So what jobs are AI proof then?

[StrongJamie]

Based on recent media report we are facing an imminent (?) AI revolution.

I imagine that doctors, teachers, lecturers, accountants and civil servants can easily be replaced by AI and tailored professional AI software. I am guessing that jobs that require intricate physical handling are less at risk as it would be expense to mass produce the Hardware. Hospital doctors are more at risk than ward nurses but less than GPs who soon will be obsolete.

It will be a good while until they can mass produce robots that do humans jobs, which require a lot of running around and haptic skill but some jobs don't need a person, they just need the right software (e.g. GPs).

I imagine it like this, you log onto your GP AI service, they know all your medical history and also all the up to date epidemiological data of your neighbourhood as well as your biomarkers, pulse, heart rate etc uploaded via your smart watch continuously. The system knows about all possible diseases and conditions and based on your biomarkers and symptoms knows how to signpost you for further tests or what to prescribe. Job done, no more GP.

Teachers? No need. Ai robots, virtual or physical deliver synchronous teaching the rest is done online.

Please pick holes in my assumptions or add to the list of soon to be obsolete professions.

Which ones are ai bullet proof?

I use it for product descriptions - love it!

Many construction jobs currently seem low priority to be soon replaced by AI, plastering for example? plumbing? Gardening is another one that come to mind.
Eventually there will be an AI solution for everything and a robot for every individual task, but managing the interfaces between one AI system to another will yet require us humans to stick around for a long time.
Again, an example from the construction industry - to deliver a building require endless interfaces between many entities of the supply chain which is long and complex. E.g from cutting a tree somewhere in the world to making it a fine bespoke piece of joinery which is then built in another part of the world in a very particular way combining many materials also sourced from different parts of the world and finally delivered and properly fitted on site. There are possible 100s interfaces involved in making this happen and across multiple geographic locations. Some steps will be replaced with AI but no single AI software can do it all (i.e. cut the tree and fit the finished kitchen) or at least it's hard to imagine.
That may imply that the long standing job/skill to survive is project management.

Yes, construction should be safe!
R
That won't benefit me. I can see my job being done by AI, with a bit of tweaking.

Have you seen teachmate? It’s been developed by ICT with Mr P.

alongside lesson plans, it can generate reports, short, medium and long term planning, write letters, policies, write assemblies, create knowledge organisers etc.

I’m a maths teacher and have been using IWB this year and it’s brilliant that I can produce a lesson in under 10 minutes, and that it’s really responsive to the lesson and easier to find easier/harder questions instantly.

https://teachmateai.com/

Thank you, I will have a look at that.

@MedSchoolRat

Patients still supply a lot of info, at an appt, and often it's what they didn't say rather than what they did say that matters. Also, people don't understand their conditions: "I had a little heart failure but that's sorted now." Humans can guide a patient back to better health management. AI can't do it yet.

In our area most GP appointments are over the phone now. This does mean GPs miss out on some information and I'd be interested if this means there is an increase in people using urgent care rather than GP services to be seen to. 111 is already a step towards digitising healthcare.

Our Gp does not encourage phone ins to make an appointment it's all meant to happen online. The digital systems e.g. records, NHS app are still clanky but this will all be improved in the next decade. There is so much cost saving with automating and digitising GP services, they are already now, mostly gate keepers.

You could possibly run a health centre with physicians associates who do the physical check ups as and when necessary, nurses, phlebotomists and physio therapists. The 'brain' the exert medic can be AI represented by virtual GP personas. A computer will be able to diagnose a lot faster and more accurately than a GP in the not so distant future. The human element will need to be designed into the virtual GP and the best thing about this is that they will never be rude or dismissive if designed with good patent comms principles and will never have an off day. We're not there yet but AI is being improved exponentially and it won't be long.

Hospital doctors, A&E nurses, specialists such as dermatologists will probably stay around for a bit longer. Everything that requires thinking can be done better by AI eventually. It's manual dexterity and the physical abilities that cannot be as easily replicated.

ha! Actually tele-dermatology has been around a long time and it's a flop. Never taken off. The promise seemed great, get patients with their high resolution cameras to take images, send a description of problem/history & image to consultants, consultants would decide if the skin thing is benign or needs examination, someone could maybe tele-diagnose & design a treatment plan. Reality: The consultants don't trust this at all. the pictures are lousy, the patient history is poor, patient & consultant both struggle to communicate, the patient feels ignored & fobbed off & confused. AI could Support this situation by getting a better clinical history and answering questions in a generic way, but not the image taking, and not true patient reassurance, not yet able to understand the challenges patients have with their health management, or how people need to manage multi-morbidities. I feel sure eventually AI could develop good consultation skills & treatment plans, but it's still a long way off. And even then, actual experts will need to train the AI & monitor what it does, and keep it up to date with new developments.

Next best (tele-derm idea) is patient sees GP who gets a proper clinical history & super good quality pictures and answers patient questions, then sends history+image to consultants. Consultants also resist hell out of this way of working, partly because how specialists & generalists think is very different. Which way do you want the AI to be programmed? Meanwhile the GP is the patient advocate in the system, gate keeping for patient but also spotting ways to make sure patient doesn't get ignored & lost.

I won't say OP's scenario is a never-never, I'd say it's a long way off & will rely on Bayesian probabilities and things like high resolution cameras and AI to even recognise if images are good enough quality.

