Bill Burr is suggesting a very different role for artificial intelligence: putting it at the very top of the corporate ladder.
The comedian shared the idea during an interview with Rolling Stone, arguing that it would make far more sense to develop AI CEOs rather than AI workers, especially since companies could potentially save significantly more money that way.
“Instead of using AI to replace working people, why not create an AI CEO that’s empathetic, cares about the middle class, and thinks about the future of the planet?” the comedian asked.
“They’re making way more. You take that guy’s salary versus all the work. You’re going to save way more money replacing one guy,” Burr continued. “Why don’t you do that? Because it’s not for us, it’s for them.”
The figures behind Burr’s argument are significant. At large public companies, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio is close to 290 to 1.
Elsewhere in the interview, Burr discussed healthcare executives and their response to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“The response to the Luigi thing was not to be like, ‘Well, hey, maybe we need to look at what we’re doing if what we’re doing makes some crazy person do this.’ Their response was to take their faces off of the internet and get security.”
Burr also spoke about his Broadway appearance in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Up next, the comedian will appear in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, an ensemble film based on the 2021 Wall Street Journal reporting about the Facebook whistleblower.
