This is an incredibly interesting subject, in my opinion, because it's one that I don't see a lot of people taking seriously.

A lot of people brush this off, saying that just like the industrial revolution removed a lot of jobs from the workforce, it provided jobs in machine maintenance and other areas and these kinds of AI robots taking over jobs will provide more jobs in other areas too.

I don't think that's going to be the case though. Think about it like this:

Humans have two areas of abilities when it comes to work - physical and cognitive.
The industrial revolution removed much of the physical labor force, we don't need rows of people standing in factories adding one piece to a toy and then passing it on to the next person because all of that is automated now with conveyor belts and sheet punching machines.

This made it so that many people moved into areas where cognitive abilities were more useful. These are your office workers, shop assistants, etc.
Now what third area of abilities will people jump into once those cognitive jobs are replaced by robots?

Back to physical labor? Fixing these machines, programming them? While this might sound viable at first glance these will be complex machines requiring extensive knowledge of how they work. People already study for years building on the past knowledge of others when it comes to computer programming. Are we to expect that Susan who serves burgers at McDonalds who loses her job to a complex AI is going to be able to find work the next week programming that very same AI and performing maintenance on it and others like it?

People have suggested a Universal Basic Income which seems to be one of the most viable options to me.
Essentially this would mean that the vast majority of humans will have an unprecedented amount of free time.

That sounds like a paradise to most, but if your job is how you derive meaning out of life, a complete hell.

Lets hope that's not the case!

Won't happen because the people who built the robots will be out of a job

OhG wrote Won't happen because the people who built the robots will be out of a job

Not necessarily. Almost everyone will be out of a job except two groups of people (initially)

- The people who built the AI's because initially they will be the only people with the knowledge to repair them.
- People who do jobs that robots cannot do. Writers, singers, artists, etc.

I say initially because eventually AI's will be built which can repair other AI's, maybe even themselves, and because robots may eventually be able to write better books than humans can write, sing better than humans can sing, and make art better than humans can.

Humans having no areas of work to go into doesn't mean that this won't happen. It just means that we will have to find an alternative way to live which doesn't involve money.

The only area in which I think human involvement will always be needed is governance. Not because robots couldn't be better at running our society than we are, but because I think a vast portion of the human race wouldn't abide the realization that slowly, over decades, we have become policed by robots and governed by robots.
I think there would always need to be a human or group of humans ready to pull the plug on governing AI in order for people to feel safe.

All this means is that everything would be free for humans to experience. Every day would be like being on a holiday. You wouldn't have to worry about working to make money for food because the robots would be so much better at cultivating landscapes to provide food than we are that everyone would have access to food.

Our infrastructure would be tuned to optimum performance and humans wouldn't be needed to ensure that it continued that way.

Ideally, anyway.

If it doesn't have consequences why not?
I just hope people wont be homeless and bankrupt because of this.

It'll have a massive affect on everything, people in places like factories will become unemployed but on the other hand, the need for engineers will rise

This is cool and frightening at the same time.

If this happens, unemployment will rise, people will lose their homes, more people will live on wellfare, basically it will be a economic disaster

I think this would hust be the most stupid idea in my opinion