To be utterly despondent about AI

[AnotherGreyMorning]

and our future?

Jobs becoming obsolete. People unable to earn a living.

Villains harnessing for their own ends.

It will all move far too fast and at sophisticated levels for even the most dedicated to manage.

Governments will be stunned by it. People will really suffer.

I just feel quiet dread because whilst life will be great for the wealthy and those who are protected, for the vast majority, I think it will be hellish.

And one big issue with falling birth rates is fewer people paying taxes to support increasing numbers of pensioners. AI won’t help that.

A lot of posters seem convinced that people will be much happier to stay at home for everything - never leave to get their shopping, never go for a day out to look at something (to use the example of a boat show). Men who are used to travelling for work, going out every day, going to the pub after work…they’ll be happy to spend every day at home with their noisy offspring?

Some people have short memories - we tried that during Covid, and although there might have been some benefits, we recognised that humans need to spend time together, and leave their houses occasionally. We don’t want to live in isolation, even if AI makes it possible.

I’m lucky enough to be in a profession that (hopefully) won’t be affected by AI. We are also looking at our banking habits if there might be cyber attacks (watch the link I posted back in the thread). Also considering the impact it will have on our children’s futures and thinking about how to guide them into any career options that won’t be affected.

Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do, just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. I genuinely think it’s out of our control.

@Jewel1968
Full disclosure…I used ChatGPT to create the list but asked it to exclude generative AI and just focus on machine learning, computer vision, robotics etc.

🏥 Healthcare

1. Early disease detection
2. AI models detect cancer, retinal disease, and heart conditions earlier and more accurately than many traditional methods (e.g. radiology, dermatology).
3. Drug discovery & development
4. AI accelerates drug research, simulating molecular interactions and shortening the R&D timeline.
5. Operational efficiency
6. Hospital staffing, patient flow, and resource allocation are being optimized through AI-driven systems.
7. Personalized medicine
8. AI tailors treatments to individual patients based on genetics, environment, and lifestyle.

🌍 Climate & Environment

1. Climate modeling & prediction
2. AI enhances simulations to better predict extreme weather, climate change impacts, and carbon cycles.
3. Wildlife monitoring
4. AI analyzes audio, camera traps, and satellite data to track endangered species and detect poaching.
5. Energy efficiency
6. Smart grids and buildings use AI to optimize energy usage and reduce waste.

🚗 Transportation & Mobility

1. Autonomous vehicles (AVs)
2. While not yet fully mainstream, AVs could reduce traffic fatalities, increase accessibility, and reduce emissions.
3. Traffic flow optimization
4. AI predicts congestion and dynamically manages traffic signals to improve flow in cities.
5. Predictive maintenance
6. AI detects mechanical issues in vehicles, trains, and planes before they fail, increasing safety.

🏙️ Public Sector & Governance

1. Fraud detection
2. AI identifies fraudulent tax claims, social benefit misuse, and procurement anomalies.
3. Disaster response
4. AI models help first responders predict and manage disaster zones (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes).
5. Public health surveillance
6. AI models track disease outbreaks, antimicrobial resistance, and vaccine coverage.

📚 Education

1. Adaptive learning platforms
2. AI personalizes learning based on student pace, strengths, and weaknesses (e.g. Khan Academy, Duolingo).
3. Language translation & accessibility
4. AI-powered translation tools support multilingual education and accessibility for disabled learners.
5. Teacher support
6. AI handles admin work and helps identify students who need intervention.

🛡️ Safety & Security

1. Cybersecurity
2. AI detects threats and anomalies in real-time, helping defend systems from hacking and ransomware.
3. Industrial safety
4. Computer vision detects unsafe behavior or environmental hazards on factory floors and construction sites.
5. Content moderation
6. AI helps flag and remove harmful content on social platforms (though not perfectly).

📈 Economic & Operational Efficiency

1. Supply chain optimization
2. AI forecasts demand, routes logistics, and manages inventory in real time.
3. Financial services
4. AI improves credit scoring, detects fraud, and supports customer service automation.
5. Manufacturing quality control
6. AI vision systems inspect goods faster and more accurately than human inspectors.

🌐 Global Equity & Access

1. Healthcare in underserved regions
2. AI chatbots, diagnostic tools, and mobile health apps extend care in low-resource areas.
3. Remote sensing for agriculture
4. AI interprets satellite data to guide smallholder farmers on when to plant, irrigate, or harvest.
5. Inclusive design
6. Tools like real-time sign language translation or AI-powered screen readers make digital spaces more accessible.

What profession is that?

@FlyingUnicornWings

Perhaps a whole new economic system will have to be developed and emerge.

Re AIs not 'knowing' stuff: fellow data bores might have already realised the significance of Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, released last year. It's a marvellously straightforward method for AI tools to access information. The owners/managers of data stores only need to provide an index of the information they have, which LLMs can query whenever they need to. Using MCP, any app can then query an LLM to get that information.

This means a retail chatbot can easily answer your questions about stock, a legal helper can examine relevant laws and case histories, and so on. It has the potential to get rid of the context problem almost completely, and it's rolling out very fast. Only one human - the app developer - has to anticipate the kind of information users will need for good contextual answers. If it turns out they need more, developers can easily add more MCP calls.

