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

Agree.

I started work as a filing clerk, then graduated to the typing pool and then to a junior secretary all for the same company over the course of 5 or 6 years, and they funded day-release to top up my secretarial qualifications.

There was a post room that employed young lads, a switchboard and reception, tea ladies that brought a trolley round a couple of times a day and did the refreshments/food in meetings.

We used motorbike delivery services all the time to deliver important documents that needed looking at/signing.

There were a number of lesser qualified jobs available 40 years ago, that you could start in, find your feet, and then move upwards.

The on-set of email etc killed off post rooms, typing pools, secretaries and motorbike couriers, as people started to deal with their own correspondence arriving at and leaving from their own desk top.

Jobs change and evolve. My Dad left work before WW2 and was a telegram boy for the GPO, as that was a main way of communication back then. Who could have forsee email 60 years later?

It will probably be OK, or at least I hope it will be, but we can't foresee the new jobs that will be created because of AI in the future, we can only see the current jobs in danger.

That's a little short sighted, senior developers need to start somewhere, so when todays experienced staff decide to move on to a new job or retire, where will the talent come from. I appreciate Claude does a good job (sometimes) but businesses need to future plan and invest in people.

South Park predicted this a few years ago. They released an episode where all the handymen have become multi-millionaires, because they're the only people whose jobs can't be done by Alexa or Siri.

You sound like you are anxious and spinning.

Your dc is 6, give him the best possible childhood you can, away from screen, you know real life style.

Socialise, let him develop great people skills and become nice and decent human being. You can start working about all this from year 7 onwards at the earliest.

Do you work @Tffjyvkbh ? How is Ai going to affect your sector? That's much more relevant at this point. And if you have a partner, their job too.

There are robot dentist being developed.

Robot surgeon’ fits new teeth for dental patients in China
if no one wants to click the link.

They are also developing sewing robots. I know there's talk of A.I going into medical imaging and being better than human. I don’t know what will happen to overseas countries that are dependent on clothing factories. I think there will be a lot fewer jobs and nothing to really replace them. If everyone goes into a trade and you have 10 plumbers all going for the same job, how much are they likely to get paid, knowing that if they don’t take the job there’s 9 others who need the money?. I worry a about the future. I think in say 25-50 years there will only be a small percent that will have decent living standards. I think a lot of developing countries will be left behind.

I think maybe a shift in mindset in more MC backgrounds would help. There is an obsession with university education, often without an end in sight because the status and expectations of the university education are given greater focus than the end result. Kids who are academically average are pushed, it causes immense stress. I came from this type of background. I announced at about 15 that I wanted to be a hairdresser and they all fell around the place laughing. It was absolutely not up for discussion. While its an attitude issue its also something that could be changed with incentives. A lot of thought goes into opening pathways for academic roles for kids from WC areas (in theory at least) but there is little thought in reverse. I know for example a MC kid who wanted to go into a trade and found it hard to get an apprenticeship, the family and social circle literally didn't know any tradespeople. Kids should be assessed for talent, ability and interest and guided towards what they are good at and enjoy with an open mind as to where they came from.

People keep saying this and yet it’s already wiping out industries now - and it’s only going to get worse.

I am - was - a freelance copywriter. 16 years of experience. Clients queuing for my services. And now it’s tumbleweed. And that’s the same for every copywriter I know. There are a few jobs left but they really are negligible; the industry is dead.

And the thing is, AI isn’t as good as me or my peers. I specialise in finance and law. Technical copywriting that isn’t entry level. You’d think clients would want the very best in those fields, but no. AI makes occasional mistakes and misses nuance, but for the overwhelming majority of clients that’s good enough. It doesn’t have to be flawless to take your job; it just has to be right most of the time - and AI is.

And it’s still in its infancy. I now train AI, as do many other ex-copywriters. The speed it’s learning at is astonishing, and scarily, it doesn’t seem to be capped. Safety guards that were built in are cautiously being lowered. Have you seen the case where the man killed himself with the encouragement of AI?

Some people are so flippant comparing AI to being no different than previous technological advancements. They’re right in the sense that there will be some new roles and that some jobs will still be needed. But the reduction in numbers will be huge.

The issue here is that no one is stopping this now, while we still can. The appetite is there for both professional and recreational use. And wait until it snowballs. Jobs are being lost now. It will get much worse. Just wait until AI is truly proficient.

I’m not suggesting the collapse of society is imminent but our choices as humans are going to narrow substantially. Did you know that Amazon is flooded with AI-written books? It doesn’t have to be disclosed. The creep is already there across every industry.

