Which career path is not ruined by AI?
3mon 5d ago by lemmy.zip/u/underscores in asklemmy@lemmy.ml
I'm kind of sick of being a dev. I hate AI with a passion.
I hate the hallucinations, I hate slop, I hate megacrops, I hate the environmental impacts, I hate the massive costs. I could go on but you get the picture.
At work I often times have to review vibe code slop from people who clock in 9 to 5 and don't give a fuck (I respect that, I just wish your fucking code wasn't slop)
I'm sick of it, I'm sick of hearing about AI tooling or new models or bro agentic actions bro based on your documentation bro.
I want to switch careers, so which career is not ruined by AI?
Join us, become a tradie. Get a company vehicle. Work with your hands. Become enough of an expert in your trade that you can tell customers to go fuck themselves if they're dicks. Have every company in the area be desperate to hire you because every trade is short handed. Work with people who barely understand the concept of a computer. Spend half of every paycheck on milwalkee packout tool boxes. Never have to work with AI again.
My preference is HVAC-R but plumber or electrician are also good choices. Building automation may seem attractive but then you're getting close to the AI danger zone again.
Ironically, the three trades you listed are in high demand right now specifically because of the rapid rollout of the data centers needed to power AI.
A couple of thoughts on this as a union electrician: for starters AI is absolutely having an (arguably negative) impact on manpower fulfillment. In my area the massive expansion of data centers is causing a manpower shortage for all projects not funded by massive tech companies. This is complicated because it's inflating income for tradesmen due to demand, but it's also pressuring workers into ridiculous schedules (think 4x10s, 2x8s, and most Sundays) and is forcing contractors that aren't running data center work to completely rework their payment structure and bid practices. Many of these sites are also a 1-2 hour commute for a large number of tradies. A lot of these guys have been gaslit for decades into thinking working more OT somehow makes them a better person.
Beyond that, while I haven't personally seen it yet AI will absolutely begin worming its way into design; a process already riddled with issues and errors largely due to time constraints. Clients are going to want work done faster and cheaper, which will pressure design teams into using AI tools in the name of expediency, which will lead to more errors in the construction process, leading to inflated costs and likely problematic installations.
That's not even getting into the future of AI robotics which absolutely will be impacting our tradesmen directly in the near future.
It's coming for us too.
I'm not an electrician, but I have a relative that is. You nailed it. We've got a couple DCs going up near by, and he was asked to commit to a 2 year commitment for just one of them, working exactly the hours you said. He agreed because I think they are paying double time for all OT, and that's good money. They asked if he wanted to sign on for the other DC but he declined for the obvious time reasons. It's definitely had an effect on available workers for other projects since seemingly all hand are on deck.
I'm not familiar with the architecting process, but I can absolutely see how AI will be, if not already, involved with generating plans. It will shit something out faster than anyone could create it, but it will lose that value in review and the inevitable mistakes that make it through. AI is a cancer
And say goodbye to your knees!
Largely agreed, but if large-scale social problems flood the trades then we have another problem on our hands.
I'm thinking about finishing out my career with that kind of transition.
I've always done various office work and have been good at it, but I know I'm on borrowed time.
At some point in the next 1-3 years, they'll automate 90%+ of what I'm doing, and I'll be out the door. And being late 40s, with the job market being what it is, and admittedly me not skilling up much most of the last decade or so... I have I just don't have what's needed to get back to work in favorable conditions once that inevitable canning happens.
Fortunately, I have a friend of the family who's a long time HVAC guy, and the company he works for has been short handed for quite a while. I figure if I start training up in the very near future, I'll be able to transition over without too many issues, and If I'm careful, I won't have to beat myself up too much in the decade or so before I retire.
I think the powers that be have an ultimate goal of combining AI and robotics to automate the trades too, but they are much further away on that... it should be a safe space for long enough.
AI will never be able to throw bricks at cops. Something to consider
Do you get dental?
The settlement money from the city after I get my eyes blown out by "less lethal" rounds tends to cover it.
