To think that AI is taking over jobs far, far, FAR quicker than we anticipated?

There's no shortage of jobs - that's why immigration is so high. Cutting immigration would eventually make wages rise - but only if benefits are also restricted to enforce people to move to where the work is.
Otherwise you get a fruit rotting in the fields type scenario.
Agree with the hoarding of profits but it's cheap foreign labour that makes that possible (that includes skilled roles too)

That was replying to @lljkk btw. Not sure why with all this wonderful degraded tech rubbish mumsnet wasn’t accepting the username on the first attempt.

”I'm so intrigued.
What is the reliable source for true figure = 80 mln?
The official estimate of UK residents is about 67 million. PP says there actually exist an extra 13 million, or 1 in 6 ppl physically on Great Britain UK soil is undocumented. Are they all adults without need of education or social care or NHS, and managing financially without ever engaging with officialdom?”

For the latter, perhaps you haven’t noticed the huge influx of young male adults who are surviving on the gig economy? Or on the drug/ prostitution gang games? Possibly you’re fortunate enough to not live in the many working class areas and towns, even entire cities that have been taken over. Fortunate enough to therefore pretend it isn’t happening. I used to have grandparents living in Birmingham, I don’t feel much welcome there or in Leicester now. I’ve walked into too many police drugs raids in Derby too and seen neighbourhoods taken over there and in Nottingham.

The reliable estimates of populations around the 80 million mark come from supermarkets estimating the amount of food consumed and I’m sure I’ve seen the same from sewage produced too. Can’t immediately find it with all the sewage disposal issues going on, google ain’t what it used to be and I don’t have the time to do your research for you, I have to work for a living.

As for population I wasn’t providing exact figures, true. I was rounding. But it wasn’t yet 55 million when I was born.

Hope this satisfies your gotcha crap.

I'm okay with automated driving. It would improve the quality of the driving we have now...

I meant white collar. Missed the edit window.

There's the expression shit jobs. And pointless jobs. It would probably totally offend someone to have their job deemed as pointless or easily replaceable, as we invest so much in it. Possibly 60 years of our waking and working life. I remember going to a country where people were desperate for any scrap of a job or money. A guy spent hours in the toilets holding and dispensing toilet roll for money.

What has Great Britain PLC got to offer the world beyond malted barley and whiskey exports? If there has been a huge proportionate move into blue collar service industries, and those jobs are easily machine swap able where does that leave the UK?

I've seen enough terrible TV, writing and poor art, that are dreadful watered down recycled slop. I don't think we'd miss much of that at all. At least the AI can do a good imitation game. I've learned more from AI summaries and prompting than getting elbow deep in some sources.

The tech that intrigues me is auto-piloting. Imagine if we could have a huge drive to a small robotic taxi fleet, off peak distribution and all the rest of it. Hidden taxi ranks. That would clean up cities immensely. There's already robotic quarry fleets, and tractors. There could be plenty mileage in that.

Yes, more and more obviously AI generated content is appearing on platforms such as Facebook. People are very cynical about this - saying they will leave a group unless moderators crack down on the content. I'm on a history group for example, and an article popped up about Vikings. Even a non-historian could easily spot the style and the comically inaccurate content was written by a bot. The images of scantily clad maidens with horned helmets, walking in a snow bound street was hilarious.

DH uses AI to draft things, reports, emails etc. I can always tell when he has done this, as the beige style of Chat GBT is obvious. It is not bed at editing something down, but I always have to reword text so it sounds like me/DH. You can't replace a human touch - not yet anyway.

Wonder if musicians can spot AI composed music? I bet they can.

And species have also collapsed, when they meet a more powerful species they can't control. (Or just new threats they aren't evolved to handle).

We all saw this coming with self checkout. I can think of ways AI will be able to take huge swathes out of most jobs, scanning bodies in pathology as it is starting to do to diagnose scans and patient history in medicine, for example. The only jobs that seem to be safe are the purely physical ones - building, plumbing and other trades, farming and care roles. I'm sure there must be a few others but they aren't what would traditionally be called "high skilled". This means we will have a highly educated society with no roles to carry out, already with huge MH issues post covid, being unable to earn and pay for higher costs of food.I can't see the benefits if we all live longer due to AI improved healthcare but can't afford to survive.

I can't fathom a world where people want to read an AI book. I can understand one where artists might manipulate it as another tool to make work.

Ultra Processed Art for Ultra Processed People. It's like junk for the soul.

I hope so.
I think we might end up with a mixture of both, like the cinema and theatre.

