engineering

Humans Need Not Apply

Humans Need Not Apply is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Humans Need Not Apply rather than just read about it. In short: Humans Need Not Apply is a 2014 internet video directed, produced, written, and edited by CGP Grey. It focuses on the future of the integration of automation and especially artificial intelligence into economics, as well as the impact of this integration to the worldwide workforce.

Key takeaways

Humans Need Not Apply belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Humans Need Not Apply to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Humans Need Not Apply from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Humans Need Not Apply is a 2014 internet video directed, produced, written, and edited by CGP Grey. It focuses on the future of the integration of automation and especially artificial intelligence into economics, as well as the impact of this integration to the worldwide workforce. It was released online on YouTube on 13 August 2014. It was later made available via iTunes and RSS. It was later renamed to What Happened to Horses Is Happening to Us.

Premise

The video focuses on the topic of robots and artificial intelligence rapidly increasing in usefulness through human society, discussing how automation will lead to a future where human labour is no longer needed. Early on, an analogy is made describing how humans once displaced horses from their jobs (by creating mechanical muscles such as automobiles), dismissing the argument that humans will always find new work, seeing as horses are not used nearly as much now. This analogy finishes by connecting the creation of mechanical minds, or "brain labor", to robots ousting humans from their occupations. Grey also discusses how economics is the force behind a future based upon automation. Grey concludes by stating that at the very least 45% of jobs could be replaced by bots, a figure which is inclusive of professional, white-collar and low-skill occupations, and higher than the 25% unemployment figure of the Great Depression. To take one specific example, the video states that there are 3 million driving jobs in the United States and 70 million worldwide (extrapolated from the United States figure). Grey further states that even creative occupations are not secure, mentioning the AI-composed music in the background of his video. Additionally, the viewer is reminded that the video is not discussing or portraying a future based upon science fiction, using examples such as Baxter, self-driving cars (referred to as autos in the video) and IBM's Watson.

Production and funding The film was funded through Subbable, a crowdfunding website. Grey used this website as a means to support his projects before moving to Subbable's successor, Patreon.

Reception and legacy Humans Need Not Apply was covered by several publications, including Business Insider, The Huffington Post and Forbes. Coverage of the video complimented its presentation, calling the video "well-produced". These publications also praised its premise, calling it "thought-provoking", and "compelling", but also maintaining that the points and topics brought up in the video were "terrifying". Bruce Kasanoff of Forbes commented that the video was "sobering", and "suggests, in a convincing fashion, that many human jobs will disappear over the coming years, because automation will do them faster, better, and cheaper." The Verge commented, "The video may be too pessimistic by the end, but the thesis still stands." Vice Motherboard said, "The rather depressing video makes a strong case for why just about zero jobs are safe, and it's high time we wise up to that fact." World Futures Review called the film's treatment of the topic "brilliantly described". After a few days of release, the video reached one million views. As of June 2026, Humans Need Not Apply has reached over 18 million views. It has also received over 400,000 likes as of September 2025.

See also Luddites Technological unemployment Technophobia Artificial general intelligence Robotics

References

External links Humans Need Not Apply on YouTube Humans Need Not Apply at IMDb

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Humans Need Not Apply

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Humans Need Not Apply claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Humans Need Not Apply before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Humans Need Not Apply ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Humans Need Not Apply

In research: Humans Need Not Apply appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Humans Need Not Apply in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Humans Need Not Apply is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s viral videos, 2014 British films, 2014 English-language films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Humans Need Not Apply outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Humans Need Not Apply in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Humans Need Not Apply means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Humans Need Not Apply out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Humans Need Not Apply in simple terms?

Why does Humans Need Not Apply matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Humans Need Not Apply?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Humans Need Not Apply.