You're from Stuttgart
Im not sure if this a meme or an accusation. But I am not, neither the one in Germany or Arkansas.
It just so happened that in Stuttgart there were protests and police in fact did blow one guy's eye out of the socket in a very similar way you said.
I thought that you're referring to that.
No :( only vision to ensure good aim
A drone with a cord goes a long way.
Anything that requires physical work. Manufacturing, trades, etc... But, there's the caveat that AI may still indirectly affect these too.
Anything that's based on physical work or human contact. Trades, medical/social work, psychology, emergency workers...
Psychology? A lot of folks are already using ai as a virtual therapist
That is the equivalent of saying "we don't need doctors since we can put bandaids on wounds"
Psychology is about a lot more that what LLMs can do
Doesn't mean psychology can't be ruined by AI anyway.
Correct, we don’t need Doctors for every scrape in the exact same way that I can explain a social situation to a LLM and it can help by referencing back to published literature on that particular topic, suggesting clear guidelines as to how to move forward. Sure there are also broken arms and cancer exists, but the base level (and moving up the chain) is absolutely coming for Psych work.
I did this 9 years ago. I make 2/3rds of what I did in software, but I don't regret it. pivoted to environmental work. My job satisfaction is like, a thousand percent better.
Can you say any more about the type of environmental work?
I started over doing entry level spray tech work treating exotic plants through americorps and worked my way up. I do a lot of field data collection and gis work now. So, I still utilize my old software skills. I work for my local government doing environmental land management.
GIS is definitely a software adjacent job that is utilized a lot in land management. But that isn't the initial route I took. I really did just kind of started over.
Thank you for sharing
I'm in building maintenance. It's not affected at all by AI. Most of the trades are safe. Basically anything which would require both advanced LLM and advanced robotics to replace.
I work in a datacenter. I rack servers, I look after the cooling system, the generators, the ups's, etc. I won't ever be replaced by AI. Without me there is no AI. And I barely interact with it. I play with toys all day.
The environmental impacts still bother me. But IT has always been wasteful, even before AI. I hate recycling days when I see exactly how much plastics, styrofoam and metals are going to the dump.
Previously the equation was trying to get as much processing out of every kilowatt-hour, now the equation is trying to use as much energy as possible. The impact of AI eclipses IT loads from before by a massive margin, and because of the theory behind it will never, ever do any better than it is right now. The environmental impact should bother you because it's massive and getting bigger.
And you're helping set it up and keep it going. I know what it's like to run a datacenter, I did it for a decade and a half. I'm not going to say I'm making more money now, but I do sleep much better.
My datacenter doesn't host AI. Most of my servers process data coming from the square kilometer array in Australia. We're looking for aliens
Problem is, cost of living is so extremely high where I live and I don't know what else I would do to make enough money to stay here. I'm really good at this job, and I don't have very many other talents
It could be a lot worse too. Our cooling system is a closed loop so we aren't using fuck tons of water like newer datacenters. In the winter we can mostly get away with air cooling from outside air. And the power in my city is all from hydro dams
So when you said "Without me there is no AI," what were you referring to?
Maintence/upkeep on servers in general, pretty fucking obvious what they meant.
This person is likely in facilities, I doubt they are touching servers much after they're racked. Maybe a crash cart is shit really hits the fan and ops can't get in remotely.
They went from directly being responsible for AI to having nothing to do with it. My question is not unreasonable.
People like me are required to keep this AI empire going. There doesn't seem to be a huge pool of people who are both computer people and good at physical labour/using tools.
I just meant that AI isn't going to make me unemployed
I do a lot of system administration too. It depends on the system and who owns it. I do a pretty wide variety of work which is why I love it
We had facilities monkeys like you describe but after a reorg they gave those responsibilities to whichever sysadmins showed the most interest, which is how I got the job. I'd rather play with toys than stare at a screen all day so the jump was a no brainer to me
I feel ya. But the pendulum will probably swing back the other way soon and we’ll have a ton of companies hiring to undo/replace slop code. That’s how it has been for previous coding fads, anyway.
I'm so tired of my skill and income being beholden to the whims of bullshit artists though.