"Instead of just answering questions, agents can now perform useful, multi-step tasks — like retrieving data, summarizing documents, or saving content to a file": Medium. If this doesn't sound very seismic, it's probably because the AI you're using is already doing it. But when an app instantly pulls customer information, profiles each customer, cross-matches the profiles with personality characteristics, analyses purchasing patterns, forecasts their budgets, then identifies the product they're going to want next and when, it's doing better than most human salespeople.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/grok-ai-praised-hitler-antisemitism-x-ntwnfb

And another slice of this fresh hell.

You may be right but it seems madness to keep pushing it up at this juncture.

Just let it fall drastically even, if not those growing up reaching twenty will ask why we didn’t

Policy makers and researchers seem not to talk to each other

I think there are some upsides to AI and a less populated planet. We just need to think ahead better than now.

Out of interest which careers do you think are most fool proof? If you wish to share

I work in dementia care. ☺️

I'm sceptical because we were told in the 80s we needed to learn to use our leisure time because there'd be no jobs. And AI is all well and good but even if a shop says x is in stock of its not where it should be it's a human brain that usually finds it.

I wouldn’t say fool proof as we just can’t anticipate what’s going to happen, but anything that you use your hands for I think is relatively safe: trades, caring (my job role), chefs. Not a lot really when you write it down. 🫣

New Scientist tested out a couple of AI agents (apps using MCP) that claim to be able to do your stuff for you. There's some good news (for now): “There’s a lot of overhype right now. It’s certainly not going to be within the next few years that all jobs are gone or that autonomous agents are doing everything.”

Archive link: https://archive.ph/DClqp#selection-1473.80-1473.257

I don't think most people are happy about it, just aware that it will happen whether we like it or not.

Which profession? I can't think of one that won't be affected.

Oh sorry I see you already answered. Unless very literally the physical side of caring it will be affected for sure.

There’s a lot of conflating of can do with should do on here.

Robot care workers would no doubt be great to fill the labour gaps and improve overall care. But are people really just going to want to be cared for by a soulless robot?

Better than a bored or even abusive human.

@Tangfastic71 do you trust that information? Some of it looks familiar and am sure I have read articles about some of it.

I can understand the concerns people have but I do wonder if AI could overall be a positive? Could it solve inequality for example? Could it address world hunger or help us understand how to avoid wars?

Could it make us better humans?

Is it inevitable that it will make us all redundant and render the human race unnecessary? I hope not!

I can think of some good things:

It wouldn’t forget about me while distracted by chatting with colleagues.

It wouldn’t have any reason to tie me to a bed or leave me soaking in my own urine.

It wouldn’t get sick.

It wouldn’t have an attitude or take a dislike to me or deal with me impatiently because of understaffing.

I could program it to converse with me any way I wanted about anything.

It would patiently listen to me all day long and engage without getting bored or tired.

I’m not sure how it would physically hoist and turn a fragile body, spread the cheeks and do a good cleaning job though.

I’m working in a profession where people pay me for my knowledge and expertise, and it is clear that clients are using co pilot and chat gpt before coming to us. Fortunately (for us), these LLMs are not yet accurate enough to replace me, but they are certainly improving my productivity, e.g. by summarising long technical documents, search results better than Google etc. It’s coming though. I wouldn’t recommend a new graduate follow the same career path as me, my job won’t exist in five years.

Western economies are based on the movement of stuff and provision of services. Services are the most immediate candidate for automation, and mass manufacturing will also be greatly impacted. I think there will be a huge shift in our economy and also society, in the patterns of consumption and in how to earn a living. For now I think if you’re in a trade you’re going to be ok, as AI can’t replace your fuse box or dig over your garden. Also in areas where people want human interaction, like hairdressing, beauty treatments as well as nursing and personal care. Maybe we’ll rediscover a desire for bespoke, handcrafted items that last and be prepared to pay a premium for them instead of cheap, disposable rubbish. We’re a resourceful and entrepreneurial population and I think that side of things will work out ok eventually.

The aspect that really concerns me though is, for want of a better term, fake news. As a society we’ve become far too susceptible to manipulation by social media and people just aren’t savvy enough to question what they see and hear and read, and AI will not make things better. Look at the riots last year and one of the root causes being inaccurate and inflammatory messages being spread on WhatsApp and other services. That’s the aspect that has me wanting to buy a plot of land in a remote part of Scotland and live off grid in retirement. The restructuring of the economy will only work if we don’t end up in a rich v poor civil war exacerbated by climate change and/or an authoritarian government with considerably less democracy than we currently enjoy.

@Jewel1968
i trust the list to a reasonable degree because I’ve seen a lot of it in action (I work in a related field). I honestly don’t think it will render a large proportion of humans redundant…but I do worry that our education is woefully out of date and will struggle to keep our current youth competitive in a market that will value very different skills to the ones we are delivering.
There seems to be a growing cynicism amoung parents too, that education in and of itself is pointless. The behaviour and attitude to learning in schools seems to be declining.
Overall I’m optimistic, on balance I think the pros outweigh the cons but I definitely think that whilst AI might not replace you…a person familiar with data and AI might.

@nonumbersinthisname do you contract clients to prevent them from inputting your expertise into AI?

Hi, no because our output is the finished thing that is then used and submitted to various authorities. The clients own the intellectual property and the documentation we prepare for them contains their proprietary information that is always kept confidential and out of competitors reach. So there (currently) would be no benefit for them to upload to AI.

It’s actually in our contracts that if we use AI in the course of our work for them, that there will be a 100% QC check of the data by appropriately experienced human beings. It’s still quicker than doing it manually, so ultimately cheaper for them as we charge by the hour.