It sounds great until it starts to replace higher level professions. There are hardly any jobs that are automation proof . . .
There are NO jobs that are automation proof. As an attorney, I often wonder how long it will be before we see the first automated Public Defender. Many are good, and many are trash, but they are all overworked and underpaid. How long until an AI bot can get a better result because it can evaluate a thousand prior cases with similar facts, and also factor in the particular DA, the judge, and so on?
It sounds far fetched, but the fact is, it's only a matter of time.
Computers have been "smarter" than humans in the sense of number crunching for about half of a century.
Big Blue beat Kasparov in 1997.
Now, the supercomputer in your hand, which we call a phone, can beat any human at any game, any time, with few exceptions.
What has happened - virtually unnoticed - in the last decade or so is a tremendous advancement in AI. Most people think AI and they think Schwartzanegger Terminator, or C3PO, or something like that.
AI is really about teaching computers how to learn for themselves.
The most critical thing to always remember about AI is that it MUST get better, every single hour, every single day FOREVER. I mean, unless we revolt and stop it, which we won't.
AI is exploding, and the pace of improvement may well be geometric. What that means is that the AI bots in 10 years are going to be orders more intelligent and intuitive than the ones today?
In 50 years? It's hard to see any result other than AI bots running everything.
In terms of what jobs are safe? None.
Computers continue to get faster and smaller.
Robotics has come of age and BR now has bots that can run you down over an open field.
Miniaturization and nanotechnology has come of age.
The final, required component - if the goal is super machines - is AI, which has now come of age.
Google had a stick figure running down a corridor a year or so ago. Seemed simple. Maybe not worth noticing. But it was huge. It was, literally, the final advancement of AI taking its first steps.
We are not far from the day when an AI bot will walk up to you, tell you to stand still, scan your face, check you for violations, and then either choose to let you go or choose to detain you.
What's terrifying is that the human condition is stagnant, and changes over millennia. The AI Bot condition? It improves every day, forever.
Humans must be surpassed. In everything. It's not if, it's when.
The final wars will be fought with technology, not flesh. You'll be vanquised when their technology beats yours. There won't be any hiding under the ground, fighting it out. Dominant tech will just keep getting more dominant.
The only wild card I see is energy - without cheap energy, AI becomes less advantageous. Perhaps that's our only way of remaining dominant - go primative.
The future is absolutely terrifying.
R
