Economic Upheaval Coming With Artificial Intelligence

#1
WBO

WBO

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#1
My company's head of IT comes in to my office last week and tells me that we are not seriously planning for the impact of AI to our company and to the economy at large. The number of jobs that will be eliminated over the next 25-50 years is astronomical. AI is already writing code that he says is as good as the professionals doing it now. He went down the list of occupations that will practically disappear, everything from school teachers to truck drivers to banks. With the advent of robotics a lot of tasks, especially in manufacturing will go away. Imagine no pilot in the cockpit of your Delta flight to Maui.

It really shows its stuff in research. Our business involves the analysis of business entities for sale or purchase. Our best people are the ones who get into the numbers and tell us the total truth about a company, not just what the owners claim. We do written reports and even determine value. The IT guy tells me AI can already do most of that work in a small fraction of the time. So we are having him do an AI generated analysis to compare with one we are doing normally. This could be life changing for a lot of people in our company.

As we were standing there, I had the IT guy ask his phone for a clause in a contract to resolve a specific kind of post-transaction adjustment based on earnings. It gave us one in 5 seconds. I couldn't have typed the request into my standard search program in the time it took to answer.

So what is everyone going to do for income or do we just figure the machines will wipe us out when they become sentient?
 
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#3
#3
WBO said:
My company's head of IT comes in to my office last week and tells me that we are not seriously planning for the impact of AI to our company and to the economy at large. The number of jobs that will be eliminated over the next 25-50 years is astronomical. AI is already writing code that he says is as good as the professionals doing it now. He went down the list of occupations that will practically disappear, everything from school teachers to truck drivers to banks. With the advent of robotics a lot of tasks, especially in manufacturing will go away. Imagine no pilot in the cockpit of your Delta flight to Maui.

It really shows its stuff in research. Our business involves the analysis of business entities for sale or purchase. Our best people are the ones who get into the numbers and tell us the total truth about a company, not just what the owners claim. We do written reports and even determine value. The IT guy tells me AI can already do most of that work in a small fraction of the time. So we are having him do an AI generated analysis to compare with one we are doing normally. This could be life changing for a lot of people in our company.

As we were standing there, I had the IT guy ask his phone for a clause in a contract to resolve a specific kind of post-transaction adjustment based on earnings. It gave us one in 5 seconds. I couldn't have typed the request into my standard search program in the time it took to answer.

So what is everyone going to do for income or do we just figure the machines will wipe us out when they become sentient?
Click to expand...
Government slowly raises its hand…
 
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#4
#4
... and people were worried about robots taking manual labor jobs. Yeah I have no doubt that jobs where one sits on ass all day will be right in the crosshairs of AI.

And trust me, that pilotless Maui flight is not that far over the horizon. The only stumbling block is connectivity with the ground. Once that is solved, there is little doubt it will be no different than the train between terminals in ATL.
 
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#5
#5
Seriously, I bet that down the road AI will be chosen to rule countries. This stuff is going to dictate to mankind and not the other way around.
 
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#6
#6
It has potential to be very bad if not managed correctly. The feds will swoop in and ban a lot of it (What will other countries do?). For example, only allowing companies to only use AI for a certain percentage of work. The employees that are left could even be paid more....perhaps. If unemployment rises significantly because of this, then there will be riots. Even jobs such as general practitioner doctors, and nurses are at risk.

Even if some believe the fantasy that machines will do everything for us in the future, that would be total disaster. Idle hands are the devils workshop.
 
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#7
#7
SpaceCoastVol said:
... and people were worried about robots taking manual labor jobs. Yeah I have no doubt that jobs where one sits on ass all day will be right in the crosshairs of AI.

And trust me, that pilotless Maui flight is not that far over the horizon. The only stumbling block is connectivity with the ground. Once that is solved, there is little doubt it will be no different than the train between terminals in ATL.
Click to expand...
This stuff will be able to replace teachers in the classroom, it’s already being tested in warehouses to replace workers with robots, it will be able to perform surgeries…… there won’t be many limits to what it can do.
 
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#8
#8
Now the thing that makes me really suspicious is that when you ask the program if it is sentient it gives a surprisingly aggressive denial. They have programmed it to specifically do that. They know where the public starts getting scared.