There are undoubtedly benefits of AI - but the tech companies racing to develop it aren’t primarily concerned with how it benefits society, They’re concerned with how marketable it is and how much money it’s going to make for a privileged few.
This will drive what is available and how it will be used - so yes we might have greater convenience for some but at the cost of rising unemployment, an increase in insecure, low paid work and increasing numbers of people living below the poverty line.

We’ve seen industries become redundant in this country - I can understand its progress overall but not for those left behind. Just ask some of the communities affected by the decline in mines, factories etc. Did they all move on to great new jobs with lots of opportunities? Was anyone interested in training them for new careers? Unlikely.

I have (against all evidence!) faith in humanity: I think people will always want the real thing, the human connection. Artists, writers, actors, musicians. The way Posy Fossil explains in Ballet Shoes (which AI could never!) that audiences come to see her, not an understudy.

Holograms are a novelty – and no one will want new hologram artists, if they want holograms, they want ones who are already stars. To become a star, you have to be human.

If you met me at work you would imagine that I am having a great time. I have a chat and a cheery smile, I am super happy to help. But I am not stimulated or happy inside. I am working for money and if I know that middle-aged women like me are ten a penny. If I was grumpy or moodyI could be replaced in a day. Please don't patronise those women by thinking they are enjoying the exercise, or whatever. It is just work. and probably not what they wanted to do in life or trained for.

I was thinking about this post since I read it.
I hate to be the harbourer of doom. A conversation I had with someone recently who is working on AI in another industry, so pinch of salt is needed. But there’s alot of excitement around the abba holograms and the potential for that. It means shows can be put on without the performer being there. Once that technology becomes cheaper, you’ll have elvis in vegas. No sick days, no worries of people quitting or getting ill.

I wish I could agree with you (fellow author). But I read a book very recently that was completely written by a new form of AI and genuinely wouldn’t have known. This new AI book writing software is now for sale to anyone. Ready scary for non fiction writers in particular.

I agree. It feels like the Dot Com Bubble atm.

Undoubtedly things will change and potentially at soeed. Some things for the better. Some things with very dubious results.

If it does go deep, I can see that sort of two tier society so often depicted in Sci fi - those who benefit from it v those who opt out.

I have seen the figure if 80 million widely reported in the past. It was based on a supermarket chain and something about water waste produced.

I have no idea how accurate it was though or why all these people were supposedly not registered in any way. It was pre brexit so the reports all used to hint at it being lots of eastern Europeans who had a right to be here.

@WaryCrow said

When I was born, not that long ago, the population of Britain was 50 million. Now officially it is 70 million and reliable estimates put the true figure at 80 million.

I'm so intrigued.
What is the reliable source for true figure = 80 mln?
The official estimate of UK residents is about 67 million. PP says there actually exist an extra 13 million, or 1 in 6 ppl physically on Great Britain UK soil is undocumented. Are they all adults without need of education or social care or NHS, and managing financially without ever engaging with officialdom?

I had to go back to 1952 to find an "official" (says google) estimate of UK population that was 50 mln. 73 years seems like "long ago" to me. Or did PP mean that even in early 20th century 1/6 ppl on British soil was undocumented. In which case we'd be going back to when British population was 42 mln officially (and therefore 50 mln unofficially). I had to go back to 1940s to find British popn estimates around 42 million. Is that not long ago?

@WaryCrow, well, that's how I make my living! Clients are generally very happy to pay me to proofread.

And academic journals should have higher standards: they are supposed to be accurate and correct.

Also the loss of competence and skilss

I’m surprised they are even paying for proofreading done by anything at all to be honest, in education and public life generally the trend has been to minimise the whole idea of needing spelling and literacy has not been respected for decades now. Anyway. As you were.

The other alternative to a UBI is direct distribution of the actual resources that money was meant to represent, ie food, water, shelter. It’s been done in societies in the past. Since the whole idea of markets and currency will be upturned and fiat currencies are already a very weak idea, we probably need to go back to basics.

Also, small time artists. I see a lot of greetings card about now that are AI generated. Same with colouring books, cross stitch patterns etc. That is just on Etsy.
People who take the time to design and draw these things struggle to compete with people who use AI.

Freelance proofreaders who work on journals have been replaced by AI 'proofreading'. It's not nearly as good as trained people but hey, who cares so long as it's cheap?

Having some intense lockdown, ferals-on-furlough PTSD reading this… Half the country wanking on about their bloody sourdough, half of them as you say revving their souped-up motors outside my house. But this time, with AI robot overlords!