CALIFORNIA, USA —A friend of mine who works in banking, and is close to retirement, expressed her concerns about the future of the industry. She’s worried that many of her colleagues will find their knowledge and skills rendered obsolete by advancements in Artificial Intelligence and automation.
I assured her that this is an inevitable shift, not only in banking but across various professions.There’s a growing discussion about how the current working class is gradually becoming obsolete in the face of rapid technological change.
Throughout history, we’ve seen similar transitions during socio-cultural revolutions. For instance, there was a decline in the need for traditional hunter-gatherer roles during the Agricultural Revolution; a decrease in demand for cottage-industry goods with the rise of mass production during the Industrial Revolution; and now, a decline in demand for certain professions as AI systems become more proficient at tasks traditionally performed by humans.
In the context of AI, the term “useless class” refers to individuals whose skills or jobs have become redundant due to automation.
Essentially, tasks once performed by humans are now more efficiently handled by computer algorithms.
It’s estimated that by 2030, AI could potentially replace around 800 million jobs worldwide, with its economic impact projected to reach $15.7 trillion by the same year.
Some examples of jobs already being eroded by AI include call center representatives, coders, market research analysts, economic analysts, insurance agents, journalists, accountants, bookkeepers, bank tellers, cashiers, financial analysts, personal financial advisors, data entry clerks, telemarketers, factory workers, drivers, travel agents, and many more (linkedin.com, businessinsider.com, theforage.com).
Despite these challenges, I reassured my friend that I’m neither a pessimist prophesying doom nor an optimist fantasizing that everything will be fine.
Instead, I consider myself a realist who believes in human agency, and the potential for adaptation.
While it’s true that much of what undergraduate students learn today may become irrelevant by the time they graduate, they can still reskill, and adapt to new opportunities in emerging job markets.
While this process of adaptation is crucial for societal progress and individual growth, an important question remains: How do educational institutions provide personalized learning paths, design inclusive digital content, offer adaptive learning platforms, and provide data-driven insights to inform instruction?
But more fundamentally, how do we control the motivation of AI systems that surpasses human intelligence?
It’s a challenge that will require careful consideration and ethical frameworks, as we navigate this new technological landscape.
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