I'm picking up furniture making. Handcrafted furniture will always be needed
What? Ikea wrecked that a long time ago. Not that you can't make a living but the demand isn't high in any way whatsoever. Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury.
Hand crafted furniture has become a luxury
So you make more money selling them. I see no issues.
No issues, just become a master craftsmen and compete with other master craftsmen. Easy.
Bring back guilds.
The issue is in finding buyers who have enough money to spend on those luxury goods.
I feel like luxury goods are harder to get into in terms of career change and it's a bit off to characterize them as always needed.
The market for high quality furniture never went away. And if we enter a global depression, a local furniture maker will again be a necessity
If we enter a depression, people will have less money to spend on luxuries. I just think the percentage of people buying hand made furniture is kind of low. I think most people "buy" them from friends and family doing it as a semi-hobby, or are rich, at least in my experience.
Not trying to be overly critical, just saying it's not easy.
As a side note, I've noticed no one makes nice wooden informational kiosks with integrated touch screen even though orgs like museums would likely buy them over plastic and metal ones. Just an idea if you were looking for a niche product.
I said necessity, not luxury... If we enter a global depression, there won't be cheap IKEA furniture anymore
IKEA made that a niche market though.
It really never did though. People have never stopped buying high end furniture
a career in poisoning AI
See if Haven Social are hiring?
Alas, they're not paying for that. They're not paying for what they need to achieve their goals either.
would be nice if i can make a living out of doing that lol
Plumbing is fairly safe from any kind of automation and also well paid.
They do use robots for pipe inspection and minor repairs, but that's about the extend of what the clankers will ever be able to do.
Also a software eng (for now), genuinely thinking of starting my own barbershop lmao.
I was going to say my industry, sewer and water but now they're forcing cameras with AI in them into our with vehicle to "save on insurance." More like spy on us and figure out why we're messing around with one fire hydrant so long.
I hate it here.
I'm a local truck driver for a smallish local trucking company. My company installed new dash cams with both internal and external cameras. Every truck I know has at the internal camera at least covered in tape, if not removed completely (Mine is gone completely). If my company required the internal cameras, at least half the fleet would likely quit and it would be catastrophic for the company.
One of the perks of the job is being alone and just chilling out most of the day. You don't get to watch me.
I find it unreal that this is legal. This is why we need unions.
I have coals in the fire for unionizing my industry. Waiting until later this year where I have a better financial situation as a backup plan in case I need to do it unemployed.
But when I'm done, my friends and co-workers will be unionized.
Good luck!
I’ve grown up in a country where unions are as natural as air. The unions are so strong that there basically is very limited employment laws - and no minimum wage; there’s just not need for the state to intervene that much because unions are EVERYWHERE. And yes, a Big Mac meal costs a fortune because employees actually have to make a living. I’m ok with it.
Funny enough, our entire industry is unionized except for our sector. From the producers to the plants, everyone is protected except for what we do. It shouldn't be difficult to get us unionized but it's still a rather uphill battle. And talking to some of my co-workers, everyone is willing but I'm the only one taking the lead on it.
Yeah I'm moving across the country soon so it won't be my problem but 3/4 of the people who work there are already looking for jobs because of other micromanaging shit that's started happening. We're the highest producing, lowest issue location and all of a sudden they're treating us like toddlers. Everyone is pissed.
I'm a highly intelligent person. It's always been both infuriating and absolutely dumbfounded how management of a company can have all the information on how their company is run, how employee interviews, evaluations, and observations occur, how profit growth vs expenditures relate to each other, and still sit down in a board room together and not only brainstorm, but literally agree to an idea that makes their company fucking worse in every possible way, and piss off everyone who is why they're in this position.
I will never understand it. Especially with my company who doesn't have shareholders or shit. We're a completely private and insular company. We're family owned. And yet they still make decisions that hurt them by pissing off the people that work for them.
It's fascinating.
Yeah that's the same setup as my company. I have a feeling, because I've been here before, that the owner of my company is looking to sell. This is exactly what we went through at my last company and then they announced that they sold out. Oddly enough 5 of us all worked at that place. I'm really really beyond sick of private equity.
