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

They can do an apprenticeship at 18. There is no harm in spending extra time in school/college, they could even get a BTEC qualification to match a potential apprenticeship.

Those who are employed rather than self employed WILL be eligible for workplace pensions and sick pay as they're legal requirements. Likewise they'll be protected by the H&S legislation to protect them against unsafe working practices, etc. A decent employer will also provide protective clothing and usually provide lifting equipment for heavy items (or ensure 2 or more people to carry it).

Those who choose to be self employed, whether for domestic homeowners, or as subcontractors for bigger firms on building sites, etc., obviously take their own risks and have to finance their own pensions and sick pay.

The "tradesmen" I've seen working from big firms such as BT, Sky, Virgin, British Gas, National Grid, etc., all seem to be very well versed in H&S protections, all seem to have plenty of protective clothing, and seem to engage in safe working practices reducing the immediate and long term risks to their health.

Professional companies offer very safe working, indeed no one is allowed to climb a ladder or carry out any work without risk assessments. Construction is a great area to get into but people tend to only have experience of domestic trades, who tend to be self employed which is still a very attractive financial proposition. Most commercial companies have paye workers.

Young people definitely need to be mindful of this when choosing their career as some jobs will surely die out. In my profession AI is beginning to do the drudge work that newly qualified graduates used to slave over, but human beings are still required to assess and communicate AI's work product. So new human beings will still need to be trained up to take over this role, but hopefully they will be spared the years of drudgery from the "old days" (a good thing surely!).

Same with people who believe robots are going to be caring for the elderly. Not the demented, confused or delirious ones they aren't.

Some people are capable of doing this.

People saying get a trade have often no idea of what working a trade is like. Back breaking work, early starts and pension or sick pay

So how will the robot dentist deal with all the issues real humans bring up? Don’t get me wrong I can absolutely see AI/robots being used as an extra help for many treatments. But how is it dealing with the patient who suddenly starts panicking half way through treatment? Or the one who starts gagging and choking and sometimes actually throws up? The one who jumps and throws their arms up and knocks the equipment. The one who has extreme sensitivity and can’t handle certain treatments. The one who suddenly feels faint and collapses. Or the one who won’t stop bleeding after an extraction. Or the one who examines their teeth for 20 mins after an appointment asking why there’s a minuscule stain on a very back tooth, why is one particular tooth a slightly different colour to the others, why does the gum feel weird on the left, what’s that mark under their tongue, why does that tooth feel rough? It definitely feels rough. It didn’t feel like that when I came in. You need to fix it. And most importantly, the one who has a tiny lesion they hadn’t noticed that is actually early stage oral cancer.

So even if robots are helping with the actual treatment, I really can’t see them being able to deal with the human side of dentistry.

My 15 year old also watches follows the news, he’s aware of the state of the world, everyone should take an interest in current affairs. He has lots of plans. Of course him and his brother will have challenges in life and not all of his plans will work out. But I still think constantly telling your children how hard their life will be is both unkind and counterproductive. I tell my children I believe in them and am excited for their future. Of course I encourage them to think about multiple options, both academic and not. I encourage them to think about moving areas or even countries. DS1 will likely study abroad at some point. It’s not that I think their life will be perfect/easy. I just know a lot of people who are so negative about their children’s future. It makes me sad for those children. Being realistic and prepared is important but that doesn’t have to mean relentless negativity, it is the negativity from parents to their children about the future that I strongly believe is deeply unkind and unhelpful.

I agree. I don't think having swathes of bored, underoccupied people wandering around is going to be great for the individuals concerned or for society in general. The devil finds work for idle hands and all that...

People often say “new jobs will be created,”.
I live in a small town in the North East, and it’s hard to believe that if local jobs disappear, equivalent new ones will suddenly appear here. More likely, many people will be expected to move to larger cities, leaving smaller towns further behind.

The Industrial Revolution brought progress, but also years of misery and displacement for the working classes . The computer age did the same in many offices replacing large numbers of clerical and data-entry roles jobs largely done by women. AI is on a massive scale and it is also moving very fast.

That’s why I’m sceptical when people casually promise AI will all work out and it seems that a lot of these people are older and to honest don’t have to worry as much about it.

