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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be utterly despondent about AI

592 replies

AnotherGreyMorning · 06/07/2025 13:41

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
36
surreygirly · 24/10/2025 12:25

Jobs already being affected by AI top of head
Doctors
Surgeons
Marketing
Accountants
Journalists
Musicians
Drivers - see airport luggage transfers?
Waiters/waitresses
Check out at shops
Telesales
Coming soon - delivery drivers- replaced by drones
Armed forces - mechanised solders - battleships that used to have 2000 crew now have less than 50
Factory production lines
Coding/programming
Engineering
Farm labourer
Any clerical / admin role
Architect
Stockbroker
Dietician

Anyone who thinks they are immune is bonkers

TheLudditesWereRight · 24/10/2025 12:28

PinkPanther57 · 24/10/2025 11:56

Good things came out of the agricultural & industrial revolution & we live lives of unimaginable ease & luxury compared to previous times. Maybe we’re being too pessimistic?

Good luck with that when AI is in the hands of the likes of Elon Musk

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 12:29

StripyShirt · 24/10/2025 12:24

There would be no need for money.

How do you work that out?

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:30

AI has it's uses mainly in simple repetitive tasks that no one really wants to do all day everyday. Screening tissue samples down a microscope for cancer cells. or assembly robots. It should free up people for much more interesting jobs. As others have said the industrial revolution when machines took many jobs, but they were pretty inhumane jobs that went.

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 12:31

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:30

AI has it's uses mainly in simple repetitive tasks that no one really wants to do all day everyday. Screening tissue samples down a microscope for cancer cells. or assembly robots. It should free up people for much more interesting jobs. As others have said the industrial revolution when machines took many jobs, but they were pretty inhumane jobs that went.

It would be nice to think that AI will take over the drudge work and leave all the fun creative stuff to humans. The problem is AI is taking those jobs too.

Alpacajigsaw · 24/10/2025 12:33

Why are there so many threads on this? Just get on with your life! Yes it presents challenges but governments need people to earn money to pay tax.

Fastertimer · 24/10/2025 12:35

PinkPanther57 · 24/10/2025 11:44

It could be a golden age of leisure, cultural & sporting pursuits.

That’s if AI doesn’t decide to who to get of. Have you seen Musks robots? He posts them often enough. I am not talking about chatgbt but actual robots, he was showing off and they were doing some type of kickboxing and really tall things too. Could take a human down in a second 🙈

Sunflower2461 · 24/10/2025 12:36

With the aging population we will need less jobs. However the issue becomes how the benefits of increased productivty are redistributed. I don't have much faith in the ability of governments to effectively redistribute the wealth that is created and I think in the absence of this life is going to be much harder for the majority.

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 12:37

surreygirly · 24/10/2025 12:25

Jobs already being affected by AI top of head
Doctors
Surgeons
Marketing
Accountants
Journalists
Musicians
Drivers - see airport luggage transfers?
Waiters/waitresses
Check out at shops
Telesales
Coming soon - delivery drivers- replaced by drones
Armed forces - mechanised solders - battleships that used to have 2000 crew now have less than 50
Factory production lines
Coding/programming
Engineering
Farm labourer
Any clerical / admin role
Architect
Stockbroker
Dietician

Anyone who thinks they are immune is bonkers

5 years ago, when my job went mostly online due to Covid, I thought that was bad enough. Now I wonder if I'll have a job at all going forward. While it's not top of the list for AI replacement, I know for a fact that my employers are actively looking at 'digital solutions' so who knows? What I do know is that no employer would hesitate a single moment to replace us all with bots given half the chance.

Chiseltip · 24/10/2025 12:42

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 12:29

How do you work that out?

UBI.

However, as utopian as that might first seem, it's an awful solution.

Just look at the shit current benefit claimants have to go through to keep their entitlement. The government are now even going through their bank accounts. UBI would be an incredibly vulnerable position to be in. Trust me, the government would want payback, and that payback would be your data. Also, the only industries paying tax, and therefore owning the government, would be a handful of massive I.T companies. How impartial do you think a government would be then?