There is the (more difficult) option of finding a dev job for an older tech conservative company. My workplace has just barely rolled out access to copilot chat. Our devs are still doing things without the slop.
Look at the more heavily regulated business sectors, they tend to be more resistant to tech fads.
I’m an electrical engineer and I deal mostly with medical equipment. Not even this field is safe. People are going to die.
Architecture is the other one that worries me. I don't like the idea of unknowingly walking around in a building that was designed by AI. I work with AI and it can't even be trusted to write a blog post correctly, let alone design a building that's safe. And I know if I'm thinking of that now, it means someone else has already thought of and attempted it at least 6 months ago.
I'm a lathe operator. No AI there yet. And my lathe runs Linux too...
Inference of 3D models exists. Combined with a rule deck of what the machine is capable of (i.e. so tools aren't broken) I think you could be very close to "prompt to object" prototyping flows — if they don't already exist.
Still might need a pair of hands to clean up.
Now, how many botched tries are people willing to to pay the material cost of, who knows?
"AI can't replace you but an AI salesman can convince your boss to replace you will AI."
Being a kindergarten teacher is not really something that AI can help with.
You're joking me right? I'm pretty sure this is actively happening. they're going to put the kids in individual tubes with iPads and a toilet
Not my experience, at least not here in Norway – in fact, there's been a pretty big backlash against the digitalization of childhood in schools and kindergartens, so I'd be very surprised if there's any increasing pressure on us to use computers at all with the children. A colleague of mine put on some movies a handful of times in December, and even that caused some concerned messages from parents.
at least not here in Norway
At least part of the world isn't racing to the bottom
Unfortunately the countries with high population and public education being negligible, have really low pay.
I heard Norway and Sweden kindergarten teachers get 120,000 USD ! that sounds great.
hehe, I wish, but no, the starting salary is more like $55 000, increasing to about $65 000 as you get more experience.
oh no. That does sound low. But i do believe if your interest lies in teaching it brings you joy.
Can someone in their late twenties start teaching in nordic schools? Or do they have to begin studying for 2+ diploma courses?
It's a three year bachelor's degree to become a kindergarten teacher in Norway. You can work in kindergarten without that education, but then you'll be more of an assistant and your salary will be even lower.
You'd also have to learn Norwegian, of course, unless you can get a job at one of the very few english-language international kindergartens.
Thank you so much internet friend!
That's so bad for a child's development. A computer can't guide a kid's hand to practice fine motor skills. It can't impart social skills to help kids interact with each other. It can't help kids revolve conflicts with each other, or handle behaviors that require a human touch. Imagine a couple kids fighting because they can't share - what's a computer gonna do? A kid can just ignore its instructions. What's to stop a kid from physically attacking a robo-nanny or whatever fresh hell gets developed in this field?
I work with kids with difficult behaviors. There are ethical boundaries we need to be aware of. Will a robo-nanny be imparted with those rules? How accountable would it be if it did something ethically questionable? What will it be trained on - actual knowledge of children's psychology (in which case, using a robot at all should be discounted right off, as children thrive on human interaction)? Or will it be trained on what parents/teachers have already been doing, which would inevitably result in being trained on outdated techniques that don't follow updates in science? If a robot thinks spanking, isolation, or withholding food is okay, that'd be extremely troubling. There's so much that could go wrong, and knowing this tech isn't being designed with ethics in mind makes this whole endeavor terrifying.
Are parents going to be comfortable with their kids being alone in a room without an adult? A group of kids could simply band together to lock the robot in a closet or something and let chaos reign. They could figure out how to power it down, or throw things at it until it stops functioning. A kid having a tantrum can be a powerful force, potentially injuring other children in the act, and I highly doubt a robot alone could handle that situation effectively. Where I work it can take a team of adults with blocking pads, and coordination with even more adults to clear other students from the area. Sometimes those other kids are playing games and don't want to leave, and it takes a trusted adult to convince them that yeah, no, we need to move now. Which brings us to the relationship the teachers have with the students, and how it is crucial to gaining what's called "instructional control," which basically means, "this kid will listen to your instructions." Can a robot foster that? Do we want a robot to be able to foster that? I don't like the idea of kids personifying machines to that extent, and we're quickly learning how damaging (literally, it can cause brain damage) that can be for young minds.