I’m especially concerned about women, who are heavily represented in many administrative and service jobs now exposed to AI. If those roles disappear , and trades remain male-dominated, we completely risk turning the clock backwards on women’s economic independence.

how will the government afford it? There won’t be enough working people paying tax. The companies saving money aren’t going to willingly fund it.

what level do you think it’ll be set at? Enough for people to have a nice lifestyle? Hobbies and holidays? Or a pittance like universal credit where you’re struggling to eat. I’d take a guess at the latter.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/apr/23/apprenticeship-penalty-poorer-uk-families-benefits-young-people-quit-training

Been reading this thread with interest, as I'm a card carrying Neo Luddite and have grave reservations about AI for liads of reasons.

Saw this article which I thought might be of interest, given the exhortation to get into trades for young people.

Thing is, the way the global economy is destabilising, largely to do with things like conflicts making prices of essentials go up and down, plus the speed of technological change and things like inequality of opportunity as evidenced by the issues described in the article, we are in for a bumpy ride, and it's nothing like previous "industrial revolution" given that neither typewriters or washing machines could "think" when they were introduced, nor could the first android phones massage our egos via app.

It's the speed, environmental impact, decimation of creativity, the messing with people's heads, increased opportunity for cyber crime, lack of mitigation and safeguards against economic impact, plus reluctance to legislate in these areas that seem to point towards a perfect storm.

Time for Universal Basic Income.

I have never been pro UBI until now. But if AI is taking jobs, then surely it should be to allow humans to work a bit less, to job share and to have more leisure time, not to sink into poverty. AI should be used for the benefit of humanity's wellbeing and not to make a few extremely rich men even richer.

I mean we all know which way this will go. And it's pointless to imagine that the powers that be will give a crap about the younger generation when they never have before. But UBI would be fairer than losing a generation to misery and unemployment.

it’s never heard of my (common) profession either! or variations thereof - bizarre 😁

Mine's worked it out for himself that this is what'll happen. He does follow the news and current affairs and has his own brain. I'm helping him by realistically suggesting employment opportunities and training that he may not have traditionally thought about.

The 'horrible people' are those who encourage their children to have unrealistic expectations post education then sit round wringing their hands when it doesn't happen. In my experience, nepotism is rife out there and the ones who walk into cushy jobs as post grads are the ones who have relatives who can 'assist'.

I know. It was like every question was an Armageddon cul-de-sac. Even if you are lucky enough to keep your job what the hell is it going to be like out there on the streets if most people are idle and aimless.

It will mean you might, in the future be able to actually find a plumber/electrician/ carpenter when you need one. And brickies etc mean house building might move on.
perhaps it is a good thing that the default position ceases to be ‘go to university’. It’s not necessary.

How will people afford to have children with no job? I doubt the government will fund it.

Yikes! That video is scary

I feel sorry for teens/young adults reading this. I have 2 teens, the constant rhetoric that everything will be worse for them and they’ll never have jobs is what is damaging their generation, not AI or societal changes. If we aren’t careful this will be a self fulfilling prophecy. Humans are adaptable, young people especially. Of course AI will change things but change is part of the human condition and is inevitable. My kids are intelligent and adaptable, they’ll work something out. I’m certainly not telling them they won’t get a graduate job, or that they will need to retrain as soon as they graduate. Parents doing that are horrible people, some people on here seem to want their kids to fail.

That’s true for ChatGPT, but have you used AI designed for tax law (I presume not as it’s not publicly available). It is more accurate than any human I’ve ever dealt with. It’s unable to hallucinate and has immediate access to all case law, legislation and supporting commentary.

At the moment, you need to be able to ask it the right questions though - so it’s no use to Joe bloggs on the street, but if you know you might have, say, a degrouping charge issue then the AI can outperforms most humans I’d say.

It seems like they’re just fucking about with the technology with absolutely no plan. That’s how it comes across anyway. They are a load of Tech Bros who got very focused on a project and potentially will be ending civilisation as a result. I guess similar to the physicist that split the atom to see what happened

Won’t these people be putting themselves out of jobs eventually?

Thank you. I’ll read that after I’ve made dinner. The last podcast I listened to was this one re.Ai, but don’t listen to it if you’re already feeling depressed.