In the midst of the replacement debate employees of Artificial intelligenceexperts say there are some jobs that computers won’t take over, at least for a while.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, there have been threats that new machines, from power looms to microchips, would usurp human jobs. For the most part, humans have prevailed. Now, some experts say, with ubiquitous artificial intelligence on the horizon, the threat is felt: robots are really going to take some jobs!
A Goldman Sachs report from March 2023 estimated that artificial intelligence capable of generating content could do a quarter of all the work people do today. Throughout the European Union and the US, the report further notes, 300 million jobs could be lost of automation. And that could be terrible, says Martin Ford, author of Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything.
Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Experts warn, but with a caveat: there are still things that artificial intelligence is not capable of doing -jobs that require distinctly human qualities, such as emotional intelligence and “outside the box” thinking. So moving into roles that focus on these skills could help reduce the chances of replacement.
The three “armored” workplaces
“I think there is generally three categories that will be relatively protected for the foreseeable future,” says Ford. “HE first would be the jobs that are very creative: you don’t do standard tasks or just rearrange things, but actually think of new ideas and build something new.”
This does not necessarily mean that all works considered “creative” are safe. The essential algorithms they can direct a robot to analyze millions of images, allowing the AI to acquire aesthetics instantly. But there is some safety in other kinds of creativity, says Ford: “in sciencehe medicine and the legal… People whose job it is to devise a new legal strategy or business strategy. I think there will continue to be a place for people there.”
HE second a protected category, he continues, are jobs that require sophisticated interpersonal relationships, as the BBC writes. He mentions nurses, business consultants and investigative journalists. These are jobs, she says, “where you need a very deep knowledge of people. I think it will be a long time before AI has the ability to interact in ways that actually create relationships.”
HE Tuesday The safe zone, says Ford, “are the jobs that really require a lot of mobility and dexterity and the ability to solve problems in unpredictable environments.” Many jobs, such as electricians, plumbers, and other similar occupations, fall into this category.
“They are the kind of jobs you are faced with all the time. new situations“, he adds. “They are probably the most jobs that are difficult to automate. To automate such jobs, you would need a sci-fi robot. You would need C-3PO from Star Wars”!
Interpersonal relationships are not replaced
While people are likely to stay in jobs that fall into these categories, This does not mean that these professions are completely shielded of the rise of artificial intelligence. In fact, says Joanne Song McLaughlin, an associate professor of labor economics at the University at Buffalo in the US, most jobs, regardless of industry, have aspects that are likely to be automated by technology.
“In many cases, there is no immediate threat to jobs,” he says, “but the tasks will change.” Human jobs will focus more on interpersonal skillscontinues Song McLaughlin.
“It is easy to imagine that, for example, artificial intelligence will detect cancers much better than humans. In the future, I assume that doctors will use this new technology. But I don’t think the whole role of the doctor will be replaced, ”he adds.
While a robot could apparently do a better job of finding cancer, he says, most people they still want a doctor -one real face– Be the one to tell them. This is true of almost all jobs, he adds, so developing these purely human skills could help humans learn to do their jobs alongside AI.
“I think it’s smart to really think, ‘what things in my job should be replaced or improved by a computer or artificial intelligence?’ And what are my own additional skills?” ‘He refers to cashiers from banks, which used to have to be very careful when counting money. Now, this task has been automated, but there is still a position for the cashier.
“The process of counting money is done useless because of a machine“, he says. “But now, cashiers are more focused on building customer relationships and introducing new products. Soft skills have become more important.”
It’s important to note, says Ford, that advanced education or a well-paying job is not a defense against AI control. “We might consider the person in a white-collar job to be higher up the food chain than someone who drives a car for a living,” he says.
“But the future of the white-collar worker is more threatened than that of the Uber driver, because we don’t have self-driving cars yet, but AI can certainly write reports. In many cases, more educated workers will be more threatened than less educated workers later on. Think about the person who works cleaning hotel rooms: they are real. hard to automate this job».
In short, looking for roles in dynamic and changing environments that involve unpredictable tasks is a good way to avoid losing jobs to AI. At least for a while…