I could go on and on, but suffice to say this whole topic is an ethical clusterfuck.
[off topic?]
I recommend this book to anyone thinking about a career change.
"Discover What You Are Best At." Linda Gail. Six self tests you can finish in half a day, and a list of jobs that use those skills. Jobs range from zero new training to post college.
Really helped me when I was looking for career advice.
Thanks going to pirate it
Thank you for the very helpful suggestion.
I got a great career that I never expected from reading this book.
Good luck.
What was the career though?
Selling books?
I'm in tech but in the non-profit sector. For what we do, there is virtually no use case for ai. I basically just make sure everything runs properly. No one is expecting me to turn out code that will turn into profits. I'm not rolling in the dough like a lot of tech workers, but im not micromanaged, I get to make all the decisions, and im not working for an evil corporation. So I suggest looking at non profits. They are typically run by people who know very little about tech. You'll be an easy hire if your resume is as good as it sounds.
Just be careful of people who volunteer at non profits. Most will be good, but since they're not getting paid, their motivation may be strongly ego driven. That can be problematic.
I’m a tax lawyer. I’m gonna be very busy fixing the messes people make using AI-assisted do-it-yourself tax planning lol. And by fixing I mean telling them to beg for penalties to be forgiven lol
Plumber
Also pays very well
A different kind of slop..I'd prefer it
I’m there too. But not because AI. I just reviewed a PR by a newb. Code was fine. I could reason about what they did. It worked correctly. Then I read the other devs comments and what they requested done and now code that worked correctly and was easy to reason about is buried in abstraction that isn’t really needed but it “makes the code much better”. No it doesn’t.
That’s what I’m sick of. If I’m reading code and the logic that actually does something is buried that irritates me.
Some abstraction is great. Otherwise we would program with physical switches. But abstraction just because you think it makes the code look better is shit.
I recently had to work without an IDE on some code made by a *thunder crack* Java Senior. There was 4 redirections in 3 different files for something that, hopefully, got inlined at compile time. I swear it gets worse with age.
I'm pretty sure "sick of Java abstractions" was one of the motivations behind Golang.
Prostitution.
I am not saying it's the ideal career choice for most people, however it isn't something ruined by AI...
And there are opportunities to progress into a madam or pimp. Plus you get a funky hat with a feather, I'm unsure how this process goes though (I would imagine there must be some sort of application process for the hat).
I actually think you are on to something here as I feel like there will always be people who desire to be with a "real human".
That said if they ever developed something like a holodeck in real life I can see it making a dent in the industry.
Like morally I'm completely fine with prostitution, although in practice consent is hugely important for me, and you can never be truly certain if they are being coerced into the practice by a pimp/madam/other extenuating circumstance. With a computer consent really becomes a non issue, and thus a little more "morally okay".
Working in the trades is probably somewhat safe for a while.
Honestly I'd just go for something that you're interested in. If AI displaces a ton of white collar workers, the system will probably collapse and we'll all go mad max. In the meantime have fun!
I work in fiber installation. I already have to deal with an ai copilot micromanaging me all day. Unless you are self employed, I doubt there's going to be any choice.
Theyre rolling out cameras in our with vehicle with AI in it to tell when our eyes aren't on the road and shit like that. From what I can tell, it's just been alerting constantly for no reason at the people testing it out.
Quit.
Seriously.
I'm moving in 4 weeks so, I have no option but to quit lol
CAD specialist.
It's gonna be a while, but I don't expect it to be completely safe.
My backup is construction management which I am also very much qualified to do. I very much doubt that's in any danger in the near future.
If both of those get completely taken over by AI, I'll revert to being a carpenter. Not ideal, but if that gets taken over by AI, we're at the point where workers have become entirely obsolete, at which point either universal basic income is a thing, or it's time for a violent uprising against our AI overlords.
