With the development of AI and its integration with the machines I believe many of the repetitive jobs and even some creative jobs will be gone. So what occupations do you think that will stay in 20 to 30 years? Just want to make some plans for next generation, either boys or girls.
China has two feet dancing robot, US has autonomous taxi …
My two cents would be teacher, surgeon, cook/chef.
Like a digital artist?
Yes. And before you point out that AI can create art (yes, it can) there will still be people interested in human generated art.
there will still be people interested in human generated art.
Until they can't tell the difference…
@jv: Even then - people will want art that is authentically human.
Human Authenticity/Verification will become the new game of cat-and-mouse.
Even then - people will want art that is authentically human.
They won't know the difference.
@jv: That's the point - they will want it not because of what it is, but because of who made it. Being able to prove/verify it was a human / which human will be important. Yes, AI will be used to try and get around this, hence my mention of the game of cat-and-mouse.
@jv: If you think about it in the context of artwork from Banksy - there is lots of amazing artwork out there for cheap but if it's generated by a particular human (Banksy) it's worth millions. It'll be the same for ai vs human generated content.
@jv: How do you know if a painting was done by Picasso? Have you personally seen him painting it? What if he outsourced some of his work to his students? Does it matter as long as he signed/endorsed it?
@Chandler: Yes a vanishing small amount of people (more money than sense types) probably will, the rest will take the $2 AI generated piece that they think looks cool and no one could tell if it was AI or not anyway.
@Binchicken22: Which is the next reality. Artwork prices will probably drop.AI in the space dilutes every aspect of it. The age of non creativity is well underway. I can see Alzheimer's and dementia flexing at much younger ages, as we go fwd.
@Protractor: I think certain types of media will just end up becoming more valued than others, such as oil paintings and sculpture.
A robot arm could do a physical painting with brushes and paint, and there have been examples of this, but unless someone builds out a factory of robot arms doing painting 24/7 (plus the people needed to supervise this sort of operation), there probably isn't a business case for doing it at scale. If there was one company doing this, others would also start doing it and it would just push the prices down, meanwhile the human artist can continue to charge what they want because people buy art not just for aesthetics, but also because of its association with a specific person.
@skittlebrau: But artistic creation covers more than just painting ans sculpture.
eg Photography as an art form has capitulated in artistic credibility just from digital adoption, and photoshop type treatments. Once upon a time a unique moment could be captured and revered. now every man and his dog have flooded the space.AI will turn art into chaff
@Protractor: Visual arts is really broad. The main point I was making is that there'll be some art mediums that will be devalued (as in 'less appreciated by people' due to ubiquity) a lot more than others.
My optimist's take on this is that the prevalance of the chaff will cause truly great art to become even more distinguished and more highly valued.
@skittlebrau: I agree. Masterpieces and 'good' art before AI will boom. Most 'creative art' post AI, will plummet.
Trust in the integrity of all art will become a'la Milli Vanilli
@Protractor: I'm not a professional artist (I'm a graphic designer) but the boom of generative AI affects me as well.
My own anecdotal experience is that the low level work that didn't pay well anyway (that I thankfully don't need to take anymore as a Senior Designer) is mostly gone as it's been consumed by platforms like Fiverr, Canva, and people winging it with AI-based tools.
@jv: You can't tell the difference between natural diamonds and lab made, but the price differential is huge showing there's a difference in demand.
You can't tell the difference between natural diamonds and lab made, but the price differential is huge showing there's a difference in demand.
If nobody can tell the difference, how do you know which is lab made or real when you are buying ???
This is exactly what I was thinking of too. AI can create art by copying existing art. To innovate you need to understand what the current approach is and come up with a new method/approach. This is something that AI will not be able to do.
I've been a 'digital artist' for quite awhile, and even though I'm an 'Illustrator' very little of my job is actually illustration, it's mostly UX design and more tech art and animations. AI has pretty much cheapened the fun/creative aspect of the job which is kind of lame… sure if you're just solely doing illustrations that was always a tough gig to get even before AI now it's pretty much dead.
There's always going to be artist jobs or at least someone needed to process visuals..it's just that now with more tools available a single person could kind of fill more shoes in a way…
This has been absolutely decimated by AI not sure if your being sarcastic.
Photographer friend use to take macro photos can't get a job since AI.
