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.
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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.
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.
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!
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
Add doctors to that list.
Robot makers
Robot repair crew
Until the robots are making robots. Hello Skynet.
Lots of personal services.
rub n tug?
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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.
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.
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.
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 … 😉
I think there is a difference between cooking - the process of combining ingredients and following a set heating process - and what a chef does.
My bread maker automatically makes raisin bread.
A chef might see that apricots are in peak season, and with a little cardamon will make a sublime dessert pastry.
A nail gun with an articulated arm can probably already frame up a kit home.
A carpenter can decide, actually, the usual approach won't work here, we'll need something different because the span is 300mm longer so we don't encroach on that easement.
Lots and lots of the AI discussion has been driven by coders seeing the tool can do a fair impersonation of a junior programmer, and assuming the little bit they know about other jobs will be equally simple to impersonate.
My opinion is that trades such as builder, plumber, tiler, electrician, bricklayer, carpenter, etc. are unlikely to be replaced by AI/robots
Problem is when all the white collar jobs are replaced by AI who is going to have money to build houses and maintain them.
Most white collar jobs are already about working out the best way to do something, not sorting a pile of papers into box A or B.
If I can use AI to sort through 200gb of legal discovery or analyse a much larger pool of job candidates or some other task that was just avoided because it was impractical, that doesn't mean jobs are lost.
Mail merge can deliver a million letters in a few seconds, compared to the typing pool hand addressing them. It meant now we get "Dear netjock, we are raising your prices" instead of a generic notice.
I think there will be fewer jobs lost than many expect, as it turns out the use cases are just for one part of a person's work, and having a very sophisticated system to be able to do a complete job will be costlier than just having a person.
That doesn't mean if you are e.g. a translator that the market for translation services won't shrink, but being able to do serviceable translation of an instruction sheet or brochure is only a bit of the job.
I think there will be fewer jobs lost than many expect
That was my point but obviously have to be blunt otherwise people don't get it.
@netjock: I agree, i think the addition to this is to consider how automation changed industries already disrupted. The naive comment from the financial press is that ai will save money and make workers obsolete.
But if you look at a business that used automation to cut costs in their manufacturing in 1990, to replace somebody soldering a circuit board in a clock radio for example, then today they would have an expensive manufacturing plant, and frankly would have gone out of business a decade or two ago.
The successful businesses in that period stopped soldering their Mac Plus by hand, but reoriented their business to harness new opportunities.
Would you rather your kid worked at AWA soldering clock radios, or Apple designing a new cellphone in 2025?
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
I've never seen a tradie display all of these.
Normally they rock up 2 hours late, hungover, and oral communication skills on par with a 1700s era pirate.
You are just being obvious as to why our productivity is low.
Already seen a machine that can make hamburgers in a San Francisco restaurant. It wasnt very complicated either.
Pizzas are not far off; I've seen robots essentially print pizzas.
Automatic coffee machines have been around for decades, yet they still haven’t replaced baristas.
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.
The robotic surgeon would be significantly cheaper, much faster, and carry a lower risk of infection.
You might even be able to purchase a home-use surgical robot for minor procedures like stitches and basic treatments.
How would AI do the work of a chef?
Professional ozbargainers
Are you saying jv is not an ai bot?
I think many will try to replicate the jv model but fail
professional implies we are paid - I haven't received my payment from OzB yet??
The payment is in self satisfaction of a job..done.
Sports. Though I think robot sports will be popular too.
I think most cooking will be done by robots, but there will still be a human chef back there running things, the robot chefs will be like their tools. Some restaurants will be totally robot though. And people will always like the luxury of human servers so nice restaurants and hotels will be full of people serving you.
Have you looked out the back of a fast food chain? It is already hugely automated - having a human shaped robot would likely cost more than a 17yro and get in the way.
Saw a YouTube piece the other day about automatic woks and auto chopping robots, still needs a chef to throw in and change ingredients but still. Blew my mind, when that thing breaks the service fees and finding a tech would be a pain in the butt for sure.
Bladerunner.
OnlyFans content creator, influencer, s*x worker, age carer, police (maybe).
I've heard from teachers that when small children are asked what they want to do in the future, most say influencer.
The future is bright indeed.
I think the pendulum is starting to swing the other way on that crap. Give it a generation or two.
previous generations helped bring social media to life, we all need to look in the mirror, can't blame the youth
Dole bludgers (massive growth expected)
Look up what UBI is.
Radio DJs too. A lot will be replaced, but the big stations like in each city or the Apple Music live stations will always have people hosting them, though maybe some shows on those stations will have an AI DJ during off hours.
"Well, hot dog, we have a 'wiener'." -DJ 3000
Spotify has ai dj already, it’s not bad.
Carer for aged ppl … Or even cleaners for aged ppl.
Industry will increase in next 20 years.
Basically - anything still physical == non AI.
Not saying that AI will take over those jobs - but may still have an influence.
Eg. With my mum - she has a cleaner once a week, but cleaner recently streamlined things … To do many other clients in village at same time - (yet still claims 45 min travel costs every visit to mum (double dipping).
Cleaner. My workplace got a robot vacuum cleaner for $1500 and gets staff members to clean up their own area at the end of the day. The contract cleaners have been let go.
Rofl. Does the robot vaccum get thrown into the toilet bawl to get the skid marks off?
We have a brush in each cubical and a sign indicating what it's for.
CodeXD on 10/02/2025 - 14:56 Comment score below threshold.