What happens to kids if AI takes entry level jobs? What you advising them?

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On back of the worming class boys thread. If AI takes over white collar jobs, what happens to all the m.c. communities. Education and aspiration became a feature post industrialisation once blue collar jobs disappeared and you needed education to get ahead in office jobs. What happens now? My kid is only 6 but already thinking about this.

If AI takes jobs, does education become pointless. How are parents guiding their kids? Looking at parts that lost industries, will parts of South east become like that once office jobs go?

If even Oxbridge and STEM is no longer enough to guarantee a comfortable life, then what for the young people?

My worry with AI is that so many of the companies are American i.e. they dont care that Brits dont have job, in the same way they dont care about what happens to jobs elsewhere. However, our government seems oblivious to this and isnt doing anything. Somehow I trust that Americans will ensure it works for them, but will they change things to accommodate the Brits?

I've been worrying about this for a while but the post was also motivated by the one about working class boys. Lots of people commented on that post saying it's about geography i.e. boys are disengaged because there are no decent jobs left by the de-industrialisation. Can this happen on a country-wide level?

Given nothing even close to my very normal and widely heard of job is on there, I’m comforted the robots might not be as advanced as they think they are ;)

I'm mainly advising my kids to do things they like and are good at. I think it's so difficult at this stage to know how AI will affect jobs- something which is going to change things so fundamentally will alter the working world in ways we can't foresee (think of all those parents who told their kids to learn to code, when junior coding jobs are some of the most vulnerable to being done by AI).

I have a fair amount of confidence in the ability of people with creativity and motivation to find a path, but to have that creativity and motivation you need to be doing something that fits your abilities and interests.

Agree with PP that the advice to go into trades isn't necessarily helpful if we are then swamped by millions of unneeded plumbers and plasterers. I also think that we're likely to need fewer small business plumbers etc in future as we develop technology that allows eg a boiler to diagnose its own faults. Robotics is slightly lagging behind other AI uses but it won't forever. I'd also add that not everyone will be a good plumber- there is a slight intellectual superiority in middle class parents recommending traditionally working class jobs to their kids, as if being well-suited to a trad white collar role means you'll be able to do a blue collar role with your eyes closed. This is very much not the case.

I suspect we will always value human input in any role where the human element is part of the value- teaching, caring, beauty, certain kinds of decision-making etc.

This! We live in a capitalist, consumerist society. If AI and robotics take all the jobs, there will be no consumers left with any money to buy the goods and services created.

I actually believe the problem isn’t AI coming for my job, or your job, or the jobs of the graduates of 2035. It’s actually the risk of complete societal collapse when every white collar worker loses their job within a period of 2ish years.

But that is so far out of the sphere of things I can influence, and requires a government to switch to taxation of AI and technology and payment of a universal basic income, I don’t spend much time pondering it or planning for it (other than saving for as early a retirement as possible, but even then if we end up in a lawless world of crime and looting, that won’t help me either).

This ^

My eldest is a marketing manager, but I don't know how long his position will last due to ai. My youngest is doing a humanities degree at a top 5 university, but knows full well he won't get a graduate position once he graduates. We're planning on paying for him to do plumbing and heating engineer courses as someone will have to install all the new heating technology.

Both my dcs have excellent brains and will quickly despair if left unemployed. What the system is doing to our youngsters is criminal. The best thing I hope for is that people buy land and start self sufficiency communities and then what will the capitalists do when we don't buy their shit anymore?

As someone working on training AI to do cooking and DIY tasks, I don't think even plumbing is safe! Technology is changing at such a fast pace, we cannot plan for a career 2+ years away. The best thing we can do is teach our children resilience and a desire to learn/adapt.

The AI that we currently have is very words focused.

robotics exists and is useful in very controlled environments eg factories but isn’t anywhere close to making it into messy real life environments any time soon.

It's all very well for people to say that we need to make sure our kids are resilient and keep learning but training in the UK costs so much. We might just about have enough money to send our kid to uni but we wont be able to give them money for follow up training especially if it's every five years or so. We dont have the cash.

At the end of the day everything in the economy relies on

people buying stuff

AI is not a customer. Its a processing tool. The economy requires end customers.

If people have no money because all the work is done by AI/robots, there is no one to buy anything, and the businesses who use their revenue to buy AI to deliver services would no money to buy AI...

Everything hangs off people buying stuff. All those complicated algorithm traders in banks.... everything they fuck about with is part of a big machine fueled by people buying stuff.

