What happens to kids if AI takes entry level jobs? What you advising them?

This this this.

Adapt to do what though? Cope with lifelong unemployment and aimlessness? Some minds might be able or even happy to face this, but many won't. Everyone will end up on antidepressants and just fighting on Facebook whilst the government keeps whining about the benefits bill.

At the end of the day everything in the economy relies on

people buying stuff

AI is not a customer. Its a processing tool. The economy requires end customers.

If people have no money because all the work is done by AI/robots, there is no one to buy anything, and the businesses who use their revenue to buy AI to deliver services would no money to buy AI...

Everything hangs off people buying stuff. All those complicated algorithm traders in banks.... everything they fuck about with is part of a big machine fueled by people buying stuff.

There will be jobs. Different jobs.

The AI that we currently have is very words focused.

robotics exists and is useful in very controlled environments eg factories but isn’t anywhere close to making it into messy real life environments any time soon.

As someone working on training AI to do cooking and DIY tasks, I don't think even plumbing is safe! Technology is changing at such a fast pace, we cannot plan for a career 2+ years away. The best thing we can do is teach our children resilience and a desire to learn/adapt.

This ^

My eldest is a marketing manager, but I don't know how long his position will last due to ai. My youngest is doing a humanities degree at a top 5 university, but knows full well he won't get a graduate position once he graduates. We're planning on paying for him to do plumbing and heating engineer courses as someone will have to install all the new heating technology.

Both my dcs have excellent brains and will quickly despair if left unemployed. What the system is doing to our youngsters is criminal. The best thing I hope for is that people buy land and start self sufficiency communities and then what will the capitalists do when we don't buy their shit anymore?

I actually believe the problem isn’t AI coming for my job, or your job, or the jobs of the graduates of 2035. It’s actually the risk of complete societal collapse when every white collar worker loses their job within a period of 2ish years.

But that is so far out of the sphere of things I can influence, and requires a government to switch to taxation of AI and technology and payment of a universal basic income, I don’t spend much time pondering it or planning for it (other than saving for as early a retirement as possible, but even then if we end up in a lawless world of crime and looting, that won’t help me either).

This! We live in a capitalist, consumerist society. If AI and robotics take all the jobs, there will be no consumers left with any money to buy the goods and services created.

I'm mainly advising my kids to do things they like and are good at. I think it's so difficult at this stage to know how AI will affect jobs- something which is going to change things so fundamentally will alter the working world in ways we can't foresee (think of all those parents who told their kids to learn to code, when junior coding jobs are some of the most vulnerable to being done by AI).

I have a fair amount of confidence in the ability of people with creativity and motivation to find a path, but to have that creativity and motivation you need to be doing something that fits your abilities and interests.

Agree with PP that the advice to go into trades isn't necessarily helpful if we are then swamped by millions of unneeded plumbers and plasterers. I also think that we're likely to need fewer small business plumbers etc in future as we develop technology that allows eg a boiler to diagnose its own faults. Robotics is slightly lagging behind other AI uses but it won't forever. I'd also add that not everyone will be a good plumber- there is a slight intellectual superiority in middle class parents recommending traditionally working class jobs to their kids, as if being well-suited to a trad white collar role means you'll be able to do a blue collar role with your eyes closed. This is very much not the case.

I suspect we will always value human input in any role where the human element is part of the value- teaching, caring, beauty, certain kinds of decision-making etc.

Given nothing even close to my very normal and widely heard of job is on there, I’m comforted the robots might not be as advanced as they think they are ;)

Yes, but many accountancy firms are partnerships which do not encourage longevity, they encourage maximising returns for the current partners and so if the current partners all make millions and leave nothing behind, they might be quite alright with that - which fundamentally changes the landscape for graduates and any entrants into that market.

As the AI advances it’s also entirely possible that it cannibalises up the chain. It’s currently operating at a graduate level but it could plausibly be operating at a partner level in say 10 years. Couple that with the fact the clients will increasingly be digital natives as the Gen Z and Gen A become adults, then you might end up with a customer base who never want to speak to a human as they’re more comfortable taking advice from AI.