Has anyone read the Henry Marsh book, Do No Harm. Early on he describes an MDT meeting, about a patient with unpleasant diagnosis. Marsh asks junior doctors "What is the most important fact we know about this patient?" they all say things about his age, diagnosis, surgery or other treatment option risks. "No no no," says Marsh. "The most important fact is that he lives alone." It will be interesting when AI gets to the point of recognising social determinants of treatment outcomes.

Im a teacher for children with complex sen. The students needs are very complex and rarely do you meet two students the same, I don’t believe AI could truly take those individual needs into account in the same way as a person as there is so much problem solving involved. Rarely is the first solution the right one. The job is also very hands on with a lot of behaviour management, I don’t see how AI or a robot could manage that.

@StrongJamie where did you get that online teaching worked for students in lockdown? I think lockdown proved it worked for a minority even at KS3+. So many disengaged students

Don't get me wrong, I don't think at all online is preferable to in person teaching I'd hate with a passion it for my kids as it leaves out the important social interactions. But it did work, the technology is there and teaching can be and is being delivered online. Our secondary moves online whenever face to face is not possible. You can, however, absolutely have engaging teaching that happens online, it happens in the majority of universities. I personally would be surprised if schools in 25 years resembled schools today and the teaching profession will change with it.

Leave it up to clever AI to make AI based teaching extremely engaging. You can't compare what we have now (a model based on victorian times) to the technology that will be available in the next few decades plus the changes in children's learning styles, attention span etc. Many babies now watch animations on a tablets or phones when they sit in a pram from about 6 months on, many of these programmes are edited in a way that is highly capturing based on fast edits, sound effects, visuals etc, teaching will have to adapt if these digital babies should have a chance at paying attention to anything in schools that deliver old style didactic teaching. Most kids today have little attention span for this, they do however engage passionately with video games etc.

Before long there'll be AI that can basically replicate human interaction of the phone or via web chat so that'll be call centre type jobs gone. And not too long after that there'll be robots that are basically indistinguishable from humans that can do any job that a human can do, but won't require wages or sleep (maybe a few hours charging a day.

From what DC told me, they watch their recorded lectures at double speed that's how "engaging" the lectures are.

Hopefully politicians will be the first to lose their jobs to AI!!

It didn't work though. Children are way behind where they should be - this has been widely documented but even on MN you see frequent discussions about which year group was hit hardest. I'd say at least 50% of children at my primary made no or negative progress over lockdowns.

DD said she watched some lectures at double speed, but others she'd do at normal with 'rewinds' to go back over bits that needed more thinking about. Sounds good to me.

Midwifery is safe

Online lectures are pretty awful. Ok for basic textbook info but no good for group work or critical discussion.

Online lectures are pretty awful. Ok for basic textbook info but no good for group work or critical discussion.

Presumably their quality can be variable, DD seemed happy enough with hers - she'd had her first 2 years live before 2020 for comparison. She said the smaller group discussions worked very well on Teams or whatever too.

Maybe this is an illustration that it's how you use new technology that matters. Some may use it to be lazy, a shortcut. Others may use it in a way that adds value.

Haha civil servants won't be replaced by AI anytime soon, Departments can't even supply an electronic HR system fit for 2003 never mind 2023, it'll be long after my retirement before the government manages to grapple with AI for efficiency.

There will be hundreds of cameras and microphones in the teaching space that instantly log misbehaviour, allocate behaviour points and notify parents and carers in realtime

So I get a text at work that my child is messing about in school, and I…. do what exactly? Leave work, drive to the school, go in and tell him off? Or are we assuming that with chat GPT, everyone is unemployed so we all have plenty of time to do classroom management?

Most teaching at KS3 and above is based around classroom discussions, demonstrations etc, making the children think for themselves. Staring at a screen is not going to give them that.

@StrongJamie And all you need to do is look at the growing number of children who have difficulties with social communication to see how successful that is. Children who can't speak in sentences, children who can't communicate with other children, who can't share, negotiate, compromise, understand other people's needs or perspectives. Children being plugged into screens at a young age isn't something to celebrate, or even accept, let alone encourage.

Dentistry?

how would you feel about a robot drilling and filling your teeth ?
what about if you’ve got ongoing pain? Or an accident/ incident -And need to discuss this or explain what sort of pain it is
plus all the other things we do that needs a human
Giving injections/ impressions / X-rays / removing teeth/ fixing crowns bridges and dentures / implant work: root canals.hygiene treatment Etc etc

Personally I want a human to do this

AI doesn't exist on its own, there are thousands of 'man' hours there. I think it will be like quite a lot of technological innovations - some jobs and sectors will be lost (like typesetters and many printers with the advent of desk too publishing) but many more jobs will be created.

Children being plugged into screens at a young age is certainly nothing to celebrate but it's a fact of life. Their attention span will suffer as as result of excessive screen time (and their eye sight). A quick google reveals:

Screen use releases dopamine in the brain, which can negatively affect impulse control. Dr. Lorenz says studies have shown screen time affects the frontal cortex of the brain, similar to the effect of cocaine. Similar to drugs, screen time sets off a pleasure/reward cycle that can have a negative impact of your life.

Using social media can lead to physical and psychological addiction because it triggers the brain's reward system to release dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical.

But it's a fact of life that the majority of children are plugged into devices almost from birth, many primary aged children play hours of video games before school as well as after. I feel for teachers who have to engage and manage a generation of screen zombies.