In a post on X, Besiroglu called for “full automation of all work” and “full automation of the economy.” Unsurprisingly, he and his non-profit research shop Epoch are now being roasted on X by people who still think a future without employment sounds like a threat, not progress.

Mechanize isn’t building the bots themselves — yet — but aims to be the infrastructure layer: data, benchmarks, synthetic environments. The scaffolding for anyone looking to swap out humans with agents. Besiroglu sized the market by adding up all global wages: $18 trillion in the US, $60 trillion worldwide. “The market potential here is absurdly large,” he said, as if that explained anything.

He told TechCrunch the initial focus is “indeed on white-collar work.” So, if your job involves typing, sorting, or emailing, you’re on borrowed time.

Besiroglu insists this won’t lead to mass unemployment but “vast abundance.” “Completely automating labour could generate much higher standards of living and new goods and services that we can't even imagine today,” he said.

TechCrunch didn’t buy it. They asked the obvious question: how does economic abundance work when no one earns anything?

Still, they floated the idea that if “each human worker has a personal crew of agents” to boost their output, maybe the future isn’t entirely bleak.