What jobs will never be taken by AI?

[RubyRubyRubyRubay]

So, my son is about to take his GCSE options and although I've been getting him to think of a trade he might like, he really wants to go to uni.

I can think of lots of trades that will be difficult for AI to totally take over:
painting
plumbing
roofing
building
cooking
sports coach

. . . but what about jobs you need a degree for?

I'm struggling to think of any that AI won't eventually decimate.

Any ideas out there?

Accountancy.

Summary

"The Coming Wave" is a thought-provoking exploration of the impact of emerging technologies on society and humanity's future. Written by renowned futurist Dr. Rachel Sinclair, the book delves into various technological advancements such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, and examines how these innovations are reshaping the world as we know it.

Sinclair argues that we are on the brink of a profound societal transformation driven by these technologies, which she collectively refers to as "the coming wave." Through insightful analysis and compelling examples, she highlights both the immense potential and the potential risks associated with these advancements.
The book discusses how AI and automation are revolutionizing industries and the workforce, raising questions about job displacement and economic inequality. It also explores the ethical implications of biotechnology, including gene editing and human augmentation, and the need for careful regulation and ethical considerations.

Moreover, Sinclair emphasizes the importance of maintaining human agency and values in the face of rapid technological progress. She calls for a proactive approach to governance and policy-making to ensure that these technologies are used for the benefit of humanity while mitigating potential harms.

Overall, "The Coming Wave" serves as a wake-up call to society, urging readers to critically examine the impact of emerging technologies and to actively shape the future they want to see.

Law, especially arbitration. And even if some of the legal stuff can be drawn up by AI it would still need human oversight as the obligation is on humans.

most jobs will require oversight it will just be a tool. Current AI is just a language model it doesn’t do anything autonomously.

and most confidential things can’t be done by AI language models as they’re not secure and require storing data to “learn”

so can’t be used in civil service type jobs

Bin collector
gardener
carpet fitter?

Masseuse.

@3luckystars if you can’t bear to read it yet have a listen to Mustafa Suleyman on the Leading podcast first. He’s much more reassuring to listen to!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/leading/id1665265193?i=1000625685186

There will definitely be massage AI robots in the future. I'd buy one now. Husband tires too easily.

With added happy endings?!?

@Eyesopenwideawake

This thread is about jobs you dirty feck! Where are you getting your massages? 😲

If there was an AI robot hand on a stick on the wall I'd buy it for back scratching purposes. And I'd buy another and install it lower on the wall for cat butt smacking purposes. She never tires of a good thwacking.

We're gonna need a new wave of young determined 'ethicists' to help shepherd us through the next few decades that's for sure! (I'm not sure that's even a real word)

You’re confusing AI and automation. Automated bricklaying is a robotics and automation problem, not an AI one. They already exist in prototype form. There are plenty of videos on YouTube.

The energy cost of AIs is a bit overstated, it’s only generative AIs (like GPT and DALL-E) that are energy-intensive, and then only during the training phase. Once an AI has been trained you can run it on a half decent gaming PC. Most AIs aren’t generative - for example the AIs used in image recognition in robot vision are not generative and not at all energy intensive to run - the face recognition in a phone camera is a good example.

That's a good payer usually too.
What a downer 🙁

Oh and a huge amount of AI models can be had for free, it’s an area where there is a lot of open source development. Have a look at huggingface.co where most of the really cutting edge stuff is done.

AI has been after GPs for years, and gets closer to replacing them daily.

Human doctors don’t work long hours (they’re mostly part time), they’re expensive and less accurate than simple machines.

There’s a lot of money in health. Replacing carers isn’t so desirable cos they get paid peanuts, but swapping out highly paid health workers is a given.

Couple of points on this.

Firstly, it's worth remembering that this is becoming news now because specifically language models are getting better and so journalists are suddenly scared about their jobs. There's been useful developments in machine learning for years that enable us to remove the boring parts of multiple jobs but journalists weren't aware because it didn't touch their lives.

A lot of AI is open source, a lot of companies are now banning the use of open source AI and are developing their own to maintain confidentiality. I think there will be a lot of fragmentation because companies won't want their data used by other companies. And this fragmentation cost money, the cost of the technology will be a limiting factor for a long time.

Secondly, in my 30 years as a scientist we have been constantly developing high through put methods to do things that once took days or weeks. We've never sacked anyone because of these developments, we're constantly able to do more exciting stuff that once was too complicated and expensive to do. If your equipment allows you to analyse 10 samples a day you plan your experiment to optimise the useful information you get from those 10 samples. If a newer version allows you to analyse 1000 samples you think 'woo hoo, more data' and analyse 1000 samples. The same is true with software developments, we now do a lot of fluid dynamic modelling, 20 years ago we just tried to overengineered our mixing and hope for the best, we didn't have hundreds of mathematicians working it all out in their heads.

Finally, AI is not intelligent, it can process large amounts of data but can still make very silly mistakes that are blatantly obvious to a human, just google 'bad AI images'.

That's me agreeing with Errol just to be clear

I would have thought social work is fairly AI proof.

That's really reassuring thanks @JaninaDuszejko and makes so mush sense too.

Why cut back when actually AI just enables science to do more in a shorter space of time.

I remember the beginning of the mapping of the human genome, on Tomorrow's World probably. They had this huge supercomputer and said it would take years to map a few genes at a time - they predicted that the human genome mapping project would take 15 years.

Am I right in saying they can map a human genome in 24 hours with today's technology?

Just amazing really.

Beautician/Esthetician people will also always want to look good - every culture appreciates physical beauty as is biologically linked to good health. Facials including facial massage are very personal, intimate and relaxing.

Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, it's possible to sequence a human genome in as little as 24 hours, and at a fraction of the cost compared to the early days of the Human Genome Project.

I'd just say don't do photography, video, media, events, graphic design and even marketing.

Those industry's are already feeling the pain of clients "did it on AI" I mean there will come a point when brands think this is shit. But there won't be any skilled creatives left.

Just piles of god awful street art style AI content everywhere!!

I'm leaving my industry to renovate flats and learn tiling& plastering at 49 years old.

Skynet does gardening

I think AI has the potential to take over 90% of all current jobs. In terms of the creative AI models, there is an argument that because they use the work of artist/musicians/writers living and dead in their training, they are in fact simply producing the work of others so I suspect there is going to be a long battle over copyright issues yet to be played out. I personally am very worried about the damage AI will cause. If billions of jobs go, what will replace them, huge numbers of unemployed people cannot be a good thing for social cohesion.

"I don't think it's even possible right now to understand all of the ways that AI will impact jobs in the future."

That's a good point @GeneCity .

Who could have anticipated the internet and the changes we've seen in the past 20 -30 years?

I wonder what new technologies we'll see in the next 20 - 30 years?

I always thought that an AI health check up machine would be good. Like a private photo booth but scans you, checks blood pressure and heart beat, breathing etc. Does a blood test and analyses it immediately and has a toilet that pops out to test stool and urine.
Test for everything to catch potential health issues. I bet they have it already in Japan.