AI proof careers

[VenusClapTrap]

DC are in years 10 and 8, so A-level and university choices coming up in the next few years. Eldest quite fancies engineering or architecture. Youngest doesn’t have a clue.

The more I look into architecture, the more I worry that AI is going to impact this career path, so I’m not sure it’s a wise choice at the moment, especially as it’s such a long course.

But is engineering any better? Is anything any safer? How can we best advise our children?

If they are smart and their degrees have numeracy I wouldn't worry too much about it.

AI automates a lot of mundane tasks for engineers and scientists but won't replace them anytime soon. As an engineer/scientist I leverage AI to do my job more quickly. The stuff that AI can do is always the increase, but is never a replacement.

So for example if I am designing some electronics I can get AI to lay out the board for me and place the components, but I still have to design the board. Also if the board is anything like complex the AI will fail so its easier just to do by hand. Of course in time the AI will get better.

The kind of things you have to watch out for is stuff like book keeping or driving. A repetitive task that is ripe for being automated. But TBH no one with a degree ends up being a book keeper anyway.

Of course there is a chance they may be able to develop an AI that mimics an entire human brain. If they do that then everyones job is fucked, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

AI will now be able to do physical and human engagement type stuff.

So it won't be replacing nursery workers, carers for the elderly, TAs, carers for the disabled or teachers anytime soon.

Physiotherapists, nurses, doctors, swimming teachers and personal trainers are also probably pretty safe.

Where it will have impact is probably the easily automated areas of knowledge work - simple programming, some areas of law (eg standard conveyancing) checking medical scans for diagnosis etc.

I'm not sure I agree that it will be unable to do human engagement. Arguably it will be very good at what are now fairly badly paid caring jobs - it won't get tired, irritated or lose its patience. Even in its infancy (chat bots), the tech has come on a lot in the last 12-18 months. Some of them are very good now, and if you see some of the bot posts on MN, they are increasingly able to follow the thread and say something that takes into account what''s been said already - a year or so ago they were much cruder an just spewed out a lot of topical info with little context.

I can see robo-carers being a thing.

Thanks all. Food for thought.

It actually takes more engineers to work on a project than it did 30yrs ago. There is a lot of AI used and has been in the last decade and definitely hasn’t taken away jobs, it’s actually increased them.

Teachers aren't a safe bet. Phillipson has already said they will look at AI for marking/feedback etc. I strongly feel we will move to online classrooms which will be taught by AI as a way of combating teacher recruitment + retention also to help reduce figures for school refuses ie just plonk them in front of a screen at home.

I mentioned this on a thread the other day. Through my work I have contact with developers, the current applications available to the public are years old. What's being developed right now is like science fiction.

No career will be immune from the effects of A.I, some will disappear completely. An application due to be released later this year will effectively shut down all call centres. There simply won't be any business need for them to exist.

A.I won't take anybodys job, but you will lose your job to someone who uses A.I more efficiently than you do.

The easiest barometer to understand which careers will be affected by A.I is to look at how much knowledge is required to operate in that field. Because the perfection of A.I means that knowledge has no value anymore. So legal, financial and administrative business will be hugely impacted. Some wiped out entirely. The creative industries will be unrecognisable in five years. Movies will be made by typing an idea into an application which will then generate footage, dialogue, music and everything else. So camera operators, directors, sound engineer, crews, basically anyone who works in the film industry will be redundant within a decade.

It's scary stuff.

The public simply have no idea of the scale of what's coming.

Your kids need to get into an industry that won't be affected so much, construction, beauty therapy, care work, manual labour. All traditional high paying jobs will probably be wiped out.

No idea how reliable this is but as a tool you could check out this site: https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/architects-except-landscape-and-naval looks like architects might be ok...

The real skill in the future is going to being sufficiently knowledgable to determine the accuracy and reliability of anything produced by AI.

Would you trust a bridge that's been designed and built by AI that's googled 'how to build a bridge'?

I agree...I find ai terrifying for this reason. I also fear that when most jobs are obsolete, the governments won't catch up in time to create a safety net or an alternative way of people providing for themselves.

I've been thinking a lot of what careers are ai proof. I'm thinking hairdressing, beauty, plumbing perhaps... practical stuff

Thank you, this is exactly my fear. DH is in IT and he is coming to this conclusion too. I wondered if he was being overly pessimistic.

I wonder if careers like Psychology could be useful in 'teaching' AI/robots skills like empathy? I know little about it, but I suppose that might be temporarily a useful skill.

Or rather 'teaching' the ability to seem empathic, since emotion is purely human!

I saw a job ad for creative writers to 'teach' AI creative writing the other day. Very poorly paid, though. Quite alarming.

So camera operators, directors, sound engineer, crews, basically anyone who works in the film industry will be redundant within a decade

Or they'll do exactly the same job in the live events industry. Unless you're suggesting that people are going to start watching a holographic version of Taylor Swift and the lights and stage are going to be built by robots?

Very poorly paid, though.

If so many jobs disappear, and many of those that are left are poorly paid, who will be able to afford to pay hairdressers and beauticians, and even plumbers and carpet fitters, after paying unavoidable bills?

I think a few highly paid jobs may remain, mainly in AI maintenance and improvement! It does seem like economies will need restructuring, and I sincerely hope some experts are planning how to do it.

Abba Voyager is massive so yes of course people would go and see a holographic Taylor,

This is the conundrum that gets me.

Right now as a society we mostly distribute resources via income, and pay for public services via taxing income.

If most people lack enough income to live on or pay taxes, this method of resource distribution would collapse.

That's why I think the wealthy will eventually advocate for universal basic income, as the other alternatives could be revolutionary and threaten their ability to hoard resources in future.

Garbage in, garbage out 🤷🏻‍♀️

Jobs I can't see how AI would replace include plumber, electrician, locksmith, hairdresser, refuse collector, builder. So, 'hands on' practical jobs.

Who knows where the fuck AI will end up taking us. You should probably ask ChatGPT this question and see what is says.

If the doom-filled worst-case sencario fear-mongers end up being right, we're all screwed (I don't believe this), so in the meanwhile your DC should do a degree in what they most enjoy and/or are best at and/or are interested in, rather than making some strategic decision based on catastrophic future predictions.

There has been research on this where participants rated AI GPs more empathetic than human GPs.

I wonder if locksmiths will become obsolete as we will be able to open our front doors with thumb prints or by facial recognition in the future?

How is an AI going to manage behaviour and the emotional and social needs of 30 children?