Will AI take our jobs ?
With the creation of automated restaurants, and factories, especially when AI is on the rise, a common question arises, will robots take our jobs‽ The simple answer is: Yes. It is certain that the future will be filled with robots, and AI. The future is truly now, with more companies incorporating robots in their daily lives. Companies such as Creator, a San Francisco based robotic burger place, is using robots to make custom burgers. Not only are the restaurants using robots, big hotels such as Sheraton are using robots to perform room and customer service jobs. Sheraton Los Angeles San Gabriel has “employed” robots to mainly do three duties: help guests find their way around, deliver food, and carry luggage. These are just two examples of companies using robots in their workplaces, and everyday new companies are on the rise. Manual jobs are slowly disappearing, and can new jobs be available in time?
The Transition from Humans to Robots
Ok, going from humans working to robots doing their jobs ain’t going to happen overnight. The transition will have 4 main steps.
These are the 4 places we will be at: Humans, then human controlled robots, a mix of robots and humans(bionics, singularity), and finally full automation. I’d like to think we are somewhere between the first two phases.
A perfect example of humans and robots working would be the Tesla factory. Watch this interview where, Elon Musk explains why in the factory there are robots but also humans.
Elon has a very good point, robots are not very adaptive to new situations that they haven’t been trained for. If something were to happen that the robot wasn’t programmed, the robot would get confused. After all, AI and robots are just really clever math that predicts their moves based on what they were taught. When robots become much more adaptable to different situations, then it will make a greater in the job market.
The types of jobs that will become automated
For the most part, labour and tedious jobs will start disappearing from the job market. That is not to say, that those are the only jobs that will become autonomous. Many “white collar” jobs are also at risk of becoming automated. We are already seeing robots do surgeries, and MRI scans. I was watching a TED Talk by Kai-Fu Lee, and I think he has accurately predicted the timeline of which types of jobs will disappear in near future.
In his talk, Kai-Fu explained how “Repetitve” jobs will be taken over by AI in the next 5 years, Routine jobs in the next 10 years, and “Optimizing” jobs will be taken over in 15 years. Kai -Fu further predicted that complex and creative jobs will be safe, since AI can only optimize, not create.
Ok, so robots will take our jobs… but is that the end?
No doubt, robots will take many of our jobs, however that does not mean that the human race is doomed! Due to automation, production will increase, because robots are much more efficient at repetitive (labour) jobs, than humans.
If we were to take a look back in history, about 90% of the labour force in 1790s was working in the agricultural industry. In 2018, less than 2% of the U.S. population is in the agriculture industry. As automation took over the industry, less people entered into the industry. Automation in agriculture, reduced the labour done by the farmers, and therefore less workers were needed. As jobs in the agricultural industry decreased, jobs in the other industries also increased. Labour jobs started to disappear, but new jobs were being created in other industries, such as the tech industry.
A similar situation is upon us now, a lot of the manual labour is being automated, and new jobs are being created. Let’s take a look at Creator, the Automated— Burger place.
The machine basically does everything that a human does, so now there is no need for an employee, right? No! People still need to be hired to maintain the machine. Humans still need to cut up the ingredients and fill them into the machine. Human chefs still need to create burger recipes, which the robots are not able to do yet, since there is a creativity aspect to it. Humans are needed to program the machine or even trouble shoot it. As can be seen by eliminating one job, alternative jobs are being created.
Even a baby can now work!
As robots start taking over all these jobs, there will be no need for higher education for jobs like radiologists, and hematologists. To operate the robots, you won’t even need a college degree. A mere training on how to operate the robot, would be adequate to get the job done. No real thinking is being done, it is just mindless maintenance of the robots, so higher education is pointless. It is like having a PhD, and wanting to work as a janitor at a school. There is really no point of getting that PhD, if you are just mopping up kids’ vomit.
A radiologist, according to Illinois Career Information System, needs:
- a bachelor’s degree
- to graduate from Medical school
- complete an internship;
- pass a state licensing exam;
- complete a residency program in radiology;
- pass additional exams to become board certified; and
- complete an optional specialization fellowship.
When operating a robot that will do most of the thinking for you, most of the qualifications mentioned above will not be needed. Some training sessions, and a few practice runs would be enough to get the machines running. So when a lot of jobs become automated, job qualifications will be not as high as it is right now.
But what if new jobs aren’t created?
I have been thinking, what if we are wrong, what if AI just dominates the job market, then what? How will we survive? I’d say we should go for a UBI (universal basic income). A system in which every citizen of the country (who is eligible to work) would get a certain amount of money, without working. Sounds like communism or socialism, right? Yeah I guess, but if robots will be doing most of the jobs, there must be some way the economy continues. But there is a long time before we implement full UBI.
Final Thoughts
AI will take over the job industry, and it will have an huge impact. We will lose some jobs, we get some more. Job qualifications will be cut in half, and Universal Basic Income might get implemented. However, while AI might be taking over our jobs, we also have to keep in mind how much good AI is doing in the world as well. If we take a look at companies such as AtomWise, and BenevolentAI, both of which are using AI to speed up the drug discovery process. OpenAI is a non profit organization, that is making sure that AI stays open source, and that AI research is not only happening behind locked doors, unknown to the public. Keep in mind, AI is still in its starting phases, and we haven’t even seen anything close to AGI (artificial general intelligence), so it may be a while before robots take your job. So don’t lose sleep on it.
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