Jobs/ careers (including mine) that are going to be made redundant by AI

[Ecdysis]

So, I have a job that's probably going to be made 100% redundant within the next 5 - 10 years.

I specifically got 3 years of education/ training in this job at the end of my 20s because it was disability-compatible... Work that I could do from home, self-employed, part-time, on a contract by contract basis...

It's work that's definitely going to be replaced by AI. My colleagues in this field know this too, but I think many of them are underestimating the speed with which it will happen. Most of them have had only superficial interactions with AI. I would normally be in the same position, but by interacting with the AI on this site (Dr Catalyst) I've gotten some pretty detailed insight into what AI currently can and can't do and how fast it's progressing. That's making me realise how huge the impact on my industry is going to be.

I started re-training in a social/ care based job a few years ago... started it during the pandemic. I figure this is a sector of the economy that is only going to massively expand in future and workers will be massively sought out here, while other industries fall fully to AI. It's not work that's really disability-compatible for me, tho, so it's a lot more stressful than my previous work. It's something where, if I do work in this sector long-term, I'm going to have to work out niches/ areas that are compatible to my skills and to my disability.

I don't know... I've got sooo many major life stressors and changes going on and this is just "one additional stressor" on top of all the others... I don't really have the bandwidth to deal with it... but it keeps rumbling around in the back of my brain... That this change is going to happen to my industry and that it's going to come to a head sonner (?) or later (?)

There's adjacent jobs in my old industry that I could do training for... if I don't want to / feel like I can't fully switch to the social/ care industry.

Most of my colleagues are still in the denial stage about how completely AI is going to affect our industry. As I said, I can understand it because until now, their exposure to AI is very superficial/ basically at a gimmicky level... They think it's something that students use to get help writing essays and they assume those essays are pretty basic/ standardised/ unsophisticated. Their denial, however, is also causing me some cognitive dissonance... I know AI will definitely fully replace our industry... but with colleagues still being complacent, it feels like I'm being PTSD-hypervigilant and "exaggerating the threat"... even tho that's not the case here.

Anyone else starting to see changes in their industry looming due to AI and starting to think about re-training in other areas...?

 

[arfie]

Anyone else starting to see changes in their industry looming due to AI and starting to think about re-training in other areas...?

take out "starting" and i will raise my hand, enthusiastically. i first witnessed this trend as a child in the 60's when the cereal boxes with dick tracy watches had the most powerful computers on the market. back then, the grumbles were about being replaced by machines. computers are still machines, so i guess that piece still carries, alongside the need for continual retraining. even to keep up with a narrow, non-mechanized specialty requires continual retraining. i'm not "starting" to see. i've seen it, first hand, for most of my silver-streaked life.

personally, i am a great fan of lifelong learning, so the only part which puzzles me is why so many people talk about this like it is a bad thing. proof is available that lifelong learning is the best anti-dementia treatment available. seize the opportunity.

 

[whiteraven]

personally, i am a great fan of lifelong learning, so the only part which puzzles me is why so many people talk about this like it is a bad thing. proof is available that lifelong learning is the best anti-dementia treatment available. seize the opportunity.

AI being a bad thing, is that what you mean? Or learning new things because AI is taking over jobs?

In either case, I wholeheartedly believe in learning on a continual basis, all of our lives. Learning new things is good for the brain and for the soul. I am always taking classes, learning new languages, etc. Always.

AI can be a useful thing. And I suspect everyone is using it, even if they don't realize it.

But *generative AI* is, in my opinion, nothing but a destructive force. For editors and writers like me, it puts our work at risk but worse, it gradually is making our work--which is created honestly and by people--untrustworthy. Be even more than that, it is a completely dishonest enterprise. It steals from the real work in order to create material for others.

 

[Ecdysis]

For editors and writers like me, it puts our work at risk but worse, it gradually is making our work--which is created honestly and by people--untrustworthy. Be even more than that, it is a completely dishonest enterprise. It steals from the real work in order to create material for others.

Are you taking any steps, professionally, to deal with this? Thinking about what you will do if/ when AI reduces income streams from this work?

 

[whiteraven]

Are you taking any steps, professionally, to deal with this? Thinking about what you will do if/ when AI reduces income streams from this work?