Whole books are written and published on Amazon from AI, some of which have sold quite well.
A friend of mine has a website that sells custom picture logos to small businesses.
Lots of people at printing places for invites and such absolutely decimated by AI designed wedding/birthday invitations.
Voice actors replaced with AI in cartoons…
Automation was supposed to help creativity free us up with more time, but instead its replacing creatives.
Tip of the iceberg.
The web was supposed to deliver all sorts of positives. It has comprehensively failed . The fact there's enough cretins to feed even one 'influencer' proves our collective brains have escaped via our collective arses.
AI will go the same way. The latest tool for the nefarious and most harmful, and even if the other 95% don't use it for negative reasons, the impacts are still exponentially overwhelming the positive ones.This is just another horse has bolted tech whereby we watch the irreversible impacts long after we find ourselves up to our necks in them.Maybe humans can breed their way out of the impacts? /s
Or better yet make 55 series of reality TV to entertain us. Survivor AI anyone?
Comedians.
I typed in so many variations to chat gpt in hopes of getting a great line to ironically disprove your theory and it was absolutely dreadful in its responses.
That's like saying a year ago "there's no way AI will make realistic video, look at it now"
It's only a matter of time.
Still cannot do continuity between scenes.
Maybe that's just chatGPT's humour dude. So unfunny that it thinks it's funny…
You need to learn how to prompt it. You need to set it up with a persona.
It can be quite funny if you want it to be, try prompts like announce XYZ the way trump would do if he supported it, its pretty funny.
It's obviously a model not built for humor, but it can do it if used correctly.
100%. I've just had quite a comical conversation with Deepseek by doing exactly that. Thanks for the tip.
thats funny…did you use chatgpt?
Politicians, judges, CEOs/directors, any occupations that hold a certain amount of power won't be replaced any time soon.
As it ever was.
I think judges could be replaced by a robot. Put your conditions into a computer, let it analyze any laws breached, then spit out your outcome based on how rich or connected you are.
And then they will be really impartial and just. And fast.
Impartial? Yes.
Fast? Yes.
Just? No.
@Chandler: Injustices from an impartial machine?
Influenced by trends or fashion?
Pressurized by public opinion?
No to all three (3).
Just justice comes to the rescue.
spit out your outcome based on how rich or connected you are
This is why I said Just = No.
Also would a robot judge be able to take into account the human factors?
Perhaps have a robot judge for the verdict and a human judge for the sentencing?
@Chandler: Doesn't the jury give the verdict?
If no judge, how is admissibility of evidentiary material determined?
If no judge, how are objections handled?
If no judge, how are all stakeholders guided through the legal system at each stage of appearance?
If a robot were to determine guilt, is it able to assume the role of a reasonable person so it can reach its decision to the required burden of proof?
How would a robot control issues of contempt?
Who would bang the gavel?
Who would wear the wig?
@Muppet Detector: This wasn't my rodeo, I was just throwing shit at the wall in reply to responses I got. Wasn't exactly well-thought-out high level thinking :)
I get the direction you're going with your questions and I do agree with you - I personally don't want to see a robot judge, but I thought it was an interesting thought experiment.
Please also note that I've thankfully never had to deal with the judicial system, so all of this is said in ignorance of how things truly work.
Regarding jury's giving the verdict - that is true in a jury trial. But not all trials are jury trials?
I think S2 & LFO's points were that a robot judge could be viewed to be good as they could remove the subjectivity you get in human interactions. You'd outline the circumstances, show the evidence, etc to the robot, it does it's math of the probabilities etc and gives a verdict (guilty / not guilty). Sounds great in practice but how you create a truly objective robot/AI is beyond me. And tying a guilty/not guilty verdict to math doesn't sound right to me - sounds very Minority Report…
Regarding objections etc, there's still a judge, it's just not a human. Presumably the judge would be objecting more than the prosecution/defence since it would be more readily aware of any objectional behaviour by either party.
Do judges guide stakeholders or is that more on the prosecution/defence? I suppose in a jury trial then yes the judge would help guide the jury, as they're the impartial party to the proceedings, but then if you're after an impartial party to guide proceedings then what would be better than a robot/AI, which I believe is really the crux here: a robot/AI could be truly impartial (maybe…).
Can AI/robot's assume the role of a reasonable person?
