjun#504inTech

Herbie Bradley@herbiebradley

I don't think so? the industrial revolution was a seismic shift that moved the population rapidly towards new kinds of jobs, just as agriculture did previously

I think the post-ASI future looks a lot like the relational labor described in Alex Imas's recent substack, which means the industrial revolution comparison is equivalent in magnitude

11:16 PM · Jun 6, 2026 · 20 Views

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Herbie Bradley@herbiebradley

I agree it will be much faster, but on the other hand society & the economy are surprisingly adaptable to rapid change—and the overall OODA loop of the world is much faster in general than the industrial revolution

Coupled with various reasons to suspect economic impacts will be spread out over time even when capabilities exist (eg https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w34639/w34639.pdf), and the staggering of different capabilities across time, I broadly suspect there will be enough slack in the system to absorb AI's forceful change of the labor market without a huge destablilization.

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