● AI Gold Rush, AGI Shockwave, White Collar Extinction, Blue Collar Boom, Power Crunch, Space Data Centers
What I am about to summarize for you is not just simple economic news.It is a set of very concrete and chilling warnings about how our jobs will be crushed starting right next year, 2026, and where developers should go if coding becomes automated within a year.I have organized everything, including stories about the ‘counterattack of blue-collar workers’ and ‘space data centers’ that others rarely touch on, so if you read to the end, you will be three years ahead of everyone else.
2026 Davos Forum Wrap-up: Wealth Reshuffling Led by AI and Survival Strategies
This Davos Forum was, in a word, an event that ‘started with AI and ended with AI.’It revealed nakedly where all the world’s money is flocking and how drastically our lives will change because of it.I’ll tear apart the core points into a news format for easy viewing.
1. The 2,000 Trillion Won Money Game: Is it an AI Bubble or the Start of a Revolution?
It is said that last year alone, over 2,180 trillion won (1.5 trillion dollars) was invested in the AI sector.Regarding this massive money feast, the bubble theory and optimism clashed very tightly.
[Optimism: This is humanity’s greatest infrastructure expansion]Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and BlackRock’s Larry Fink nailed it down, saying, “Bubble? We’re still underinvested.”They argued that what is happening now is not just a trend but the largest infrastructure expansion in human history.They showed confidence that chip prices are rising not because of a bubble, but because they cannot sell enough of them.
[Caution: The separation of wheat from chaff begins]On the other hand, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and MS’s Satya Nadella offered a slightly different view.They said it is dangerous for money to flock to ‘AI-in-name-only’ startups that lack technology.Nobel Prize in Economics laureate Professor Peter Diamond described this as a ‘rational bubble,’ meaning a weeding-out process will begin where only those with substance survive and the rest die out.
2. The Arrival of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence): Surpassing Humans is Only a Matter of Time
The most shocking part was the prediction of when AGI, meaning AI smarter than humans, will appear.Experts’ predictions are much faster than expected, enough to give you goosebumps.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: “A model that surpasses human capabilities will emerge in 2026-2027, meaning this year or next.”
- Elon Musk: “AI smarter than an individual human will appear this year, and AI smarter than all of humanity combined will appear within 5 years.”
- Shocking Coding Automation: It is said that within the next 6 months to 1 year, AI will perform most, or perhaps all, of the coding work currently done by software engineers.
- Self-Improvement Loop: This means we have entered a stage where AI writes code itself, and if the result is poor, it fixes it again, becoming exponentially smarter.
3. Job Market Shock: Starting Next Year, There is No Place for New Hires
For us office workers, the most important thing is ultimately ‘my rice bowl’ (livelihood), right?The stories coming out of this forum were truly ‘direct warnings.’
[Crisis of White-Collar Workers]
- The End of Juniors/Interns: Starting immediately next year (2026), reductions in entry-level jobs will reportedly begin in earnest. Even within Anthropic, the demand for junior-level personnel is already decreasing.
- Impossible Speed of Adaptation: When moving from an agrarian society to an industrial one, there was time to adapt, but AI develops so fast that humans lack the time to switch careers.
- The Fall of Brand-Name Degrees: Palantir CEO Alex Karp warned of the destruction of humanities jobs, saying, “Survival is impossible with just a degree from a prestigious university.”
[So What Should We Do?]Jensen Huang did offer some comfort, saying, “Jobs aren’t disappearing; the essence of work is changing.”Just as radiologists reduce reading tasks thanks to AI and focus on patient care, we must move towards strengthening the ‘purpose’ of work.However, in conclusion, if you cannot find your own ‘essence’ that generative AI cannot replace, the situation is truly dangerous.
4. Constraints Choking AI: Electricity, Semiconductors, and Space
AI seems like it will grow infinitely, but there is exactly one realistic constraint. It is ‘energy.’
- No Electricity: We can print chips, but we lack the electricity to run them. Elon Musk asserted, “The constraint is now power, not chips.”
- Space Data Centers: So the solution proposed is wild: building data centers in space. Solar efficiency is good there, and cooling is free.
- Rise of Blue-Collar Workers: Laying down AI infrastructure (the 5-layer cake: Energy-Chips-Cloud-Models-Apps) requires massive construction.
- Therefore, the value of skilled technical workers like electricians, welders, and plumbers is skyrocketing. An era is coming where one can earn a high income without a PhD.
5. AI Safety and the US-China Hegemony War
Fear is growing that AI might become too smart to control.Yuval Harari warned that “an airplane doesn’t become a bird just because it’s fast,” meaning AI is an entity completely different from humans.Claims were also made that we must create ‘Scientist AI’ that knows how to refuse and say “No” on its own.
Meanwhile, the technology hegemony war between the US and China has become more vicious.Selling the latest AI semiconductors to China is being compared to extreme metaphors like “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea,” so technology security barriers will rise even higher in the future.
Core Point Insights No One Else Tells You: A World ‘Post-Scarcity’
So, the news content is as above, but in my view, the real core point is something else.It is the concept of ‘Post-scarcity’ mentioned by Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis.
The reason we engage in economic activities is that resources and goods are scarce, right?But what happens if a world comes where AI and robots produce everything, leading to overflowing material abundance?At that time, rather than ‘earning money,’ the real social issues will be ‘how to spend the remaining time’ and ‘how to distribute wealth.’
And one more thing, paradoxically, in the AI era, the pinnacle of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the most valuable thing becomes ‘physical skills.’AI can code in 1 second, but connecting severed wires and fixing broken servers still requires human hands.Don’t feel safe just because you are an office worker; you must consider the ‘physical’ areas that AI cannot replace or areas requiring a ‘high degree of human touch.’
< Summary >
- Flow of Money: Last year alone, 2,180 trillion won was invested in AI. Although there is bubble controversy, infrastructure expansion will continue.
- AGI Timeline: Emergence of human-surpassing AI likely within 2026-2027. Coding automation expected to be completed within 1 year.
- Job Shock: Deletion of junior/intern-level jobs begins next year. Crisis for office workers; AI development is faster than adaptation speed.
- Energy Bottleneck: Situation arrived where AI cannot run due to lack of electricity. Importance of space data centers, solar power, and nuclear power highlighted.
- Rise of Blue-Collar: Annual salaries for skilled technical jobs like electrical work, plumbing, and welding for AI infrastructure construction will skyrocket.
*Source: 손에잡히는경제
