Artificial Intelligence Is Coming And May Be After Your Job
Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA
CNBC published an article on this Monday about a Forrester report on how artificial intelligence will eliminate up to 6% of the jobs we see today by 2021. Those jobs that look to be targeted are in the customer service, trucking, and taxi services.
We’ve seen a large growth in the artificial intelligence realm with intelligent personal assistants like Siri from Apple, Google Now from Alphabet (the holding company of Google.), Cortana from Microsoft, and Alexa from Amazon. Macy’s has been testing the use of artificial intelligence by helping customers locate items in their stores from their mobile phones. Alphabet and Tesla are making strides in making self-driving cars a reality and change the way we move people and goods across our land. Amazon is experimenting with drone delivery.
Automation and the elimination of jobs due to automation isn’t new. Robotics have replaced a lot of assembly line workers and has changed the face of manufacturing. In fact, automation is a key component to the new Adidas factory being built in Cherokee County. You can expect other manufacturers look towards investments in automating their factories as well. Our world is changing and becoming smaller. Remember, the first transcontinental phone call took place only 100 years ago. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in the past century.
Artificial intelligence will, indeed, replace some of the workforce, but imagine the opportunities for new skill sets and industries that may spring forth. Our society is evolving to where well-paying, semi-skilled jobs in manufacturing are now extinct. No matter what a politician tells you, those jobs won’t be back. Some other jobs, like truck driving and package delivery, may be endangered in the coming decades.
This is the time where encouraging kids to tinker with (and break) electronics like the Raspberry Pi, playing with programming languages, and learning about the cool things that we’ll see as technology marches along if they show interest. The best part is that these are things that you don’t have to necessarily do in the classroom and can explore on their own at home.
About Author
nsmith
Father. IT Geek. Former 14th District GOP Chairman (2015-2017). Former Walker GOP Chairman (2009-2013). Resident of Chamblee. American. Georgian. Conservative.
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…and if your child is ‘good with his hands’?
The same thing. I think there’s opportunity to explore different areas whether there’s technical ability or if they like to build things. I know my local Home Depot has workshops for kids just about every weekend that lets them build different things. Plus, I know a couple of craft stores and even libraries offering hands-on type of crafting.
@Nathan –
HD is first saturday of the month, 9a-12p, advanced signup not required. We are religious attendees.
Lowe’s is 3rd saturday, 10-12, advanced signup required.
I made a comment near this in response to a prior post—I think it will be a challenge within the lifetime of most currently alive to identify fulfilling, useful work for two-thirds of the adult population due to automation/AI.
The only way people will be able to survive such a transition away from a job related economy to an automated economy is if governments instituted a ‘basic wage’ program, where everyone received enough compensation to pay for all creature comforts – shelter food, medical, education and transportation.
However, approximate 35% of eligible voters (hard core conservatives) will eventually starve, rather than take any ‘government handout’. Because their idiot buttheads have railed against the absolute evils of government handouts and ‘unemployed freeloaders’. And I must say, in the end, that is probably the best thing we can do with such ‘leeches’ is let them starve. But they won’t. Even a hypocrite has to eat.
If you don’t think this is going to be a globe changer, ponder the automated vehicle. here are the revenue and job generating industries that will fall by the wayside, as the buggywhip did the heralding of the automobile:
Truck Drivers (automated)
Warehouse/dock workers (automated)
Police and Highway Patrol (no more traffic tickets)
taxi/uber (obsolete)
auto insurance industry (obsolete)
auto manufacturing (automated)
Dealerships (all vehicles will be rented, no need to own one)
OEM/aftermarket parts manufacturing (automated)
Toll workers (oops, already automated..)
Refueling convenience stores (and the building of them. employees, the companies that vend to them, all automated).
This is not going to impact boomers as much as it will downline generations. My grandkids will not be able to find meaningful work by the time they are 35.
Ya’ll best learn to make music or some other form of art because we are about to have a lot of leisure time. Those of us who are left, that is, after the plague/war/disaster that culls the majority of unwashed billions of former worker droids that still must be maintained. While the rich live their lives in automation Nirvana.
Because in this economy, if you are not a producer, you are expendable.
WALL-E? Idiocracy? Does everyone become a lawyer in the future?
They’ll start their own Super PACs and send out robocalls soliciting for donations.
It’s the faster, quicker, less money spent model of capitalism. We need goods to be built faster with less overhead so they can be bought by the public at as low a price possible so they buy your stuff instead of your competitors. Companies need higher profits to keep shareholders happy. How may of us complain over the rate of growth of our 401(k)’s? If you want more out of your retirement plans, companies have to become more profitable. Employees are just an expenditure line item. We either have to pay them less (sometimes this means finding cheaper over seas labor) or automate/ semi automate and cut workers.