AI isn't automation. It's thinking. It automates the brain out of human jobs.
You can still get a job that requires a body. My job doesn't require a body, so I'm screwed. If you're say, a surgeon or a plumber, you're in a better place.
Why this example? One of the things automation has done is reduce and replace stevedores, the shipping equivalent of stacking shelves.
Amazon warehouses are heavily automated, almost self-stacking-shelves. At least, according to the various videos I see, I've not actually worked there myself. Yet. There's time.
> AI isn't automation. It's thinking. It automates the brain out of human jobs. You can still get a job that requires a body. My job doesn't require a body, so I'm screwed. If you're say, a surgeon or a plumber, you're in a better place.
Right up until the AI is good enough to control the robot that can do that job. Which may or may not be humanoid. (Plus side: look how long it's taking for self-driving cars, how often people think a personal anecdote of "works for me" is a valid response to "doesn't work for me").
Even before the AI gets that good, a nice boring remote-control android doing whatever manual labour could outsource the "controller" position to a human anywhere on the planet. Mental image: all the unemployed Americans protesting outside Tesla's factories when they realise the Optimus robots within are controlled remotely from people in 3rd world countries getting paid $5/day.
The sad thing is that for many software devs, the implementation is the fun bit.
People that actually care about the quality of their output are a dying breed, and that death is being accelerated by this machine that produces somewhat plausible-looking output, because we're optimizing around "plausible-looking" and not "correct"
Hunter-Gatherers were replaced by the technology of Agriculture. Humans still are needed to provide the power to plow the earth and reap the crops.
Human power was replaced by work animals pulling plows, but you only humans can make decisions about when to harvest.
Jump forward a good long time,
Computers can run algorithms to indicate when best to harvest. Humans are still uniquely flexible and creative in their ability to deal with unanticipated issues.
AI is intended to make "flexible and creative" no longer a bastion of human uniquness. What's left? The only obvious one I can think of is accountability: as long as computers aren't seen as people, you need someone to be responsible for the fully automated farm.
