... and the failure of our politicians to do anything about it.
OK, so here is the story -
In the movies, the robots look like humans and do the same kind of things, so we can understand them. But the real changes are coming from systems that don't look anything like humans. These artificial intelligence systems are starting to take over jobs, and will take many more over the next decade.
Here are a few examples -
Every time you shop and pay at one of those self-serve tills, that machine is doing the job that a human would have done 5 years ago.
Driverless cars & trucks (which will here in 5 years) will put taxi-drivers, bus drivers and truck drivers out of work everywhere. Driving is one of the last jobs available for people with minimal qualifications - what will all these people do when the job of 'driver' no longer exists?
when it comes to phone-helpline jobs, artificial voice recognition systems like Alexa are getting very very good - soon we won't need call centers with 100s of people renewing your insurance, because an AI will do it for you. That is a lot of jobs gone.
Manufacturing is vanishing, but not just to overseas. Again, machines can now do the job of many people so a factory can run on less people. Foxcomm in China (which makes iphones) fired 50,000 people in the last year because they had replaced them with machines.
And white-collar jobs are at risk too. Image recognition can detect cancers in scans nearly as well as radiographers. There are websites that can generate legal letters to appeal parking fines or housing benefits without needing a lawyer. There are artificial intelligences doing graphic design and advertising too.
Of course, not all jobs will go and not all at once. Many jobs requiring personal contact (childcare, nursing etc) are very hard for AIs to do. But gradually, the number of jobs available will go down and the jobs that are left may well be less secure and less well paid. Meanwhile, our politicians insist that everyone MUST work for a living rather than getting benefit. And the people trapped with no career prospects turn to right-wing populists (Trump etc) because no one else seems to listen.
Some people think that we need to have a Basic Income that everyone gets regardless of work, and move to a post-work era in which having a job is neither required nor expected. But it is not clear if the finance adds up, nor how we get there.
So, AIBU to think that the story above is plausible and worrying?
And if so, does anyone have any ideas of what on earth should be done about it?