As per objections, the robot would be keenly aware of what constitutes contempt and react accordingly.
And I'm glad to see you're asking the important questions! The robot would bang the gavel and wear the wig, of course!
@Chandler: Ahem … My learned friend, I did NOT write: "spit out your outcome based on how rich or connected you are"
@LFO: Not that learned!
You didn't write that, S2 did. But based on your comments I took you to be agreeing with them, in regards to robot judges being impartial.
@Chandler: Guilty!! To the colony you go !!!
Just in case: these are hypotheticals.
Realistically, the (local) human judiciary will NEVER release its almighty power over our society.
@LFO: Hey, the colony didn't end up being too bad, did it? ;)
Of course - like I said: I thought it was an interesting thought experiment.
Nothin' like a power-tripping judicial and political class!
@cannedhams: According to Deepseek the Tiananmen Square Massacre didn't happen and was actually a minor dispute. Let's not aim emulate authoritarian one party states.
Already AI lawyers in the UK for things like fighting parking fines they will spit out letters based on the fine and details
The actually quite successful in contesting tickets.
dicatator to be more precise… but I will support the local councilors to be replaced as soon as possible, including the council CEOs… most useless roles ever…AI even at their current forms will easily do a better job
All local govt should be totally and utterly abolished
You Sir, are on the blacklist. Your future social credit score is Restricted.
@frewer: Social credit is over rated.Look outside your front door. The dog that ate the dog got eaten by another dog, before it finished swallowing.
The world today is a right wing toy.
@Protractor: Yeah, it's overrated until it's embedded in your bank account. Right or Left it is the same in this country, they don't care about us, they need to leave me the fk alone, less governing for me ty. Yes, I ( have to ) paid their over-exuberate taxes so they can fund their wars.
Add doctors to that list.
welcome to ai judges replace all in youth crime space 20 year jail 14 years jail adult time adult crime
Robot makers
Robot repair crew
Until the robots are making robots. Hello Skynet.
It depends on the definition of a robot, any machine is technically a robot even though it is not in an humanoid form. This means a lot of robots are making robots, repairing and tearing apart robots already.
Haven't you seen the many movies where robots eventually make themselves?
Lots of personal services.
rub n tug?
.
Was automated years ago for some.
That was invented after the vacuum but before the electric toasters.
By the way, the same question was being asked when I left school in the 80s.
There are still many people employed in manufacturing, which was back then confidently guaranteed to be all robots by now.
I don't say this to mean "go into manufacturing" but to remember that there is much more involved in most jobs than the parts that can be automated.
Where are these manufacturing jobs, in China? Wouldn't surprise me if there were fewer factory jobs in Australia now than 1980.
There are dramatically fewer jobs in manufacturing in Australia, but there are still many jobs in manufacturing in Australia.
The "pull the lever when the part reaches you" mass assembly line jobs are gone. The precision tooling or custom production jobs remain.
I think technology will come for low hanging fruit, replacing jobs like data entry or product packaging or shelf stacking - allowing someone to oversee much more volume of things happening and just managing exceptions rather than doing the repetitive work.
Few are sad backhoes replaced three guys digging a trench with a shovel, and few are sad word processing replaced the typing pool.
Yeah a tiny amount of those jobs. Mainly places that do custom stuff, most precision tooling machine work is well and truly overseas. I'd actually say we generally do the really basic shit here, like bits and bobs you can make up on a lathe, all the high tech shit is done overseas.
@Binchicken22: Still have plenty of packing here. That way they can write on the food label that it was packaged in Australia
@belongsinforums: Yeah I hate that loophole. "Packaged in Australia from imported ingredients"… How TF does that help me!
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/02/australia-has-no-ma…
Can downvote me but the facts are there.
Human workers in China are far cheaper than robots.
At the time was the speculation that the jobs would be replaced by robots or that the jobs would be gone (e.g. because it would be cheaper to manufacturer things in developing countries, etc)?
Both, but plenty of footage of mechanisation of Japanese auto plants.
The mainstream view was definitely that automation was coming for most jobs in the next couple of decades.
I suppose the underlying logic was "the jobs will be replaced by cheaper labour" and it seemed just as likely we would be having robots do them rather than just getting Bangladesh and China to do it all for us, etc.
