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

Demis is quite positive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/04/demis-hassabis-ai-future-10-times-bigger-than-industrial-revolution-and-10-times-faster?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The economic historians have endless arguments about industrialisation.

in any country industrialisation means a huge shift of population from the country to the city or towns.

in the U.K. this was in full swing by the Victorian period.

what they argue about is whether people were better off working in the factories. There was a lot of rural poverty before the Industrial Revolution but it was a lot less obvious in society as people were in their own houses.

none the less, loads of people chose to move into towns and work in (dirty, dangerous) factories and live in shared houses with no indoor water… which does suggest that conditions in the countryside were even worse…..

Has anyone actually heard someone who has an AI tech background say anything positive about the future?

Well, if there are no jobs for them to go to, they won't need childcare. The housing issue is a lot more critical.

People can't afford housing or childcare.

it’s ok saying the trades will be fine but ultimately they need customers who can afford to have work done. If lots of people are unemployed then hairdressers and electricians will suffer too

Guess you could train to be an embalmer or funeral director

So if there are plenty of tradespeople around, and no-one has a problem getting a tradesperson is, what do you think that will do for the incomes of tradespeople?

Maybe another baby boom?

Industrialisation: vast societal upheaval caused by migration from country to town. Women who previously had their own businesses in cottage industry: weaving, brewing etc had no choice but to migrate to the cities and live in horrific conditions working in a factory for a pittance. Widespread poverty, crime, disease, that the country took over a century to adjust to. Arguably the detrimental impacts were still felt into the 1950s when the Clean Air Act was finally passed.

Computers: huge numbers of women out of work, first as 'computers' (computers were originally actual people, mostly women, running calculations), and later secretarial and clerical positions - again, mostly women affected but also some men's jobs, notable the 'drafting office' in every engineering firm where one draughtsman with AutoCAD could do the work of 10 with pens and boards.

Throughout these revolutions, the professions were untouched. Now AI is coming for the jobs of accountants, and everyone involved in the legal profession other than the actual lawyers themselves.

I’m not sure. All the podcasts I’ve listened to with people who understand AI and are in the industry are very gloomy about the future. I think this is very different to what has gone before.

Yes, I agree, but that comes back to the "wrong" kind of people going into the trades because the kids with good "academic" style abilities are pushed to go to Uni, leaving behind a vacuum, filled by the kids with poor skills other than strength.

We've always noticed that the Corgi/GasSafe plumbers and NICEIC qualified electricians are generally a lot better organised and have better communication/administrative skills than other "trades", which makes sense because they need to pass exams to get their certifications to trade.

I've just remembered a lad at school, over 40 years ago, who was always in the top classes, always near the top of the class etc. He did well at O levels and went into the sixth form to do Maths, Physics and Chemistry A levels - we all thought he'd be one of the few to go to Uni. Apparently the sixth form heads were gob smacked when he didn't apply and told them he was going to college to become a plumber instead to follow in his father's footsteps (a sole trader plumber) and they tried to make him change his mind. He's now the guy with the million pound house and a Porsche in the drive! We used him a couple of times for gas jobs in the house and he was probably the best "tradesman" we'd had - turned up bang when he said he would, no nonsense disappearing during the day to pretend to go for parts, cleaned up after himself every day (inc bringing his own vacuum) and even painted the exposed pipework after he'd done the work - a real pleasure to work with! Never needed to advertise and he didn't even have sign written van - got all his work from word of mouth recommendations and repeat business! Expensive, but well worth the difference in standard.

😁

To be fair, I think the people with good organisational and communication skills would be great for the trades. Most tradespeople can't respond to messages and seem to have a never ending supply of dead relatives they need to attend to rather than turning up for jobs. 🙄

Perhaps undertakers will still be needed.

Lots of people say that they're wanting to have home repairs/maintenance done but can't find a decent tradesperson to do it.

It's not just the "nice to have" discretionary jobs, every house/office/factory needs ongoing maintenance over time.

