Warning! Save yourself and proceed on if you’re sick of reading articles about how AI is robbing the earth. Because that’s what this paragraph is on.
Not precisely how AI is ruling the world, but how more and more tasks appear to be destined for the AI yellow brick road that eventually vanishes. This sci-fi environment we’ve found ourselves in reminds me of T.H.R.U.S.H. from the Cold War classic television line “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”.
T.H.R.U.S.H. stood for Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. Fortunately, T.H.R.U.S.H. was well-trounced every week by the U.N.C.L.E. agents (the great people working for the United Network Command for Law Enforcement).
The problem is, as far as I know, we don’t have any U.N.C.L.E. agents on the payroll now.
When employees say, “If we had AI to do this task, we’d have more free time to do this task, but it’s typically everything along the lines of playing a game or taking a nap,” I think about T.H.R.U.S.H.
Being a natural-born party pooper, I am compelled to point out that if we had AI to do whatever we were doing, we wouldn’t have jobs, and if we didn’t have jobs, we wouldn’t have money, and if we didn’t have money, we couldn’t afford to do ANYTHING.
“But we would have more time to be creative,” is the common retort. “You don’t need money to be creative.”
I don’t know about other people, but for many of us, trying to be creative is just as hard, if not harder, than working a regular job and doesn’t pay nearly as well.
According to a list I found that was most likely AI-generated, it’s a good thing the AI advocates want to be creative because those are among the few jobs that won’t be as negatively impacted by AI.
The list of creative jobs that AI supposedly can’t replace includes “glassblower”, “watchmaker”, and “circus performer”. I understand a carnival actor being replaced by a cup fan and a watchmaker rather than a machine, sort of. How’d they sidestep the Artificial gun?
Some of the jobs are not artistic, but educators are still on the safe-from-AI shortlist because hardly anyone wants to deal with high school students longer, not yet robots, and media/communications positions like investigative reporters and talk show hosts. All other reporters ought to be concerned. Quite frightened.
People value jobs like players, oil inspectors, and nuclear power plant managers were included in the list. It’s gratifying to know that someone in the AI industry has retained some basic logic.
Nurses and doctors are in the clear when it comes to healthcare, but I have some reservations because I’ve heard stories about nurses covering multiple patients via Zoom and virtual doctors’ appointments. This makes this cynic wonder if you’re talking to a doctor or if it’s some sort of Wizard of Oz sleight of hand. (Is this person a real doctor, or was this just a TV character?)
A final few “safe” jobs include politician and humanitarian, clearly two career paths that rarely cross. Being human seems to be a top requirement for a humanitarian, and even AI couldn’t produce the things so many politicians dream up.
As obvious as the noses on each of our faces, AI is already present in our daily lives. It’s also obvious that there isn’t a lot we can do about it besides flee society and pitch a tent in the middle of the woods.
I’m reminded of stories about people who believed horses couldn’t ever be replaced by cars and who believed television was a “fad” because of the continuing growth of AI and the ardent hope that some way someday it will be reined in. No matter how many times human nature is proven wrong, it seems that we prefer to rely on hope that we will be correct this time.
All we can do, I suppose, is to wait and see. Oh, and work on being creative. There might be a brighter side to it.