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:43

surreygirly · 24/10/2025 12:25

Jobs already being affected by AI top of head
Doctors
Surgeons
Marketing
Accountants
Journalists
Musicians
Drivers - see airport luggage transfers?
Waiters/waitresses
Check out at shops
Telesales
Coming soon - delivery drivers- replaced by drones
Armed forces - mechanised solders - battleships that used to have 2000 crew now have less than 50
Factory production lines
Coding/programming
Engineering
Farm labourer
Any clerical / admin role
Architect
Stockbroker
Dietician

Anyone who thinks they are immune is bonkers

Most of these professions have been using computers for many years already, calling it AI changes nothing. Many others like farmers using programable harvesters, etc also around for years and reduces farming costs and food prices. We cannot afford 2000 people on a battleship and battleships will be useless in the next war (if there is one) anyway. AI can do nothing original, I think people forget AI is just a computer program and we have had those for many years now. It only knows what it has access to and gives the most common answer to things, not necessarily the right ones. It is great at trawling the internet for words of wisdom, which may well not be! It can do sums fast, true of all computers which have been used in all sorts of finance, accountancy, banks, businesses, stock markets, shops and pretty much everywhere else for years. A program is running this forum right now.

YorkshireGoldDrinker · 24/10/2025 12:43

I'm sure there are plenty of 'adapt or die' types, but I do agree it's frightening. Washing machines came along to free up time as women used to spend hours manually washing clothes. But washing machines aren't comparable to AI, I don't think, because they're not mimicking a conscious human being with self-awareness. They're not replacing anyone. They wash clothes, some of the more fancy ones dry them, too. But they can't grow limbs and retrieve dirty laundry, plumb themselves back in and start washing. Haha!

God I'm going to have nightmares now.

AI should be harnessed for efficiency, to shave off time here and there, but we know it'll be used by the wrong sorts of humans to replace other humans.

Chiseltip · 24/10/2025 12:44

Alpacajigsaw · 24/10/2025 12:33

Why are there so many threads on this? Just get on with your life! Yes it presents challenges but governments need people to earn money to pay tax.

They don't.

Money is just a construct. They could easily invent a new system.

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 12:47

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:43

Most of these professions have been using computers for many years already, calling it AI changes nothing. Many others like farmers using programable harvesters, etc also around for years and reduces farming costs and food prices. We cannot afford 2000 people on a battleship and battleships will be useless in the next war (if there is one) anyway. AI can do nothing original, I think people forget AI is just a computer program and we have had those for many years now. It only knows what it has access to and gives the most common answer to things, not necessarily the right ones. It is great at trawling the internet for words of wisdom, which may well not be! It can do sums fast, true of all computers which have been used in all sorts of finance, accountancy, banks, businesses, stock markets, shops and pretty much everywhere else for years. A program is running this forum right now.

But jobs are already being lost to AI. In large numbers. Above I quoted an IT worker who said his company is no longer hiring entry level graduates. And the statistics bear this out.

And we're just at the start of it. AI is getting better almost by the day. Saying it's just another 'computer programme' is hopelessly naive. It's going to change everything, and huge numbers of jobs are going to be lost. Almost no jobs are safe.

Chiseltip · 24/10/2025 12:47

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:43

Most of these professions have been using computers for many years already, calling it AI changes nothing. Many others like farmers using programable harvesters, etc also around for years and reduces farming costs and food prices. We cannot afford 2000 people on a battleship and battleships will be useless in the next war (if there is one) anyway. AI can do nothing original, I think people forget AI is just a computer program and we have had those for many years now. It only knows what it has access to and gives the most common answer to things, not necessarily the right ones. It is great at trawling the internet for words of wisdom, which may well not be! It can do sums fast, true of all computers which have been used in all sorts of finance, accountancy, banks, businesses, stock markets, shops and pretty much everywhere else for years. A program is running this forum right now.

Your fundamental understanding of A.I is wrong.

You are confusing an LLM like Chat GPT with A.I.

A.I is already advancing to the point where it is capable of writing it's own code. It doesn't "only know what it has access to". It is literally creating on it's own.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 24/10/2025 12:49

AnotherGreyMorning · 06/07/2025 13:49

Washing machines did not take over so very many jobs. And at such a speed. And this is just the beginning.

People said this about computers in the 70’s. That we’d all be living a life of leisure by now.

But we’re not.

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 12:50

YorkshireGoldDrinker · 24/10/2025 12:43

I'm sure there are plenty of 'adapt or die' types, but I do agree it's frightening. Washing machines came along to free up time as women used to spend hours manually washing clothes. But washing machines aren't comparable to AI, I don't think, because they're not mimicking a conscious human being with self-awareness. They're not replacing anyone. They wash clothes, some of the more fancy ones dry them, too. But they can't grow limbs and retrieve dirty laundry, plumb themselves back in and start washing. Haha!

God I'm going to have nightmares now.

AI should be harnessed for efficiency, to shave off time here and there, but we know it'll be used by the wrong sorts of humans to replace other humans.

There is AI in washing machines, new ones weigh the washing, check how dirty it is, calculate the washing times and even talk to your phone.