Yes, most people can make a stab at doing their own decorating or power washing their patio or mowing their lawn, but not replacing their central heating boiler, nor replacing end of life windows, nor replacing a life expired roof, or external painting of a 2/3 story building, nor clear drain blockages, nor fell/cut big trees, nor undertake repairs to their cars, nor repair faults to their house electrics, etc.

How did we manage during industrialisation and then when computers came? I mean, there’s also new jobs created in the 20th century.

When the AI apocalypse comes, I’ll be a landlord or influencer or vape merchant. Plenty of jobs around.

Umm. no it wasn't. Plenty of people were using computers every day at work, and of course home computers and video consoles were huge. Home users were using dialup modems to post on bulletin board systems, and those in universities had access to the internet via JANET.

It's massively shortsighted, but when your strategic horizon only extends as far as the end of next quarter, what is there to lose? The people making these decisions will have sold their options, cashed out, and moved on to the next company long before it becomes an issue. Most senior leaders in tech are only around for a couple of years before moving on.

I shall marvel at the day when AI can do any of these things: shoe a horse, crew a lifeboat, cut down a tree and disentangle the branches from fallen electrical cables, wipe the nose of a screaming toddler, decide which shade of green you would prefer your new cushions to be, deliver a baby, cut a trapped driver out of their wrecked car, batter a door down and catch a drug dealer, unblock a toilet, unravel Barbie hair from a vacuum cleaner brush, change a hospital bed while the patient is still in it, provide doggy daycare, make something by hand on a potters wheel, shuck oysters, sit on a jury or - the most unlikely of all, make a decent cup of tea.

Surely there’s only a need for so many tradespeople though? Especially as if the unemployment rate is high, people may only pay for the service when they need it and not because they fancy redecorating or changing their hair. If I lost my job, going to the hairdresser would be one of the first luxuries I’d cut

Fully agree, but there is a real image problem within "the trades" particularly the unregulated trades. Electricians and Gas engineers need to have been properly trained, passed exams, etc., but the likes of general plumbers, builders, joiners, kitchen fitters, decorators, etc., are a mixed bag - some well trained and experienced, but there's also a lot of people doing that kind of work who have minimal training, poor people skills, poor administration skills, etc - basically "odd job men" who have gone on to trade at a very beyond their abilities. It's that which gives the trades a bad reputation and puts people off wanting to go into the trades. Added, of course, the lack of apprentice jobs, and often poor quality colleges running the courses. Schools/teachers don't help either as they tend to push kids who are average or above towards university education instead of the trades, where they may well have been a better fit and enjoyed a more fruitful working life.

Indeed. In 1986 I was working in a fully computerised accountancy practice, a computer on everyone's desk, word processors instead of typewriters, photocopiers instead of duplicators, creating spreadsheets using Supercalc/Lotus 123 instead of A3 analysis paper, etc. We were paid by BACS not cash and I took out some of my wage every pay day via a cash dispensing machine. Got my first mobile phone mid 90s about the same time I started banking via telephone banking using a sound/tone generating keypad like a little calculator. At home, I'd be gaming on the ZX80 (in 1980) and then graduated up to the ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum, then Commodore 64, all in the early 80s.

If the other poster really wanted a "tech free" life, they'd need to go back into the 70s - 50 years ago!

They need to be encouraged to learn a wide range of skills rather than learning facts etc. That includes manual skills, people-skills, logic, analyticals, etc. Skills that can be transferrable between sectors/industries, etc.

Forty years ago is 1986.

i was alive in 1986 there was plenty of technology.

Robot surgeons and dentists already exist - a friend of mine works in a company that develops them.

they are useful for repeated operations of exactly the same type where people can be prepped and in a predictable environment.

so my mum had her cataracts done in that way - lots of operations of basically the same in a purpose built facility.

very different from having a general surgical robot.

I have already seen adverts for weekend breaks or holidays with zero technology, back to nature, forest bathing, wild swimming, healthy food, exercise, art, poetry.

So depressing that this was normal life 40 years ago.