The startup is betting that the biggest economic impact from AI will come not from elite-level problem solving but from automating everyday labor across industries
As concerns rise over artificial intelligence (AI) replacing millions of jobs globally, a new US-based startup called Mechanize has entered the spotlight with an ambitious claim — to enable the “full automation of all work” and, eventually, “the full automation of the economy.”
The venture is led by Tamay Besiroglu, a noted AI researcher and founder of the non-profit AI research organisation Epoch. Announcing his latest initiative on social media platform X, Besiroglu said Mechanize will focus on building virtual work environments, benchmarks, and training data that mimic the full scope of human labor.
“The explosive economic growth likely to result from completely automating labour could generate vast abundance, much higher standards of living, and new goods and services that we can’t even imagine today,” the startup claimed in a statement.
Mechanize’s approach involves creating simulated environments that reflect real-world work scenarios. These include tasks requiring long-term planning, collaboration with others, multitasking, and adaptability in unpredictable situations — challenges that current AI models often struggle to handle.
The startup is betting that the biggest economic impact from AI will come not from elite-level problem solving but from automating everyday labor across industries.
“Currently, AI models are unreliable, struggle with long-context reasoning, lack agency, and can’t consistently execute complex plans,” the company posted. “We aim to fix that by producing the data and evaluation tools necessary to train AI for the full spectrum of work.”
Mechanize enters the field at a time when the economic potential of automation is staggering. US workers collectively earn about $18 trillion annually, while global labor compensation exceeds $60 trillion — a market size the company calls “absurdly large.”
The startup is backed by a host of prominent tech investors including Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Patrick Collison, Jeff Dean, and others.
While full automation remains a distant and controversial goal, Mechanize’s launch adds fuel to ongoing debates over the future of work, AI’s role in society, and the ethical implications of replacing human labor at scale.
