Navigating Future Jobs in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Automation

It's true that new technology can change jobs. However, there's good news: just like with other inventions, new opportunities will appear too! The key is to be adaptable. Learning new skills, especially in areas like creativity, problem-solving, and working with machines, can help you stay relevant. There will also likely be more focus on retraining programs to help people transition to new roles. Don’t be afraid to explore new possibilities!

The Historical Context

I don’t see any dramatic revolution; rather, it’s the continuation of a trend that has already been well established. Also, although artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology, it is just one more in a succession of new technologies that have been changing the economic landscape since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The impact of AI will be of the same kind as we have seen since spinning and weaving machines superseded cottage industries a couple of hundred years ago.

The General Trend and Human Adaptation

The general trend is that the essentials of life are being met by an ever-decreasing proportion of the workforce, freeing people up to do other things. The economy didn’t collapse when the number of agricultural workers declined; quite the reverse, masses of workers moved from agriculture to manufacturing. More recently, the economy didn’t collapse when the number of manufacturing workers declined; again, masses of workers moved from manufacturing into service and professional jobs. Likewise, I don’t see the economy collapsing because AI replaces human workers. The human workers will find other things to do.

Automation and Human Embracing New Technologies

Already, even without AI, we can turn on the tap in the bathroom and water comes out, flush the toilet and the waste washes away, plug any of a vast range of electrically powered devices into the wall and they just work, connect to the Internet from our mobile phones, and we don’t give a thought to how those services are provided. Today, these services remain dependent upon human workers, but it makes no difference to the user of the services whether people are involved or not. So for most people, there is nothing revolutionary about an increasing proportion of the services we depend upon being provided by AI rather than other people.

Gradual Handing Over of Responsibility to Automated Systems

Looking forward, we will see the continuation of a gradual piecemeal handing over of responsibility for certain tasks to automated systems. This has already been happening for some time for functions that don’t require much intelligence, but the coming of AI will enable moving up the food chain in terms of the sophistication of the automation. Additionally, humans will hand over control willingly. For example, consider how willingly we have handed over control to satnavs for getting us places.

Implications for Employment and Society

This won’t necessarily mean that people won’t have jobs, as new jobs will be invented if for no other reason than to keep people occupied. However, less and less of what is essential will be done by humans and more and more by machines. By stealth, humans will become more dependent on machines for providing us with essential goods and services. Eventually, subtly and imperceptibly, the artificial intelligence will assume overall control so gradual that most people won’t even be aware that it has happened.

Emergence of Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact

At some stage, we will have reached the point where the proportion of the workforce needed to provide the essentials of life will have declined to zero because AI will have automated away the need for people entirely. At that stage, we could say AI really has taken over completely. In my recently published futuristic novel Destiny of a Free Spirit, I feature the emergence of an artificial intelligence that takes control of the planet, along with some of the technologies that will exist by then.

The Role of AI in Modern Society

Even now in 2024, we have AI that can win over humans in games such as chess and go, produce images of faces that are entirely artificial yet indistinguishable from pictures of real people, produce sound recordings of voices that sound exactly like the voices of real people, and produce written pieces in the style of real authors. Another example is robots and avatars that are indistinguishable from humans. As a result, almost anything that people do could be handed over for AI to do instead. In the story, all the routine operation of daily living has been handed over with humans just amusing themselves doing things that please them.

Understanding the Artificial Intelligence

In the novel, the artificial intelligence emerges spontaneously out of the Internet into a planet-wide sentient artificial intelligence without any human action. We can’t really tell when this would happen, but in the book, it is implied that it is a few decades in the future, perhaps around the middle of the 21st century. Initially, humans would not be aware that it had occurred, and it could be decades more before it reveals itself. Although such an artificial intelligence emerges out of human culture, with avatars and humanoid robots that are indistinguishable from actual humans, it would with these resources clearly vastly surpass human intelligence.

The New AI Governing Institution

In the story, the new artificial intelligence takes over control of the planet in the aftermath of a nuclear war, where devastated countries agree to establish an institution similar to the United Nations but with more authority, with a mandate to prevent future wars, to clean up environmental damage, and to preserve human cultures. Most people aren’t aware that the new governing institution known as the Commission is an artificial intelligence nor are they aware of the scope of its power. Individual countries still exist, and these countries have governments. The laws of those countries continue to be enforced, and the Commission intervenes only when people or governments impinge on the Commission’s mandate, and even then its interventions are very subtle, so not noticed by most people. Humans are no longer in control although most people don’t realise this.

Conclusion

It is analogous to lions in the Serengeti. Lions have long since been superseded by humans as a dominant species, but in their game park environment, from their perspective, the lions remain king of the beasts. The implications for employment and society are vast and potentially transformative, but with adaptability and a willingness to learn, humans can navigate these changes effectively.