This article is more predicated on sensationalist viewpoints than on sensational technology.

You have to consider that those suits in front of slideshows are often engineers — or they represent engineers — who systematically eschew the value of qualitative methods, like writing and observation. Thus, their communication is not precise or reflective of the strengths of their technology. I write about this here: https://medium.com/@alaviers/robotics-automation-and-dance-d93589d60224

Moreover, the media loves to amplify the sensational side of the coin because more measured claims about progress just aren’t as interesting. Musk and Hawking — neither of whom are AI or robotics experts — get a lot of coverage for their claims. I would point you to Gill Pratt (Toyota Research Institute) and Rodney Brooks (Rethink Robotics) for a take from experts (both former MIT faculty) that is much less hype.

Take a closer look the trucking example. Those 4m jobs, even as they exist today, aren’t going away all at once — not even within the next decade. The first place we’ll see driverless trucks will be on interstate highways (similar to autonomous cars today, which are still supervised by human operators and which have only logged similar, not improved, fatality rates as human drivers). Even after autonomous systems are trusted on highways, bringing the truck into loading docks through crowded urban environments with pedestrians and more complex infrastructure will require human drivers. Further, these first driverless trucks will likely employ teleoperation centers where human supervisors monitor fleets of trucks. That would create two classes of jobs that rely on existing skills of truck drivers — both of which improve the quality of life. Drivers monitoring multiple trucks and making more deliveries to end customers can be paid more for greater productivity; both groups can also work close to home, allowing them to spend more time with their families.

These changes will roll out over years. We need to encourage and empower drivers with accessible training programs and emphasize the roles that human drivers will need to play for many years alongside this new technology. Aside from hard-to-defend claims, sensational articles like this one tend to do the opposite, creating anxiety and hopelessness in capable, intelligent humans.