No particularly concerned about it, but I sure am tired of hearing about it. AI this, AI that…enough already!
“Super intelligence” - when AI performs tasks better and faster than any human . . . estimates on when this might occur vary, but perhaps by 2030, certainly 2035.
Soon AI will be performing the research and development of AI.
Super Intelligence won’t be just for answering questions - but will be like a high level employee or committee which can be given tasks. Example tasks: start a company with the following characteristics. SI will generate financing, hire other SI assets, get sales, etc. Or, spin up a news network to disseminate the following type of news\opinions - complete with editorials, videos, fake talking heads with designed personalities, etc.
People are expecting AI robots to do their laundry, or some minor or even major job displacement . . . won’t we be surprised.
SI means the diminishing of the value of humans, and the decreasing value-added of humanity itself.
This site AI 2027
Especially if humans don’t proofread to remove the AI intro statements like “Sure, here’s a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data”. Lol.
My concern about AI is pretty short-term but AI generated audio and video is becoming more common in scams targeting the elderly. An AI generated phone call with the grandsons voice saying he has been arrested and needs money, etc. Some of the newer AI videos (Like TK 42 Greg Stormtrooper videos which are awesome) are incredibly well done. It’s only going to get worse.
My concerns with AI are it will make us lazy thinkers and control our biases. I’m not a big fan of it in the workplace if people use it for higher end thinking.
I am freaking out about it. Not only for me but for my son who has yet to enter the workforce. What the heck should he major in or what skill should he get? How do we help prepare him for life? If most white collars job go away…
….fewer and fewer people will ever enjoy the privilege (which really should be a right, for hard working citizens) to purchase a place to call home.
Seriously, what a world we are embracing under the guise of advancement.
We are experiencing this in a big way in Canada. The generation in their late teens - 20s right now seems totally screwed with respect to home ownership.
What is fascinating, and kind of scary, is there are politicians now in their mid-late 20s who have “renter” as part of their ideology and bio, to signal to other people who will never afford to buy they are looking out for their interests. The part that is scary is they seem to find current homeowners as the Boogeyman, not massive corporations buying and developing all the housing. As such, they are making policies that are squeezing people out of their homes and basically serving the housing market up to corporations on a silver platter. In their eyes, If you own a SFH in Canada, you are part of the problem.
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I asked once one of these woke idiots from which corporation he is renting. He started arguing and saying shit like its not about me…
Terrible Story
ChatGPT assisted suicide
The family of teenager who died by suicide alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT is to blame
I have one daughter a freshman in college and one a junior in h.s. AI is a frequent topic of conversation. Older daughter is wanting to become PA, she may be assisting an AI “Doctor” at some point. At least the technical skills and patient interface will “probably” be human for the foreseeable future. Other daughter is highly adept at STEM topics, specifically math. Her future is a bit more challenging to predict, but we are certainly keeping a high degree of awareness about the influence of AI on future careers. At least as much as we can try to predict…
Wife is working with AI as a software engineer/architect in a major international company. To her, it’s an awesome tool that magnifies her influence and productively, but to lower level people in her field, it may smother career development.
My own career, I’m safe from being replaced and AI is taking over one of my most hated tasks, which is nice. I’m hoping that AI will streamline my procedures and reduce my front office staff in the near future.
It’s hard to wrap our minds around this concept.
Cautiously optimistic, but highly aware of it’s ever growing presence, is my current tone
My son’s college writing course this semester requires assignments be done in class due to AI (cheating) concerns. As a computer science and math major, AI is a significant topic with his advisor in regards to his job prospects after graduation.
Wow. This is black mirror level insanity.
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Beyond the singularity AI is projected to double US electricity use in ten years. Much of which will be generated by fossil fuels. Divert water from municipal systems. Increase electricity costs for regular people. Be configured to enrich wealthy TECH bros who control. Lay off workers. Make the population dumber.
Computer science grads be advised to go for the most complicated high level jobs as many lower level ones will be replaced by AI.
For a young person right now I would advise becoming a plumber, electrician etc My son is software engineer and daughter in healthcare.
The future isn’t particularly bright for trades, either.
Can I ask why not?
Many of the white collar parents in my town ruefully say the same thing spockman said about telling kids to go into trades.
People say it half jokingly because they still assume that kids in our town (or at least their kids) will ace the SAT, go to an Ivy or near-Ivy, get that coveted job in law/medicine/consulting/ whatever, etc.
But they’re also not joking because they see the price inflation on college; they see AI threatening their white collar jobs and think it can’t come for hands-on work; and they see that some of the folks who work blue collar jobs in our town have done very well for themselves.
The thing is, outsourcing has been gobbling up jobs longer than AI has been around. If you’re a comp sci college grad in the U.S., the way to get a job was and still is networking. If you’re just firing off resumes blindly, you’re competing against outsourced positions in India, plus H1Bs and now AI reduced staffing in the U.S.
A few reasons, some which may be area specific. In general, it feels like trades as a meaningful career has “peaked”. When I graduated highschool in the early 00’s, the prevailing wisdom from parents, guidance councilors and teachers was “just get a degree, any degree, and you’ll have a job for life”. That may have been true for the previous generation, but certainly didn’t prove true for mine and moreso the next gen of kids. I feel like we are at this point with trades. People like myself got in to the trades in a sweet spot. Lots of boomers were retiring, wages were pushed up, but the industry hadn’t really modernized so there was still a large demand for high skilled workers.
Now, due to cost and profit pressure, various shortages, and a drive for efficiency the industry is adapting and changing.
In Canada, we are expanding our temporary foreign worker program, which floods labour markets with cheap labour that the government subsidizes, to the skilled building and trade sector. This is going to suppress wages (which is already happening in the field) and make it incredibly difficult to land an apprenticeship.
Secondly, building is becoming a lot more modular. I feel like the value of a knowledgeable journeyman is becoming diminished as most of their decision making is now being made by engineers and design in pre-construction. As building processes become more efficient it is becoming more about low skilled assembly than highly skilled craftsmanship. A construction crew used to have a pretty healthy ratio of journeymen to apprentices. The journeyman would work, the apprentice would help. Now, it’s typically one journeyman on a crew and cheaper apprentices doing the bulk of the work. The journeyman just supervises. The tradesperson of the future will not have a broad spectrum of experience but a very narrow area of expertise, which will eventually be turned in to a job someone cheaper with less experience can do.
There will always be the service side of things, the industrial sector will be going strong and some cushy union jobs will persist for a while. But I see the commercial and especially residential sectors becoming a lot less lucrative for tradespeople.
Personally, I would caution people going in to the trades to see it as a stepping stone to something else perhaps trades-adjacent. Use the apprenticeship time to build as much skill and knowledge as you can, and after a few years as a journeyman move on. Sales, management, real estate, building tech, engineering etc.
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