Which is probably still the case.. unless robots and A.I. are somehow cheaper than off shoring a job to humans in poorer economies
@Crow K: Worth remembering for most of the 1980s I wouldn't have seen anything made in China. I remember plastic toy army men were made in Hong Kong.
Consumer electronics were made in Japan or in Australia.
And off-shoring of service industry jobs was basically unheard of because it cost $1 a minute to call overseas.
Obviously both these things changed dramatically between 1985 and 1995.
And yet somehow people pay $6 for a coffee instead of $1 at 7/11, despite the video saying nobody would care.
$1 coffees at 7-Eleven are long gone. It's $2 baseline now (50c off if you use the app or bring a reusable cup)
It's because the coffee at 711 tastes like crap. Just like 90% of automatic coffee machines.
@mskeggs: Yeh. I'd buy from a robot if it made good coffee. But I suspect a robot making coffee is just a glorified version of a current automatic machine you'd fine in any corporate office environment.
Manufacturing absolutely decimated by automation.
I worked at company making bottle caps in high school so late 90s, its now fully automated in China, our robot replacement even puts them into nice boxes and loads them on to pallets. The factory lights don't even come on.
Pretty sure most of the nylex factories gone the same way.
Car automation is far more automated now - my dad worked in the ford factory in the 80s pretty sure all those roles are gone. Look at tesla the cars are even driving themselves on to the boat now.
That's true. Manufacturing in Australia now is much more bespoke (e.g. Austral) or things where there is local innovation or value added.
Manufacturing jobs went from about 1.1m to 850k in the last 30 years.
https://www.aigroup.com.au/news/blogs/2020/manufacturing-job…
Yep, remember people thinking everyone would be made redundant by computers at the time.
My two cents would be teacher, surgeon, cook/chef.
I disagree with these. I think AI robots would have no difficulty doing these at professional level, quite possibly better than a human in all respects. However, you're probably right about teacher in principle, because I suspect most people would prefer to have a human teacher, even if AI can teach more effectively. I also suspect most people would trust a human surgeon more than an AI robot surgeon, even if the AI surgeon could become more accurate and reliable in principle.
My opinion is that trades such as builder, plumber, tiler, electrician, bricklayer, carpenter, etc. are unlikely to be replaced by AI/robots, because they often involve a really broad combination of skills and knowledge, including continuous oral communication/negotiation, really fine technical skills and knowledge that can require years to master, along with good eye/hand coordination, getting into awkward spaces, sometimes with a bit of climbing, sometimes a lot of planning and problem solving, hard labor, local knowledge (e.g. having a personal network of tradies and suppliers to work together with), etc.
I also think, while AI may become really good at (or already is really good at) coding/programming, translating, and general writing, there will always be jobs for humans to supervise, manage, and check an AI system's output. Because it could be disastrous if there is a mistake in a document/translation/code that an AI system has overlooked because of its programming or its limitations. Sometimes a human is required for final confirmation and to genuinely understand something properly.
100% this.
Everyone is always going to need trades because each situation is different.
You might get a robot to change a washer, a robot to dig up the yard to find and repair a broken pipe, and a robot to climb through the roof cavity to find the source of a leak, but you're never going to get a robot with the skill set to do all three; that and a thousand other things besides.
The jobs that will mostly be gone are knowledge workers and services. They won't be completely gone, but there'll be many fewer of them.
It may be true in r next 5 years, once you've the range of motions, precision tuned out it will be so easy to find a robot who can do a surgery and rebuild a diesel engine then fly a helicopter. As easy as downloading respective models.
I'd say this guy must be a tradie haha
I can't say that i have ever met too many tradespeople where i thought "wow this guy is such a good communicator, and has a broad combination of skills, and demonstrates a lot of planning and problem solving". Usually the total opposite…I do however agree that the robot will struggle to get into tight places. I do happen to completely agree that its a long way off replacing tradespeople with robots, but not for 99% of the reasons you've listed
'I can't say that i have ever met too many tradespeople where i thought "wow this guy is such a good communicator, and has a broad combination of skills, and demonstrates a lot of planning and problem solving". Usually the total opposite'
written like a good keyboard warrior … 😉
Yeah, I find it laughable that he thinks being a tradie requires more depth and breadth of skill than being a surgeon or a teacher. Hell, I can do 80% of any trade after watching a 40 minute youtube video and a trip to bunnings.
🤞