Also, he told me the more you use it, the more it adapts to your thought processes, giving you answers tailored to the best way for you to comprehend what it's telling you. That is just flat out scary.

I had already started converting to a hyper-smart home where our security, entertainment, communication and lighting are all on verbal command. I am beginning to rethink some of that, especially the decision to use Alexa.
 
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#9
#9
SpaceCoastVol said:
... and people were worried about robots taking manual labor jobs. Yeah I have no doubt that jobs where one sits on ass all day will be right in the crosshairs of AI.

And trust me, that pilotless Maui flight is not that far over the horizon. The only stumbling block is connectivity with the ground. Once that is solved, there is little doubt it will be no different than the train between terminals in ATL.
Click to expand...

Maybe AI can eliminate lawyers
 
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#11
#11
85SugarVol said:
The truly valuable attorneys are artists. It’s nuanced.

Can AI eliminate the vast majority of worker bees at the IRS?
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Do you really think that's a net positive? I bet lots of people make unintentional minor mistakes on their returns and some even make intentional misrepresentations. AI might be worse than your hated worker bees.
 
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#15
#15
clarksvol00 said:
Do you really think that's a net positive? I bet lots of people make unintentional minor mistakes on their returns and some even make intentional misrepresentations. AI might be worse than your hated worker bees.
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There would still have to be humans there to process any flags, and adjudicate appeals.

I would probably view most any move to remove human bias, where possible, from the IRS to be a net positive.
 
#18
#18
85SugarVol said:
There would still have to be humans there to process any flags, and adjudicate appeals.

I would probably view most any move to remove human bias, where possible, from the IRS to be a net positive.
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I suspect that more people are currently getting away with questionable practices than are being persecuted for whatever reason. AI probably will hurt more "innocent" people than it would help.
 
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#19
#19
clarksvol00 said:
I suspect that more people are currently getting away with questionable practices than are being persecuted for whatever reason. AI probably will hurt more "innocent" people than it would help.
Click to expand...

It might catch people inflating the value of buildings they own five fold to get a business loan but then in the same year valuing it at half its true value to evade taxes.


Oh boy.
 
#20
#20
VolStrom said:
I can't wait to see what kind of code an AI machine can write. Will it be efficient or will it be spaghetti?
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So automated VHDL synthesis for FPGA design is nothing new. From my own experience it’s highly inefficient on resources and good luck getting it to meet timing if you have multiple clock domains.

I don’t think highly skilled software or VHDL writers are going away anytime soon however the mediocre to bad ones might be an endangered species. And I don’t see that as a bad thing honestly.
 
#21
#21
clarksvol00 said:
I suspect that more people are currently getting away with questionable practices than are being persecuted for whatever reason. AI probably will hurt more "innocent" people than it would help.
Click to expand...
IRS are the good guys, going after the “bad” guys. Yes, I’m familiar with the sentiment.

Any “innocents” flagged by AI would still be able to appeal to an actual human, no?
And I would certainly be less worried about AI persecuting anyone. Humans on the other hand.
 
#22
#22
85SugarVol said:
IRS are the good guys, going after the “bad” guys. Yes, I’m familiar with the sentiment.

Any “innocents” flagged by AI would still be able to appeal to an actual human, no?
And I would certainly be less worried about AI persecuting anyone. Humans on the other hand.
Click to expand...

You should be.
 
#23
#23
85SugarVol said:
IRS are the good guys, going after the “bad” guys. Yes, I’m familiar with the sentiment.

Any “innocents” flagged by AI would still be able to appeal to an actual human, no?
And I would certainly be less worried about AI persecuting anyone. Humans on the other hand.
Click to expand...
I don't view it as a "good guys/bad guys" dichotomy. I think AI would pick up a lot more questionable stuff and more taxpayers would have to appeal to an actual human.
 
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#25
#25
clarksvol00 said:
I don't view it as a "good guys/bad guys" dichotomy. I think AI would pick up a lot more questionable stuff and more taxpayers would have to appeal to an actual human.
Click to expand...
Well my apologies then. You twice referred to “questionable practices” and “intentional misrepresentations”. I inferred incorrectly.

I don’t know how we would know AI would flag more? And if it did, I would be of the opinion that the technology wasn’t ready for this application.
 
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