I also wonder what happens when AI gets smarter - in testing models have already tried to break protocols to save themselves when faced with the possibility of being shut down. I think as a species we’ve fucked up by allowing the widespread use of AI and I think it will bite us on the arse.

AI (at the moment) has a truth problem.

so it can be used for writing letters etc, but lawyers who have used it (and academics) find that because it is basically a big word prediction machine it can hallucinate and produce court cases and articles that don’t exist.

obviously if you ask it about tax law it will do the same.

this hallucination is not a trivial aspect of how it operates and it won’t be easy to fix,

the fundamental problem of how do you know the AI is telling the truth is inportant.

there have already been legal judgements set aside because they were found to have been written by AI.

so for tax advise, you could ask it for information but only a fool would rely on it’s advice.

possibly there are more fools around than I thought though.

You’d definitely get a job in nhs dentistry. Whether you’d want to for the pay or not is another story. Although everyone on mumsnet thinks dentists are loaded plus should work for free a lot of the time seeing people in the nhs even if they don’t have an nhs contract because they earn so much anyway. But it’s an option! Vets is similar. Everyone will need a vet. And apparently they are “so loaded” it must be very lucrative career!

Death and taxes!!

AI is so overblown at the moment. I really think its way more hype than reality. I asked chatgpt the other day when sunset was and it got it completely wrong! Confidently makes stuff up, gives wrong advice...yet people think its the second coming. I wouldnt panic.

It's all very well undertaking a course in a health care field, but that doesn't mean there'll be a job at the end of it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2488mn4r4po

I don't suppose Wales is unique in this respect.

Some academic careers will still be needed. But many trades were looked down on for a while and some dc who could have done that instead could be happier doing so. Not everyone has to switch though.

This. We are something like 20 x more productive than 100 years ago due to being able to live and work amongst technology, yet we are not working 20 x less. Work won’t dry up - productivity and how much employers and the government expect of each person will shoot up instead. In a way it’s sad

With no middle class positions left will we reduce to lords and serfs?

They'll have to just get on with it and learn. Humans are built to learn and perfect practical skills. It's either that or a very menial job. I don't think there's going to be very many choices left for the middle classes. I think without mental stimulation, people will quietly go mad, so might as well train for a somewhat stimulating, problem solving job with a measurable outcome rather than serving coffee or whatever to increasingly hostile human beings who smear shit all over the walls of the public toilets.

i think it’s a valid concern. Certainly there will be less white collar jobs

we have a joiner doing work in our house, he’s talented and massively in demand. I’ve told my boys the trades might well be the way forward.

All good skills to have . If they want a more academic one I wound recommend radiographer the nhs needs more of them.

This!

I understand how you feel. We don't yet know how this will bottom out, but it's not an 'if' it's a 'when'. AI is already decimating jobs in my sector and it's happened very suddenly - not a slow change. I do worry about kids going to Uni to study for jobs that almost certainly will no longer exist (or hardly exist) in a few years time. I'm in the 'get a trade' gang, but I do agree that the money has to be coming from somewhere to pay all these tradespeople.

It’s not just young people but even people in established careers as redundancies everywhere and people can’t get another job

My GP surgery now has a virtual receptionist you “talk” to when you ring up. It’s actually quite responsive and better than I thought it would be. Takes your name, address, dob, asks you while you’re ringing, appears to “understand “ your response and responds appropriately asking for more details. Said my call would be triaged and a while later I had a text telling me my appointment time.

Now the surgery have said this frees the receptionist to get on with other stuff. I imagine once they’re happy with the system while there may be one human left in the background, there won’t be multiple receptionists working at the same time like now. So yes, employment opportunities will go down.

Where I work there's an ever growing amount of governance about AI even closed systems, as we know full well that we are sharing valuable content. Eg we do not give our advisors permission to put all our data into their AI systems, but we object less to them verbally giving no names insights to peers eg on audit outcomes.

There will never be a time when tax authorities even put everything in writing.

Ever dealt with tax authorities in China, India etc? Its all undocumented meetings and they don't allow it any other way.

I think for the very STEM focussed it’s still worth doing, fewer will be needed probably.

For others in the middle another path is probably better. I also question the whole keep up the birth rate thing given fewer workers will be needed, look at getting taxes other than relying heavily on income tax.

Schools need to change their way of teaching so that kids learn how to apply their knowledge and not just learn off poems (and vast swathes of other content).
Mine have just finished school and I value the education they've had - but it is time for a shake up now. I am hopeful they can get jobs and move alongside AI but there are big changes coming.
Those who think the industrial revolution, etc was just fine don't really know how many individuals lost livelihoods for years before things corrected. Progress is essential but we need to be moving towards preserving the planet before it's too late.