Will “AI-free” become a Luxury soon?
Just a food for thought
Imagine the robot waiter at your favorite Vietnamese restaurant saying, ‘Today’s special is Phở Bò Hà Nội, cooked exclusively by our human chef. No machines were involved in the process. And it’s 100% AI-free!’ And you happily place your order, agreeing to pay ten times the price of a regular machine-prepared Phở!
But wait! We’re not there yet. It’s still 2024!
When I was a young boy in the late 90s, I remember reading Jules Verne’s science fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” As an 11-year-old, I couldn’t understand why the author depicted the source of white light in Captain Nemo’s advanced submarine as something mysterious and groundbreaking. I thought, “What’s wrong with this Frenchman? We have white fluorescent lamps in every room of our house. What’s the big deal?” At that age, I didn’t realize that it was only nine years after the first edition came out that Thomas Edison invented the first incandescent lamp in 1879. It took more than four decades after the invention of the light bulb for modern-day fluorescent lamps to start existing.
Just like how, five decades after Mr. Verne mentioned the “white light” in his work, it became a reality, we are now aware of many inventions in the areas of space, defense, telecommunication, transportation, security, comfort and so on, which were once just the imaginations of science fiction writers.
In the early 2000s, internet connection at home became possible in my hometown, in a remote part of northeastern India. I’m not sure of the speed of the internet connection back then with the dial-up connection we had, but I remember the excitement I used to feel when a web page finally loaded in the browser window of my PC. The PC had a Pentium III processor, 10 gigabytes of hard drive space, and 64 megabytes of RAM. The teenage me, or many adults alike back then, would never have believed if a time traveler had told that in less than two decades, devices of the size of my palm that weigh 170 grams would have processors that are 22 times faster, 100 times higher storage capacity, and the ability to make HD video calls, stream sports and movies, order a taxi and track it while it arrives, help you navigate, book a flight, order food, unlock and start a car, and what not. In my opinion, where AI is today is very similar to where the internet was in the late 90s — a groundbreaking tech with a future of endless possibilities.
When we talk of AI, it doesn’t take the imagination of a sci-fi writer or a person from the future to tell you that it will take over most services around us soon. We are already witnessing many replacements in customer service, data entry, and telemarketing. Soon, we’ll see more and more other professions fully or partially replaced by AI. Whether it’s teaching your kids, developing software, creating music, or driving a car, every job has the potential to be significantly affected by AI. In the coming decades, as AI evolves, things like surgeries, driving a car, or flying an airplane shall require human intervention only in emergencies. Conversely, for certain services or products, having a human touch will become a mere luxury like a handmade Louis Vuitton or a Bentley today.
Here are three examples of jobs that I think would become luxuries to be served by an actual human after being completely replaced by AI:
Teaching: Shortly, AI is likely to be able to handle most teaching tasks, potentially causing a decrease in the number of human teachers. When I say tasks, I mean delivering lectures, engaging in interactions, clarifying questions, moderating exercises, and conducting exams. This change could significantly impact wealthy countries with decreasing populations, potentially turning human teachers into a luxury. Human teachers may be deemed necessary only for specific research and decision-making roles in higher education institutions and universities. Another area where human teachers may still be relevant is where physical demonstrations are required, although even this may ultimately be replaced by AI-driven mechanical robots.
Film making/Music composition/Photography/Fiction writing: It’s not so far off in the future when you can have a movie generated by AI, tailored to your favorite genre and the film-making style of your favorite human filmmaker, with the specific plot you want and featuring your favorite actors. We can already see how realistic AI-generated photos look today, and they will only become more convincing with time. Soon, music composers will likely rely more on AI than real artists. In 20–30 years, an original human-written story, a human-performed piece of music, and a human-created movie may become a rare luxury.
Cooking: With today’s technology, it is already possible to create an automated kitchen. However, it is currently not cost-effective, and the quality of the cooked food would be far from that of human-cooked food. As technology becomes cheaper and more efficient over time, and with AI as the brain, machine-prepared food will be as good as the ones made by a professional chef. AI-driven automated kitchens will be able to learn not only from online recipes but also by observing a real human cook.
These are just a few examples. The possibilities with AI are endless. While it will bring the advantage of error-free processes to our lives, it will also take away the beauty of human errors and flaws that make our lives colorful. Do you think the day is not far away when everyday things like cooking and driving will become mere hobbies for some and luxuries for others? And would you like your pizza AI-free?
