The fall out from A.I. taking over people’s jobs will be difficult to overcome. But is the trouble inevitable?
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, lots of people have some questions regarding it, like “Will A.I. rise against us—is the human race doomed?” or “Will A.I steal our jobs?” Now, I’m not too sure about an A.I. takeover of society, but it seems almost certain that A.I. will take our jobs, so I suppose in that aspect many people are doomed. But remember, this is not your fault, it is the fault of billionaires and corporations who let greed and money triumph and trample over the common man. It is undeniable that if given the opportunity, a company will be more than willing to trade a man’s job, their livelihood, for a machine. I mean, think about it: it’s like having an employee who never needs sleep, never asks for a pay raise, does not require vacations, does not have a family, doesn’t need to take time off, and, on top of all of that, will never strike.
So whose jobs are at risk? The simple answer would be programmers and coders, as A.I. is already capable of writing lines of code; except, with an increasing rise in development of A.I. it is unlikely that it will stop there, so all tech jobs could be at risk. Although there are some of you, I’m sure, that possibly don’t care or worry for your jobs because you don’t want to work in the tech field, or your future job isn’t necessarily related to programming. But don’t be deceived by thinking this won’t affect you. People in the tech field make up 7.7 percent of the US. population, if they were to be out of a job, unemployment rates would skyrocket to those similar to the 2008 recession, meaning potentially 1 in 10 people would be jobless, and that’s a very low estimate on my part, if fact an article from the BBC states that “AI could replace equivalent of 300 million jobs.”
It will be a lot harder to fix this financial crisis than the one in 2008, as people in these careers would have to enter an entirely new profession with limited experience, which could lead to low end jobs and millions of people living below their means and no longer being able to support themselves and their families.
Some may ask, “What should we do, what can we do?” and this is the appropriate response to this situation, to want to act early. But when it comes to what step to take next you will realize that, surprisingly, there isn’t much to do about it except pay close attention to the bills and legislation being put in place, especially revolving around technology. And remember the government doesn’t always play for your interest, as lobbying by these big tech monopolies is a very real threat to you, especially with the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court case being law in this country. Make sure you spread your concerns and spread the message that you don’t want people to lose your jobs, you don’t want countrywide poverty, you don’t support big corporations walking all over the working class American and instead you would much prefer to see this country prosper with the people flourishing right alongside it.
Photo: Binary Code by Christiaan Colen on Flickr
The Pine Needle 