AI has no self awareness (that's sci-fi) it's a program.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 24/10/2025 13:00

MaturingCheeseball · 24/10/2025 10:57

@MistressoftheDarkSide - I’m thinking along the same lines…

The devil finds work for idle hands and if we have vast swathes of people - young men in particular - with no prospects then I can imagine an explosion in crime/gang warfare etc.

Posters saying “Study STEM!” - all well and good, but these jobs will also decline. Frankly ultimately all that will be left is goods delivery and healthcare.

And teaching.

Londongent · 24/10/2025 13:05

There won't be a job that AI cannot do in our lifetimes. And, it is coming sooner than people think.
UBI is interesting, but humans have a drive in them to want more, so there has to be another solution.

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 13:08

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 24/10/2025 13:00

And teaching.

Not sure you could guarantee even teaching is safe!

It won't be first in the firing line, and it's hard to imagine how AI could ever handle a class of screaming 5 year olds, but AI 'tutors' are already a thing. I've heard of people doing language practice with bots, whereas before they'd have hired a teacher. So I could see a lot of more 'mundane' adult teaching jobs being lost to AI.

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 13:09

Londongent · 24/10/2025 13:05

There won't be a job that AI cannot do in our lifetimes. And, it is coming sooner than people think.
UBI is interesting, but humans have a drive in them to want more, so there has to be another solution.

Also, everyone needs a purpose in life and a structure to their day. It doesn't have to be a job, but there has to be something. If most jobs are lost to AI, and if artistic and cultural pursuits can be done so much easier with a computer programme, then what's left?

Londongent · 24/10/2025 13:11

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 13:09

Also, everyone needs a purpose in life and a structure to their day. It doesn't have to be a job, but there has to be something. If most jobs are lost to AI, and if artistic and cultural pursuits can be done so much easier with a computer programme, then what's left?

I don't know. Everyone is concerned with AI taking jobs, but no one is talking about what people will actually do to have purpose. It needs to be addressed.

LandRites · 24/10/2025 13:18

Yes there were prophecies of doom in the industrial revolution and in the shorter term we have adapted, traditional jobs based on a rural economy were lost and new industrial jobs were created. They were lost in the West in more recent years of course, now we are reliant on administrative and financial work, based on technologies which will also become variously redundant.

In the longer term, though, the industrial revolution has permanently damaged the planet's sustainability, partly through physical destruction, partly through enabling human population explosions and their hugely increased consumption.

The Millenium Bug is often trotted out as an example of doom that never came. It was not destructive because tech experts anticipated it and worked to solve the problem. It was a simple issue compared to the tangled complexities of digital and global internet-based technologies we are increasingly reliant on but rarely understand in any detail. Digital tech continues to impact the natural environment.

Like industrial technologies, we're adapting to digital technologies, scrambling to preserve our 'lifestyles', but we're just responding, most workers have as little say as ever in the direction anything is going. As pp have pointed out, social media and social tech have had some profound effects on society, many negative.

AI is replacing jobs, as pp have detailed, and the consequences of that are still unpredictable. The same issue arises as it did in the industrial revolution - the rapid de-skilling and therefore disempowering of the workforce. In my own line of work (teaching & researching, HEI) the effects of complex digital technologies is both increasing access to information and, with the popular use of AI, interfering with the ability of individuals to gather, assess and verify it. Creative technology skills students were basing careers on ten years ago have gone. The pace of change is remarkable.

There is nothing simply 'progressive' about AI. Our perspectives on its benefits are inevitably short term.

Chiseltip · 24/10/2025 13:19

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 13:09

Also, everyone needs a purpose in life and a structure to their day. It doesn't have to be a job, but there has to be something. If most jobs are lost to AI, and if artistic and cultural pursuits can be done so much easier with a computer programme, then what's left?

Nothing. But whole regiems have flourished on just that basis alone.

This is why Digital I.D is so dangerous. It sets the foundations for a society whose every moment and movement is monitored and recorded. It would be extremly easy to transition from a Digital I.D based Capitalist economy, to a UBI based "data slave" one. The key is Digital I.D.

BadgernTheGarden · 24/10/2025 13:22

IcedPurple · 24/10/2025 13:08

Not sure you could guarantee even teaching is safe!

It won't be first in the firing line, and it's hard to imagine how AI could ever handle a class of screaming 5 year olds, but AI 'tutors' are already a thing. I've heard of people doing language practice with bots, whereas before they'd have hired a teacher. So I could see a lot of more 'mundane' adult teaching jobs being lost to AI.

Even in my youth you could buy language courses which were a combination of books for vocabulary and grammar and audio tapes for you to listen to and practise your accent. There is a lot of remote learning out there now, look at the OU courses for instance.