BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN
There are certain draws to the idea of getting bathed, fed and massaged by a robot, as long as it can perform in Jolie and Loren modes. Having an AI maid or butler to feed the dogs, take out the trash, poop-a-scoop and pump up the car tyres – one that doesn’t grunt, require a salary or dare answer back – sounds somewhat appealing. Who hasn’t always wanted a punkhawallah?
All this talk of AI taking over is (literally) electrifying. A breath of fresh air.
Admittedly the speculation about AI’s more developed version, AGI (look it up) deciding human futures is a tad worrying but no doubt, like coronaviruses, they can learn to be tamed and to co-exist with us ubiquitous humans, while replicating sensibly to escape annihilation by host.
Some argue that AGI could learn to accomplish any intellectual task that human beings or animals can perform – so let’s hope they come with inbuilt taste and laugh at plastic flowers, scorn absurdities like the Liberal Democrats and question the right of German men to sport coloured suits like coach drivers. If there are to be any teething problems with swarms of killer micro drones, let them sink their teeth into Maduro, Haniyeh and Putin.
Many argue that AGI will emerge as autonomous systems that surpass human capabilities in the majority of economically valuable tasks. This seems far more perturbing…
Career fields with the highest exposure to AI automation are administrative positions (46%) and tasks in legal (44%) professions. Not surprisingly, jobs less likely to be affected tend to be in physically intensive areas such as construction (6%) and maintenance (4%). (Computerworld)
Yes to the replacement of apparatchiks, all those bored, nose-picking customer services reps and 44% of the legal profession by AI. But are those that are left behind not the very trades we ought to be wishing to replace also?
Estate agents will survive. What? The only difference between an estate agent and a sperm is that the sperm has a one in twenty million chance of becoming a human being.
Politicians?
Life insurance salespeople? Uugh.
Dentists? Good God. Someone invent an uncondescending dentistbot, please.
At least ‘human’ traffic wardens will vanish.
And car mechanic rip-off artists.
What about pervert priests?
Remoaners?
The French?
Crabby librarians were already fossilised, thanks be to Jesus and Tim Berners Lee.
Frankly, I don’t see what all the fuss and fear are about…
Asimov came out with decent guidance for AI eons ago. We’ve had decades without to consider with. Follow existing sound parameters and keep an eye open for any James Bond style villains who try and create superhumans or manifest eugenics. Surely we can invent some awesome AGI and let MI10 and Musk manage all that?
‘Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster’ Elon Musk
The recurring argument across technological advancements, spanning from the automatic weaving looms during the early industrial revolution to today’s computers, posits that jobs aren’t obliterated; instead, employment undergoes a shift from one sector to another, giving rise to entirely new job categories. Yes, the interim will see some crises and angst. While the Luddites protested against machine-enabled automation by wrecking mills, today’s workers would likely defend manufacturing jobs against their potential disappearance – they might better spend their energies working out how to make AI slave trading socially acceptable so they can sit back and enjoy their Joliebot massage while being cooled by their graphene punkhawallah after a tough round of golf in the sun.
Exciting times, techies and nerds.
Bring them on.
Dominic Wightman is Editor of Country Squire Magazine.