So actually, accountancy and law (law is not my area but Richard Susskind has written books about how this may change - and how for example divorce courts would be fairer and more efficient with no lawyers or judges, the facts are pumped into AI and the answer is spit out based on established case law) could feasibly just be software sectors in 30 years.

If no one has a job perhaps we could all use our free time working out how to game the system and take back the power and the money from the tech giants?

If no one has a job how is anyone going to pay for the goods and services provided by the AI?

There has always been an evolution of jobs - but I think the speed in which AI is developing is going to cause a big increase in unemployment - which then becomes a catch 22 situation - if we are not employing as many people, yes the corporations get richer but if less people have money to spend then no-one is going to be able to buy the goods and services.
I spoek to DS friend the other day who is on a gap year - he had to apply for 150 jobs (the usual teen jobs, bar, restaurant, factory, retail etc) before he got something - when I was that age I could walk into a job within hours of starting to look.

There will have to be a point that the powers that be that control everything - governments and corporations will have to stop and consider the bigger picture. No point have automated systems if no-one can pay for the service. Money makes the world go round but I think AI will disrupt that circle so a societal change in the way we view work and income will need to be adapted.

We can’t match kids to jobs. We can’t advise them what job to do. What we can do is teach them to be adaptable and resilient and to develop so called “soft” skills that make them employable.

AI is here, it’s not going anywhere and the world of work has shifted beyond all recognition.

For decades we’ve had a knowledge based economy. That knowledge is now accessible to all via AI and the internet. That’s the change, and it’s why qualifications are no longer the most important factor in getting work.

These are good ideas. Mine have fledged but I really tried to push infrastructure!! I think it's a great industry.

They've actually gone into AI, ironically.

OP, I don't blame you for being worried but it's premature. See what makes your DC thrive and then think about what the future looks like for them. X

I'm in tech information, we don't listen to them at all

Well, I've been working in this industry for 25 years, and I've yet to see commonsense applied when it comes to tech adoption strategy.

And you only have to read the latest rantings of guys like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or the utterly deranged Alex Karp to realise that the leaders of our industry are basically sociopaths. 'Disruption' has been the buzzword for decades - they would absolutely see having hundreds of thousands of roles being made redundant and replaced with machines as a good thing.

My mum was trained as a shorthand typist.

the job became obsolete about twenty years after she joined the workforce.

shorthand (an alternative way of writing that y it s much faster so you can record speech at close to speaking speed) still exists and is used but mostly by journalists these days.

typists don’t exist at all.

she moved into more general secretarial roles and was a PA for a while and then an EA.

then she retrained and did what was always her first love patchwork and quilting and taught it in night school, evening Ed classes, workshops and privately. Some commissions as well. It paid pretty well to be honest.

when she left school in the 60s loads and loads of people did typist training. Just doesn’t exist now but those jobs have become office admin, personal assistant, executive assistant.

Trades aren’t a complete answer - and a lot of people who go into them are broken by the time they’re 50. There are only so many years you can carry baths up and down stairs and climb under floorboards before bits of you start falling apart.

I think there will be growth areas such as adult social care (as we live longer), recreation and heritage (as we have more time off), and arts and culture - one of the things that’s become apparent is that a lot of people don’t like the lack of ‘authenticity’ of AI. They don’t always like ‘perfect’ music or art or performances. People still like stories, and communicating, and being absorbed in an interest or hobby. Of course, the data scientists and medics and engineers will still have jobs, but they will evolve.

At some point common sense will presumably click in. AI can't truly replace a whole strata of persons as it does need to be viewed as a tool. It really is as simple as that.

Not sure about Law at Entry level though
.AI can now compose letters which were once written by paralegals or trainee solicitors
In fact many self employed plumbers, electricians and builders earn more than lawyers