A new startup called Mechanize has just one goal: eliminate every human job on Earth. Founded in April 2025 by AI researcher Tamay Besiroglu – who also leads the nonprofit research group Epoch – the company plans to replace the global workforce with autonomous AI agents.
While tech investors call it revolutionary, from a sustainability point of view there are many question marks. If implemented it could destabilize economies, dismantle labor rights, and increase inequality worldwide. It doesn’t only jeopardize those jobs which we all know will become obsolete due to an AI implementation, but its intention is to completely erases almost the complete white-collar job market with no job transition or retraining in sight.
To put it clear and very simple, Mechanize doesn’t aim to enhance human productivity, but it wants to make human labor obsolete. We examined the company to see the possible impact.
What Mechanize Is Building
Mechanize’s public messaging reveals a critical tension between its short-term focus and its long-term ambition:
In the short term:
Mechanize first targets white-collar and knowledge-based jobs – like writing, research, analysis, coordination, and planning. These agents learn in high-fidelity simulated environments designed to mimic the complexity of modern workplaces. They first target these tasks because they are:
- Easier to simulate in digital environments
- High-paying and abundant in enterprise markets
- Readily structured for AI training and benchmarking
In the long term:
The company’s stated goal is “full automation of all work” and “full automation of the economy.” The jobs targeted include:
- Blue-collar jobs (e.g. logistics, manufacturing, service)
- Creative roles (e.g. design, media, education)
- Decision-making and management functions
- Potentially even unpaid or informal labor (e.g. caregiving)
The company targets a $60 trillion annual labor market – the combined value of global wages – as its total addressable market. Its mission, publicly stated, is “the full automation of all work” and “the full automation of the economy.”
Mechanize’s financial backers include major names in tech, such as Nat Friedman (former GitHub CEO), Stripe’s Patrick Collison, and Google DeepMind’s Jeff Dean. The venture has drawn comparisons to OpenAI in scale, but with a mission more provocative – and more controversial.
A Direct Conflict With Global Sustainability Goals
Mechanize’s ambition doesn’t just raise ethical questions. It fundamentally opposes multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by 193 countries under the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
This goal focuses on full and productive employment, labor rights, and safe, secure jobs. Its business model – replacing human work with AI – undermines:
- Target 8.5: Achieving full employment and decent work for all
- Target 8.3: Promoting small enterprises and inclusive economic growth
- Target 8.8: Protecting labor rights and ensuring workplace safety
Removing work entirely breaks the SDG 8 foundation. The company offers no plan for job transition, retraining, or income redistribution.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
Its model centralizes wealth in the hands of a few investors and founders. It bypasses equitable labor markets and concentrates value creation in AI infrastructure. This contradicts:
- Target 10.1: Growing incomes of the bottom 40%
- Target 10.2: Promoting economic inclusion for all
- Target 10.3: Reducing inequality of outcomes through fair policies
Mechanize may increase productivity—but it does so by excluding billions from economic participation.
A Closer Look: SWOT Analysis of Mechanize
To understand how Mechanize positions itself strategically – and where its risks lie – here’s a SWOT analysis we made:
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Ambitious vision attracts elite investors | No transition plan for job displacement |
| First-mover in full-task labor automation | High computational and capital costs |
| High technical credibility from AI research | Ethical oversight is unclear |
| Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|
| $60T global wage replacement potential | Public backlash against labor elimination |
| Increasing enterprise demand for cost-saving AI | Regulatory response on AI and work rights |
| Ability to standardize agent-based work models | Competition from Big Tech with larger platforms |
This analysis shows that Mechanize excels in ambition and investment potential – but carries critical vulnerabilities. Without policy frameworks or redistribution plans, it risks social instability.
Ethical Blind Spots and Societal Risk
Mechanize does not present a workforce transition model. It offers no response to how billions of displaced workers would earn income or contribute to society. Its model assumes automation is progress, ignoring that work is deeply tied to dignity, identity, and purpose.
In the absence of strong regulation, Mechanize could widen the gap between those who control AI and those who are replaced by it. The company’s ethics, oversight structures, and social protections remain unclear – raising major concerns for policymakers and labor organizations.
Innovation or Systemic Risk?
While Mechanize may push AI development forward, it does so at the expense of sustainability and inclusion. The UN’s Sourcebook on Sustainable Development stresses that innovation must support human rights, environmental protection, and social equity. Mechanize violates all three.
In fact, its mission runs counter to the original definition of sustainability from the Brundtland Report: to meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations.
Mechanize is A Startup That Breaks the Social Contract
Mechanize turns labor into a technical flaw to be fixed. But people are not bugs in a system. They are the system. Sustainable development depends on inclusion, equity, and purpose. Mechanize’s approach literally disregards all three.
As of now, Mechanize has not publicly stated a specific timeline for when it intends to achieve full labor automation. The company’s founder, Tamay Besiroglu, frames the mission as a long-term ambition – one focused on building scalable AI agents capable of replacing humans across sectors.
Unless reined in by law, ethics, and global governance, Mechanize may not just disrupt industries – it may dismantle the social foundation that supports them.