There will be jobs. Different jobs.

Adapt to do what though? Cope with lifelong unemployment and aimlessness? Some minds might be able or even happy to face this, but many won't. Everyone will end up on antidepressants and just fighting on Facebook whilst the government keeps whining about the benefits bill.

This this this.

There are plenty of researchers and frontline AI developers that have very different views from this. AI is a tool, we not ever forget that.

Jobs/roles etc may change and redefine but we call the shots unless we are completely stupid.

So jobs that are fairly AI proof:

healthcare (nurse, doctor, physio, radiologist etc)
working with children: nanny, childminder, nursery assistant, teacher, teaching assistant, tutor
working with elderly people: physio, care worker, care assistant in old peoples home, activities co-ordinator, etc, computer repair and support for elderly people,
service jobs: cleaner, cook, waiters, gardeners, handyman business
trades of all kinds
accountancy and tax advice (the big 4 don’t make most of their money from audit anymore)
politics

As one of those people using Claude everyday - it’s not all it’s cracked up to be 😁 Countless billions have been invested in these companies and the only way AI can be profitable is if it replaces a huge chunk of the workforce - and as many people say, if no one has a job who is buying the products and services created by AI?

I hope these billionaires don’t retreat to their private islands whilst the rest of the world burns in their relentless obsession with being ‘best’. I do wish governments would pull their finger out and do something to at least reassure the population that we’re not going to be left in some post apocalyptic hell hole in 5 years time. My dc are good at the things AI has come for but I’d rather they do the things they enjoy now rather than try and second guess everything and then they still end up fighting over the last turnip in Europe with everyone else.

Just this morning I listened to a call for more trainee plasterers, basic and fancy, from an industry group.
There are loads of jobs AI won't impact.

Honestly the reason why there has been a struggle for "growth" in the last 20 years is what has really driven "growth" in the last 200 years, was rapid population growth.

More people buying stuff. More customers, more consumers, a bigger market to sell to.

It's slowed down in the west, which means companies constantly cut costs to preserve profits, but what they struggle for is revenue growth, instead of everyone growing because a market is growing, you have to out compete to gain market share so there are as many losers as winners.

There has to be a fundamental rethink of how we measure economic success that isn't about "growth" in a more population stable world.

When middle class people have crap jobs they won’t be able to afford highlights or new bathrooms either …….

There was no AI when I finished university 20 years ago, now I work building AI systems and train AI to do stuff. I didn't study it at university nor did my parents warn me about it, I just picked it up out of interest, did online lessons and learnt over time. Regardless of what happens in the future, the university will give you the basics but the rest is on you to adapt and learn new things. AI isn't going to destroy all careers obviously, new things will emerge using AI as a tool.

What if you child is not interested nor capable of a trade! My DD is an academic. Not at all practical minded or able. Lets just right off a whole cohort of kids.

Agreed. So either UBI or (more likely) new roles will gradually emerge that we perceive need to be done by humans. Keynes predicted that automation would lead to a 15 hour working week- instead we all work longer than ever at increasingly pointless things. Capitalism finds a way.

How many eg PR officers were there before the industrial revolution? None. The function of this sort of slightly pointless job (what David Graeber calls a bullshit job) is to keep people busy and provide a way of keeping money flowing through the economy, rather than to provide value to society in itself (as a nurse or a lumberjack does). (No offence to any PR officers- the argument applies to many jobs including parts of my own.)

I don't really see why the effect of AI would be terribly different. Once you discard the idea that the purpose of a job is to offer value to society through its output and accept that its primary purpose is to maintain the consumer economy, what counts as a job can expand pretty radically.

Get a trade isn’t a golden ticket. If everyone is a plumber or hairdresser there will be no one to pay them

its a numbers game - not everyone can retrain as an AI cyber specialist - there just wont be enough jobs. If AIU is replacing say 50% of the tasks needed and 1 person can oversee AI doing the work of 5 people then yes, 1 new job has been created but 4 jobs have been lost.
As someone said - people wont be able to afford to have their hair cut, new bathrooms or fancy coffees, so the 'AI proof jobs' will also be indirectly affected. At the moment trades can charge a lot as demand outstrips supply - trades can be choosey about what jobs they take and charge big call out fees etc. If suddenly the amount of plumbers increases by 100% then prices will need to drop to compete for business.

do we think that American companies will care that British kids dont have jobs?

AI doesn't have arms and legs, and can't go up a ladder though..... Please explain.