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

[Tffjyvkbh]

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?

😁

Yes, I agree, but that comes back to the "wrong" kind of people going into the trades because the kids with good "academic" style abilities are pushed to go to Uni, leaving behind a vacuum, filled by the kids with poor skills other than strength.

We've always noticed that the Corgi/GasSafe plumbers and NICEIC qualified electricians are generally a lot better organised and have better communication/administrative skills than other "trades", which makes sense because they need to pass exams to get their certifications to trade.

I've just remembered a lad at school, over 40 years ago, who was always in the top classes, always near the top of the class etc. He did well at O levels and went into the sixth form to do Maths, Physics and Chemistry A levels - we all thought he'd be one of the few to go to Uni. Apparently the sixth form heads were gob smacked when he didn't apply and told them he was going to college to become a plumber instead to follow in his father's footsteps (a sole trader plumber) and they tried to make him change his mind. He's now the guy with the million pound house and a Porsche in the drive! We used him a couple of times for gas jobs in the house and he was probably the best "tradesman" we'd had - turned up bang when he said he would, no nonsense disappearing during the day to pretend to go for parts, cleaned up after himself every day (inc bringing his own vacuum) and even painted the exposed pipework after he'd done the work - a real pleasure to work with! Never needed to advertise and he didn't even have sign written van - got all his work from word of mouth recommendations and repeat business! Expensive, but well worth the difference in standard.

I’m not sure. All the podcasts I’ve listened to with people who understand AI and are in the industry are very gloomy about the future. I think this is very different to what has gone before.

Industrialisation: vast societal upheaval caused by migration from country to town. Women who previously had their own businesses in cottage industry: weaving, brewing etc had no choice but to migrate to the cities and live in horrific conditions working in a factory for a pittance. Widespread poverty, crime, disease, that the country took over a century to adjust to. Arguably the detrimental impacts were still felt into the 1950s when the Clean Air Act was finally passed.

Computers: huge numbers of women out of work, first as 'computers' (computers were originally actual people, mostly women, running calculations), and later secretarial and clerical positions - again, mostly women affected but also some men's jobs, notable the 'drafting office' in every engineering firm where one draughtsman with AutoCAD could do the work of 10 with pens and boards.

Throughout these revolutions, the professions were untouched. Now AI is coming for the jobs of accountants, and everyone involved in the legal profession other than the actual lawyers themselves.

Maybe another baby boom?

So if there are plenty of tradespeople around, and no-one has a problem getting a tradesperson is, what do you think that will do for the incomes of tradespeople?

it’s ok saying the trades will be fine but ultimately they need customers who can afford to have work done. If lots of people are unemployed then hairdressers and electricians will suffer too

Guess you could train to be an embalmer or funeral director

People can't afford housing or childcare.

Well, if there are no jobs for them to go to, they won't need childcare. The housing issue is a lot more critical.

Has anyone actually heard someone who has an AI tech background say anything positive about the future?

The economic historians have endless arguments about industrialisation.

in any country industrialisation means a huge shift of population from the country to the city or towns.

in the U.K. this was in full swing by the Victorian period.

what they argue about is whether people were better off working in the factories. There was a lot of rural poverty before the Industrial Revolution but it was a lot less obvious in society as people were in their own houses.

none the less, loads of people chose to move into towns and work in (dirty, dangerous) factories and live in shared houses with no indoor water… which does suggest that conditions in the countryside were even worse…..

Demis is quite positive.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/04/demis-hassabis-ai-future-10-times-bigger-than-industrial-revolution-and-10-times-faster?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Thank you. I’ll read that after I’ve made dinner. The last podcast I listened to was this one re.Ai, but don’t listen to it if you’re already feeling depressed.

Won’t these people be putting themselves out of jobs eventually?

That’s true for ChatGPT, but have you used AI designed for tax law (I presume not as it’s not publicly available). It is more accurate than any human I’ve ever dealt with. It’s unable to hallucinate and has immediate access to all case law, legislation and supporting commentary.

At the moment, you need to be able to ask it the right questions though - so it’s no use to Joe bloggs on the street, but if you know you might have, say, a degrouping charge issue then the AI can outperforms most humans I’d say.

It seems like they’re just fucking about with the technology with absolutely no plan. That’s how it comes across anyway. They are a load of Tech Bros who got very focused on a project and potentially will be ending civilisation as a result. I guess similar to the physicist that split the atom to see what happened

I feel sorry for teens/young adults reading this. I have 2 teens, the constant rhetoric that everything will be worse for them and they’ll never have jobs is what is damaging their generation, not AI or societal changes. If we aren’t careful this will be a self fulfilling prophecy. Humans are adaptable, young people especially. Of course AI will change things but change is part of the human condition and is inevitable. My kids are intelligent and adaptable, they’ll work something out. I’m certainly not telling them they won’t get a graduate job, or that they will need to retrain as soon as they graduate. Parents doing that are horrible people, some people on here seem to want their kids to fail.

Yikes! That video is scary

How will people afford to have children with no job? I doubt the government will fund it.

It will mean you might, in the future be able to actually find a plumber/electrician/ carpenter when you need one. And brickies etc mean house building might move on.
perhaps it is a good thing that the default position ceases to be ‘go to university’. It’s not necessary.

I know. It was like every question was an Armageddon cul-de-sac. Even if you are lucky enough to keep your job what the hell is it going to be like out there on the streets if most people are idle and aimless.

Mine's worked it out for himself that this is what'll happen. He does follow the news and current affairs and has his own brain. I'm helping him by realistically suggesting employment opportunities and training that he may not have traditionally thought about.

The 'horrible people' are those who encourage their children to have unrealistic expectations post education then sit round wringing their hands when it doesn't happen. In my experience, nepotism is rife out there and the ones who walk into cushy jobs as post grads are the ones who have relatives who can 'assist'.

it’s never heard of my (common) profession either! or variations thereof - bizarre 😁

Time for Universal Basic Income.

I have never been pro UBI until now. But if AI is taking jobs, then surely it should be to allow humans to work a bit less, to job share and to have more leisure time, not to sink into poverty. AI should be used for the benefit of humanity's wellbeing and not to make a few extremely rich men even richer.

I mean we all know which way this will go. And it's pointless to imagine that the powers that be will give a crap about the younger generation when they never have before. But UBI would be fairer than losing a generation to misery and unemployment.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/apr/23/apprenticeship-penalty-poorer-uk-families-benefits-young-people-quit-training

Been reading this thread with interest, as I'm a card carrying Neo Luddite and have grave reservations about AI for liads of reasons.

Saw this article which I thought might be of interest, given the exhortation to get into trades for young people.

Thing is, the way the global economy is destabilising, largely to do with things like conflicts making prices of essentials go up and down, plus the speed of technological change and things like inequality of opportunity as evidenced by the issues described in the article, we are in for a bumpy ride, and it's nothing like previous "industrial revolution" given that neither typewriters or washing machines could "think" when they were introduced, nor could the first android phones massage our egos via app.

It's the speed, environmental impact, decimation of creativity, the messing with people's heads, increased opportunity for cyber crime, lack of mitigation and safeguards against economic impact, plus reluctance to legislate in these areas that seem to point towards a perfect storm.