Jon Stewart on AI: ‘It’s replacing us in the workforce – not in the future, but now’
Late-night hosts talked the promise and perils of AI, Donald Trump’s 77 social media posts on Easter and Truth Social’s major financial losses in 2023.
The Daily Show
Back at his Monday night post on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart tackled a thorny topic at the forefront of many people’s minds: the future with artificial intelligence.
“We have been through technological advances before, and they all have promised a utopian life without drudgery,” Stewart explained. “But the reality is, they come for our jobs. So I want your assurance that AI isn’t removing the human from the loop.”
Stewart cited an NBC News interview with Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, who argued: “This is not about removing the human from the loop. In fact, it’s about empoweringthe human” with an “assistant”.
“And that’s good for all of us!” said Stewart. “Although they do let the real truth slip out every now and again.” As Arvind Krishna, the CEO of IBM put it: “We can get the same work done with fewer people. That’s just the nature of productivity.”
Stewart shook his head with recognition. “So AI can cure diseases and solve climate change, but that’s not exactly what companies are going to be using it for, are they?”
Stewart noted the example of Dukaan, a company that used AI as a reason to lay off 90% of its employees. As the company’s CEO, Suumit Shah, put it on Fox News: “It’s brutal, if you think like a, uh, like a human.”
“‘AI: it’s brutal, if you think like, as a human’ – it’s not the catchiest ad slogan I’ve ever heard,” Stewart remarked.
“So while we wait for this thing to cure diseases and solve climate change, it’s replacing us in the workforce – not in the future, but now,” he added.
Stewart then looked back on how presidents from George HW Bush onwards rationalized the loss of jobs for progress – essentially, by arguing that people should train for new ones and embrace change.
“That’s the game,” he said. “Whether it’s globalization or industrialization or now artificial intelligence, the way of life that you are accustomed to is no match to the promise of more profit and new markets. Which sounds brutal, if you’re a human.
“But at least those other disruptions took place over a century, or decades,” he continued. “AI is going to be ready to take over by Thursday. And once that happens, what the fuck is there left for the rest of us to do?”
Seth Meyers
On Late Night, Seth Meyers reacted to Donald Trump’s 70-plus posts on Truth Social on Easter. “What was in the baskets at the Trump family Easter egg hunt? Cadbury meth eggs?” he wondered.
The Easter rant, which Meyers read in full, “may be the most deranged thing that Trump has ever posted online, which is saying something because he once misspelled is own name.
“But Trump’s lunacy is not an aberration within the GOP; it’s the norm,” he added. “They spent all weekend furious about the fact that transgender day of visibility just happened to fall on the same day as Easter this year, and they blamed it on Joe Biden rather than the real reason, the calendar.”
As one Fox News commentator put it: “This is a clear and coordinated effort to remove God from our society and to replace God with false gods, in this instance, it’s the trans community.”
“Yeah, we should have a more respectful Easter proclamation that puts the emphasis where it’s deserved – evil Fani Willis, sick Jack Smith and the corrupt judges and prosecutors who despise America,” Meyers deadpanned. “Not only did Trump not mention religion in his screed, everyone who read it took the Lord’s name in vain.”
Stephen Colbert
On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert recapped Trump’s all-caps screed on Truth Social that said, in part: “Happy Easter to all, including crooked and corrupt prosecutors and judges that are doing everything possible to interfere with the presidential election of 2024, and put me in prison, including those many people that I completely & totally despise.”
“… and also with you,” Colbert deadpanned.
In happier Easter news, the White
House Easter egg roll enlisted 40,000 participants this year. “But, as with everything in our politics, the Maga crowd found something to be fake outraged about,” Colbert noted. In this case, Fox News complained that the White House banned religious-themed designs from the Easter egg art contest, despite the fact that such guidelines have been in place since 1976. “How dare they dishonor the true spirit of Easter, when Jesus laid colorful eggs for his apostles to find!” Colbert joked.
And according to new SEC filings, Donald Trump’s Twitter knockoff Truth Social lost $58m in 2023. “How could that be?” Colbert wondered. “They have such a solid business model – old rapist yells at Easter!”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel admitted that he missed the Trump administration’s Easter egg rolls: “Melania reading books to the kids, Donald pretending he’s ever been to church, Secret Service trying to get Eric to stop beating the plastic eggs. Those were the days.”
As part of his social media rampage over the weekend, Trump posted an article from a far-right outlet titled “The Crucifixion of Donald Trump”.
“That’s right, you know, Jesus was treated unfairly, too. Some would say, the second most unfairly in history,” Kimmel laughed. “Only Donald Trump would repost a photo of himself holding a Bible upside down.”
As for Eric’s wife Lara Trump’s new music, released on Easter weekend, all Kimmel had to say was: “Autotune doesn’t work on everyone.
“She’s threatening to release one new song every week until she achieves her goal of marrying her father-in-law,” Kimmel added. “And that is not an April Fool’s joke.”