If you haven’t heard the term AI lately, I’d love to see the giant rock you’ve been living under. It’s literally everywhere these days and it’s not ever going to go away. Adapt or get left behind people.

I use AI in my day to day work, just not everyday. I think it’s a valuable resource when used correctly. Sadly, there will always be nefarious actors out there that will try to “beat the system” and use AI for many unintended purposes. I think that is true regarding everything that we globally adopt as the norm. As for it’s true value, I think it depends on what you’re trying to get out of it.

I use it as a resource and not as a source of truth. It is mostly correct with its responses, but I have proven it to be wrong on a couple of occasions. That’s not to say it is unreliable, as it’s quite reliable, you just need to validate what it tells you. I would consider these the early days, so just like the early days of the Internet, use some common sense and/or test what information you get from it. Fortunately, it will only get smarter and more reliable as time goes by and it learns from its mistakes.

Unfortunately, AI is going to cost some people their jobs. As with all progressive technology, the ultimate goal is to save someone somewhere some money and in the case of certain jobs, AI will replace them. Already fast food drive thru lines are being run by AI. Instead of talking to a human, you are talking to a highly sophisticated computer that understands how to take an order. People are still needed to fill those orders, for now, but I would expect fast food jobs to majorly dwindle in favor of robots functioning on AI systems. Teenager jobs are going to become harder to come by in the near future. Receptionists will become obsolete as well as many other entry level positions across the corporate world. I recently have done a job interview where I was actually interviewed by an AI machine. Full on conversation. It was recorded for review by a human, but was weird nonetheless.

I think the combination of our advancement in robotics along with the brains of AI we will see many jobs go by the wayside. It’s going to be a slow process, but many people will need to adapt their skills to the changing world. No industry will be permanently safe from this transition but some will take much longer than others. For you kids in college out there, make sure you get a degree in a major skill related position. Or just go straight for the skill related jobs like electricians and plumbers. Just be prepared to embrace AI and learn to work with it as it will infiltrate every skill in some way.

It’s not all doom and gloom for humanity though. So many services will become more accurate and efficient. Doctors will have case histories and examples of millions of diagnosis at their fingertips to compare against previously known symptoms. Lawyers will have years of previous rulings to support their arguments in seconds rather than hours of laborious research. We will always need a human element to these fields, but those landscapes will dramatically change.

Sadly I see the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer in this new world. Companies will be able to slash payrolls and job cuts at some of the lower levels will make many roles extinct. CEO’s aren’t exactly the types of people to share their wealth with the rest of us so the divide will only grow deeper as jobs get replaced by automated systems. Not all of them will, but I think it will be bigger than many folks will expect.

If I were you and you feel like your job might be in jeopardy or at-risk, I would learn how to use AI to make you better at your job. It is a valuable resource to the web just like the web itself. If you can find an angle that makes you better at your job for it, that would be your best chance of surviving this AI movement.

Am I worried about my own job? Not really. My line of work involves keeping the AI machines up and running so until AI becomes self-sentient, I should be fine. I would assume my job becomes easier with AI as it gets integrated into virtually everything, but as I said earlier, it’s not there yet and still needs validation.

AI has some slick tricks and some fun interactions can be had but verify what you read. I don’t know what it’s official accuracy rate is but I’d imagine it’s pretty high. Regardless, the evolution of it will be fun to watch. Unless, of course, your career is replaced by an AI bot.