Artificial intelligence is no longer considered as a concept from a science fiction movie. With regular products such as Amazon’s voice assistance system, AI is quickly getting into households and companies. Our homes might take time to accept artificial intelligence, but the companies and offices are already doing that and it is not looking great for most labor intensive tasks.
We now also have an association called AAAI that works for the betterment of AI systems for both workplaces and home. This article is not about the benefit of awesome intelligence systems, but whether AI will take over most jobs from human beings in coming years. You probably should not worry about it at this point of time if you are already doing well in your career, but it is something to worry about for people who haven’t’ started their work life yet or are still choosing which direction to go to.
Elon Musk first brought this topic up a year ago. He clearly suggested that AI systems and automation are going to take over almost all human jobs. Forbes did a big article about the same concept, quoting Elon Musk and it is a very valid thing to worry about. Are humans losing to intelligent computers? If you think about it, the answer is always positive.
Since ages, human beings have lost the battle for jobs with the machines. Take the simplest of examples. At one point in the world, human beings would write down everything on clay slates or paper to preserve written text. In ancient Egypt, thousands of people had a job that only consisted of recording or writing. Slowly, we had typewriters and things changed. You can apply this idea to pretty much every single job and that is why, it doesn’t seem unlikely that AI systems might take over human tasks very soon.
Recently, Infosys, one of the biggest companies in India let go around 9,000 workers as their tasks were already automated. The idea is very simple. When a machine can do the same thing a human can, there is no point in hiring a human to do that. Machines will always perform better and they don’t even cheat while working. Put yourself in the position of a CEO and think about it.
Let’s say you have one executive who does accounting for your firm and you pay him a certain amount. Now, a machine or a robot does that same thing. Who would you hire? Obviously, the machine is a one-time investment and the chances of making an error are less.
Now, the question is, how to stay safe in this competitive world where machines are trying to take over your job? There are different things you can do to make sure that you are safe. One simple strategy is to invest your time in learning something that needs a human touch.
If you are deciding your career, do not take subjects like accounting or economics as the opportunity is very limited there when it comes to applying human skills. These are very technical subjects, where you will not have to use your creativity to solve problems, but the automated strategic process will do that for you.
Especially, if you are planning to do a labor intensive task even if it is something huge like flying an aircraft then you might think again. Obviously, if you are from this generation, then there is probably not much to worry about as technology is not going to go that fast to ruin your career but it will surely happen to your next generation.
If you are planning to work as a cashier or as a regular blue collar, then there is much to worry about. Amazon has already launched their cashier free store and it looks like the first step to get rid of part time and blue collar jobs with the help of technology.
Obviously, if you are in a field like marketing, you have bright futures ahead. Marketing is one subject or topic that is tough to touch for any AI or machine learning system. Marketing is all about being creative and finding different methods and strategies to reach your consumers, which is tough for an AI to decide. As a marketer, you have to be on your toes and high on emotions to find out the needs and desires of your consumers. With today’s technological advancements, it does not look like AI is ready to take that challenge yet.
AI will definitely come after marketing too, but that will take probably a few hundred years more so you or your next generation do not need to worry about it right now. It is those who work on regular no-brain tasks who need to be worried. If you are working on something that is super simple yet not creative, you might not worry that much because AI is not going to be used for simple tasks right now.
Given all the situations, what should you do now? The best thing to do at this moment is to study the world carefully if you are in a position to take a career choice. You have to be very careful about choosing something that you like and has potential at the same time. If you are not into marketing, you should not choose this topic either. We used it as a sample, but what we wanted to tell you is the fact that if your job is not creative or if it does not have a creative element in it, then your job will be in danger within next 50 years.
Most people do not realize how fast AI is coming. Technology is always like that. You probably do not realize that the smartphone itself is only around 8 years old. Within 8 years, smartphones took the whole world and changed the way people consume information and work remotely. AI is more intelligent than a cell phone in every possible way. Therefore, it should not take much time for AI to take your job either.