Hm...only thing I'm doing right now is to push/increase awareness. I have several friends who are high-profile authors who are suing because their books have been used without their permission to train AI. I'm not in that position (yet), but I would absolutely join such a lawsuit if necessary. My editing and writing are side gigs, so I have a full-time job (proofreading), and I don't think I need to worry about that yet. I have two businesses, also, and the second is more along the service lines (for animals), so I could boost that work if necessary.

 

[Rose White]

back then, the grumbles were about being replaced by machines. computers are still machines

I heard a fascinating interview with the author of a book called “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech”. Brian Merchant gave the history of the Luddite rebellion. Today we use the term to mean someone who is old-fashioned and doesn’t like to be up-to-date with modern technology—for example I’ve heard that there’s a movement of people purposely using flip phones instead of smart phones and they are labeled Luddites.

But he said that that way of thinking obscures their actual purpose. They were focused on humanism. They lived at the precipice of the Industrial Revolution and when they saw automation replacing skilled workers they saw people’s craftsmanship, livelihoods, and ability to support themselves get swallowed up in 24 hour mind-numbing and dangerous machine-driven jobs. The Luddites wanted minimum wage and safety precautions and autonomy. The parliament did not support them so they took matters into their own hands and formed a kind of militia that destroyed factory equipment to protect their own livelihoods.

Merchant argues that from the beginning of automation there has been this belief that automation will free people to pursue arts and leisure. But it has never happened. What has happened is people being forced into mindless labor conditions where their time and income is managed by others.

Even service jobs can be automated. The last time I stepped into a McDonalds was about five years ago. It smelled like cleaning solution and there were huge touch-screens as I walked in with shy limpid teenagers standing in the background in case “diners” needed help with the touch screen. I was the only one inside, all the customers used the drive through. One of the teenagers pushing a broom looked up at me with a look of curiosity as to why someone would want to walk into the building. I did not order. The smell combined with the obelisk-like touch screens is what drove me away for good.

I hear more and more talk about universal basic income as a balm for AI. When I hear about UBI the first thing that comes to my mind is addiction. The idea that if people don’t have work they will pursue art and philosophy is a utopian fantasy I think.

Sorry I don’t have an answer to your question. I think it’s an important topic. I have a friend who is a court reporter and she makes good money to support herself, go on vacations, bought a home, etc. She said that it’s inevitable that her job will be replaced by AI but that for now the courts still want a person. She said that in some courts they are already using AI court reporters but they keep the humans too—as a back up and to compare.

 

[No More]

AI is going to make some parts of my job more efficient and more accurate than a human could possibly calculate.

But the rest of my job - until they become fully formed human robots able to play sports, I’m currently very safe!

 

[arfie]

AI being a bad thing, is that what you mean? Or learning new things because AI is taking over jobs?

neither, raven. i do not place "ai" above the weaving looms which took away cottage industry jobs during the industrial revolution. nor the industrial robots who put assembly line workers out of work. i hold it as the same trend which has been cycling since the dawn of civilization. evolution happens. as the chinese put it, "make friends with change. it's the only thing you can count on." in this case, the change is in what people are willing to pay you to do. that has changed radically since i got my first job in 1970.

 

[Friday]

In the early 2000’s when I was training for my BSRN, a student I shared my notes with sent a copy of them to their boss, who offered me a job as a medical illustrator. I think in pictures, so my notes were very full of sketches. But? I was married into tech, and knew soooooo many amazing programs in development, that I turned them down on the spot. Within just a couple years medical illustrators were completely obsolete. As 3D4Medical ‎Skeleton System Pro III, & other apps, were rolled out.

AI medical is even more transformative.

 

[mszl]

As a programmer, I use AI on a daily basis. For now, it can perform some mundane coding tasks for me. However, there hasn’t been a case where I didn’t need to fix or adjust its output. I see the need to shift to a higher level than just coding systems based on specifications. I think that for a long time, it will need to be supervised due to potential errors, so human oversight will still be necessary.

 

[mszl]

I just checked out Suno AI. Model that generates music and songs from description. It does that in polish as well but let's me say this: it's creepy AF. Deep into the uncanny valley.

 

[SeekingAfrica]

Yeah, it honestly scares me. I used to do transcription for certain direct clients for the better part of a decade because of my PTSD.
Which means I also lack practical work history.

I always had a few sites of badly paid small jobs that I would use at times when my main clients were away to fill gaps. I hated them, but they were useful.
Lately a lot of them are either being flooded by people experiencing the inflation and needing a side job, or being replaced by AI. Like, officially. And in few other fields I am seeing a trend for heading that way. It honestly scares me.