To think that AI is taking over jobs far, far, FAR quicker than we anticipated?

[Themarchoftime]

Obviously, am aware of AI's presence for some time. But I'm shocked how AI features seem to be on all platforms now, email/web etc, and how many roles are being diminished by the use. It seems week on week it's progressively spreading.

Someone who works with AI suggested to me that it's happening so much quicker than anyone expected, that we could all be looking at no jobs across many sectors in 10-12 years.

This has totally depressed me, especially as I'm early fifties, looking to skill up/change roles! And scared me, a bit, also for my kids.

Am i being a catastrophic thinker?

People don’t want to see general health care workers carrying out commands from an AI, though. They don’t want to go to university to learn medicine to do that either. Who checks if the AI gets it wrong? Who regulates it? The sales pitch on AI and quantum computing is totally adrift from the reality of what we know people want and how humans behave.

Did you see the video doing the rounds on Twitter a couple of months ago of the techbro dude who gave his kid an AI soft toy and then couldn’t understand why she wanted to turn the AI off and simply wasn’t interested in its marvellous capabilities? He kept pushing her to interact with it, and she simply resisted. He couldn’t get it at all.

That’s what the AI enthusiasts are like when they tell us it’s going to replace everything, just you wait and see! But: humans gonna human. Supermarkets thought it was a great whiz of an idea to get rid of staff with automated checkouts. Turns out that human customers just game them to steal more, so now because of huge losses to shoplifting they have had to re-employ staff to manage the automated checkouts. There is a reason why humans need human interaction - we’re innately cleverer than machines, no matter how much quantum computing power they have. (QC is also v much less advanced than tech dudes like to claim).

There have already been AI news presenters in other countries.

And the cliché-ridden scripts of shopping channels could easily be written by AI.

Well great for you that overheads are reduced but not so great for the people who lose their jobs to enable those savings. Multiply that by many different organisations and what will people do?

anyway for now I’m enjoying it as my boss hasn’t caught on yet that it takes me two days to do 5 days work! 😁

I think patients want an accurate diagnosis and treatment. How many complaints do you see regarding the poor diagnostic capabilities of GPs? People die every day due to this.

Quantum Computing hasn't been fully developed yet, so nobody knows how interaction will go, but these are not conventional computers so they won't be churning out rubbishy pornographic stories or marketing drivel. They won't be used in soft toys either. QC isn't just a step up in computing, it's a whole different planet.

Haha, most importantly did you win the argument?

There are various levels of advertising. Yes advertising by a known and trusted individual is particularly effective, which is why Richard Osman/Mark Kermode/Rory Stewart get the big bucks to say "I personally use Air BnB and it's great" on their podcasts. That will always carry a premium.

But when an unknown actress on an advert / QVC presenter sniffs washing and goes "mmmm! That fabric conditioner smells lush!" surely everyone knows they're just reading a script. It might as well be AI.

This is enough internet for me today.

AI has diagnosed (correctly) Dd with Ehlers Danlos syndrome, me with ankylosing spondylitis and dh with bullous pemphigoid after the GP (different ones) had no idea. I love a ChatGPT diagnosis.

That’s true in principle. But the technical difficulties with quantum computing mean that its practical, wide application is to our time what the moon landing was to Isaac Newton’s: centuries away.

I’m tired of seeing this lazy excuse for not thinking and maintaining the status quo.

What human needs are there left to supply the need for all these ‘new jobs’? The Industrial Revolution supplied standardised goods cheaply to the newly impoverished. Computers have provided greater possibilities for entertainment, largely taken up by men in bedrooms wanking or playing video games and being as aggressive as possible towards women and girls. Oh and a load of marketing crap.

What is there possibly left that AI can supply and how are humans who have no inheritance going to live in a world of exploding population with every inch privately owned?

That’s not how QVC works. It’s not like spot advertising.

You don’t need a person at all in a spot ad. A pack shot and a slogan will do. It can be just about brand recognition. Some ads have simply been dominated by a colour (Cadbury’s purple, Virgin Airways red etc).

QVC is all about personal recommendation and demonstration.

What exploding population?

I think the point is that this is only the beginning. The AI is learning how to be better all the time, including from all the interactions you have with it which - to you - seem pointless or haven’t worked. Come back in a year, two years, 5 years and the lovely lady will be out of a job. As will the van driver.

I find it fascinating - but I was a bit of a fan of old sci-fi in my teens so real, 'self aware' AI, or Isaac Asimov style housekeeper/nanny robots, is more what I think of when people speculate about the future 😁

It is moving fast and I think it will get faster. If we could rely on the powers that be to use it in ways that help humanity I'd be excited, but... well...

Tbh, I feel that it's completely ridiculous that people still have to be afraid of losing their jobs and not having to work.

We (as a society) are actively making work, creating demand etc, just so that there is work, so that people can be stuck in work because they need to eat. It's circular and it really feels like we could have moved past it by now.

If only tech was used to better everyone's lives, instead of a few.

So was I. By now Robbie the Robot should have been doing my housework.
Instead I have been doing housework all day, and Robbie is taking my job!

Exactly!

I actually re-read the Robbie story a few weeks ago.

And the one with the hunky housekeeper robot. 😁

That’s your reaction and your choice of question?

When I was born, not that long ago, the population of Britain was 50 million. Now officially it is 70 million and reliable estimates put the true figure at 80 million.

The world population was about 3.5 billion, now it’s over 8 billion.

So that exploding population. So now perhaps you can consider the question, which is what human needs are left to supply? Or the implicit question of whether this will lead to a world any of us want to see, of improved freedom justice and equality and all that is good?

Or of course you can continue to deny, distract and try to look cute, but it isn’t working very well. Nothing is now.

The issue is much greater isn’t it. Those jobs that AI are replacing aren’t just entry level they are the training level. How will you learn if these aren’t the jobs available?

It’s also about people feeling like they’ve done a good job and accomplished something.
bored people with too much time does not make a happy society

Exploded, not exploding.

On the subject of needs to supply, they expand to fill the available production. The capitalist economies need to provide enough consumption to consume the goods and services produced. Billionaires can't exist in a vacuum (they can exist in gated communities in impoverished countries, but they're still dependent on a functioning international economy).

Either everything collapses completely (not impossible) or the capitalist system keeps its consumers' heads above water.

There's also the push to make all communication virtual, rely on chatbots and removed customer facing roles. Worked for a housing association where they really are trying to replace people with software that automatically messages, chatbots, analytics, anything that means they can dump a role. You have no idea of the chaos this has caused and that digital literacy is a real issue for many, meaning if they don't engage virtually they really have little hope of contacting anyone!

Yes read it. As you say terrifying.

Also read a short story by J G Ballard called Having a Wonderful Time in which AI and automation have taken over most jobs and all the unemployables are being shipped off to massive holiday complexes all over the world, except they don’t realise it, they think they are going on a normal holiday.

The bots on customer service support are a nightmare and worse than rubbish. Most of the time I just go round and round in circles.
Lots of times if you don’t use the correct keywords it has no idea what you’re talking about.
Sometimes I imagine a droid Star Wars world and I’m sad.

Does the AI 'know' it hasn't helped or how frustrated you are by it all.