Curious about if I could be smarter about my emergency fund.

I currently have ~8 months in my long-term savings account as emergency money that would cover my absolute needs, high priority wants, + about $200 of flex cash / mo. That could be stretched to 10-11mo if I shaved off the P1 wants and flex cash. This was calculated at 45% of my salary for needs.

I was building towards 12 months before I would consider this set.

I'm wondering if now would be a good stopping point to start putting that money elsewhere.

Few points - I have a very low rent because I'm doing the digital nomad thing and paying very little rooms with f/f when I move around. At some point, I do expect to find my own place. I am hoping to wait it out for rent prices to drop (we'll see) but this cost would likely triple once that happens.

I am also working towards trying to find a better job. I make a dismal salary for my experience and am aiming to jump 20-30k for my next position.

Both of these though are hypothetical and do not apply to me right now.

I have no debt, and I am not yet edible for 401k match through my new job but am putting 3% into it.

I am trying to figure assuming this is my next year, should I keep building towards 12 months or start investing or moving that money? I have a few pricer short-term wants (a nice vacation and some cosmetic stuff) that I've been trickling cash into budget-wise that I'm wondering if I could fully fund more quickly.

Just looking for some outside opinions on this? I'm 37/USA so I'm thinking it's time to really think about planning for retirement as well.

You’re not wrong, and there will always be people who value the human part of art.

I think the issue here is a lot more abstract and wide scale.

The argument that’s happening right now is in its infancy - what we’re going to see down the line when all this goes to market for practical use is going to be interesting. I’m cynical but all I can think is the thousands of corporate creative jobs on the line in near future.

Like why would Disney pay a team of real humans a living wage and all the benefits that come with that to animate a film / show when they can feed their Disney style to an AI that can do all that work for them for a fraction of that cost? For the love of art? This is what I see coming and why I think it’s important we really have this discussion now while it’s fresh and not yet at it’s full potential

The answer is yes, there are people selling “aI art in the style of artist” already online for a fraction of the price an original. It devalues the artists work and is a form of theft we don’t have a name for yet

I am in full agreement here

Also people arguing that the words “theft” and “stolen” can’t apply here. This to me is a clear case of technology coming faster than we can make up a new word or phrase for what’s happening because it’s unprecedented. Technically it’s correct in the context of the literal meaning of stealing. But we also don’t have examples that quite apply here.

Artists have been “copying” each other to learn for generations, yes, but to make a perfect replica of someone’s exact art style to a point where it’s indistinguishable from an original is rare (traditionally) and heavily frowned upon in the modern scope.

So what do we do?

I don’t understand the vitriol.

Like what is so heinous about someone wanting to be valued for having a talent that they have nurtured and mastered over time? And if they are lucky enough to make a living off of it, wanting to defend that living?

What’s wild to me is folks acting like these artists are petty or money-grabbing but not looking at the folks who used their art without permission to make money with the same scrutiny.

Is it because it’s art and nobody cares about art or is this how we react every time a new sector is taken over by AI?

As an artist myself I am biased in the favor my fellow artists - but on a grander scale we need to think hard how we handle this as a culture and society.

Lots of folks have been warning for years that AI and automation are coming and some of the biggest threats to the middle class nobody is really talking about.

So here is is. It’s easy to shrug off because art has been devalued so heavily with the digital revolution and how easy and cheap it has become to produce and reproduce.

But what about when the robots come for service jobs, desk jobs, programming? People are kidding themselves if they think it’s not coming.

Technology has always been a cycle that renders some jobs and skills obsolete but I don’t think people are really grasping how the speed and exponential growth that AI presents is going to take that to the nth degree. People won’t have time to keep up where previously a phase out period gave these sectors and their workers time to adjust, reskill, and move forward

Unfortunately creatives will be be the canary in the mines because they are not “essential” in the eyes of society so maybe the real test is when the first “real” job gets automated on a large scale. What rules and social contracts we make now may come into play when that happens.