An interesting thing about CAD is that the field got decimated in the switch to computers. You can choose to either go up the technical chain to be a great detailer or progress in CAD management since Autodesk and Bentley only do so much
Airline mechanic. AI is not going anywhere near us and if it does it will be trained on absolute garbage and be wrong 100% of the time.
Boeing has entered the chat.
Wish I could tell ya. Im like just old enough that changing careers is rather monuental since I don't really have time enough to get established. Something has to eventually give with the ai. either it goes away which I doubt or we need to restructure our societies.
You cant get AI to do physiotherapy. So maybe become a PT assistant.
Tell me more about ... ooh, physiotherapy.
isn't safe
Day training and rescue. You could probably get AI and a robot to teach Pavlovian conditioning in a controlled environment (screen shows symbol, dog gives appropriate response, machine dispenses treat), but behavior modification, leash training in different environments, manners, social conditioning around other dogs/people/animals? A substantial number of humans can’t even train their own dogs to sit, much less behave in public. That’s why I have a job.
isn't safe
Elaborate. I’d like to hear your opinions on why.
it's doable, i can see how it can be automated in simulated environment but don't worry it won't happen soon
End user IT support at any state, county, or city. It's only gonna get busier, plus you can tinker with hardware
I find myself increasingly annoyed at having to grant copilot licenses for people who are inexplicably overjoyed to have them.
And then never use it :D
I think you'll be heavily affected by AI in that field as well. From possibly having LLMs as a first level support agent (already common in corporate customer support) to having to help people who messed up their PCs by letting their AI agents have full access etc.
Locksmithing/access control is an industry that is sorely lacking new people going into it and the only interaction I have with AI is from one coworker in marketing for the company who uses chatgpt to write her emails. I definitely don't make as much as my friends who are programmers though.
Locksmithing/access control is an industry that is sorely lacking new people...
Interesting. I was considering locksmithing as a way to get some supplemental income later in life. I've done skilled labor and light IT work most of my life and it seemed like a good fit for my skill set. I'll have to move that to the top of the pile of possibilities.
As long as you are already mechanically inclined it's not that hard to learn and it's not as hard on your body as a lot of other trades.
Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.
Firefighter. Willing to bet AI won’t touch it anytime soon.
Speaking of which... when we get there with our pitchforks and burn down the data centers, could you give us a 20 minutes lead?
I was an EMT going to school for cyber security. I had done all my gen eds and was just starting the actual computer classes when I realized how this all was going to go and decided that the money wasn't worth dealing with the tech world and the risk of constant layoffs. Got my Advanced EMT, dropped out of college, and am going to be going back to school to get my paramedic certs. Pay is not nearly as good as a career in tech and the hours are insane, but if you have a pulse and a cert you'll always be able to find a job somewhere (and if it gets to the point that you can't, everyone else has already been fucked over).
trades and nursing.
forest ranger hehe
Idk maybe I’m wrong, but this feels like more of a hiring issue than AI. You should still be hiring good engineers, and you shouldn’t incentivize them to go so fast that they have to vibe code everything. Let good engineers use AI if they want, and not use it if they don’t want to. If their code is bad, it’s their fault, not the tools they are using.
Anything that's done on site or with your hand. Forget about working from home or having your own hours though, most of the benefits you are used to won't exist and it will be arguably harder work physically depending.
I'd pick something that can't be automated since that's also a risk even if it's not directly AI. That means something to complicated for robots (not much), too big or messy, where it can't be trusted entirely to robots (high safety like making plane parts) or most likely where robots can't easily go (house plumbing and electricity for example).
A lot of trades and manual work pay very well but you have to look before hand, it's definitely not all of them. Cooking jobs for example are pretty safe but don't ever become a cook lol.
If you have dev experience, I'd go towards micro electronics. It's too niche for AI to be good at it yet and has the physical part of prototyping and soldering that isn't easily accessible by AI.
First thing you do is realize that AI ain't as great as they want you to believe. Physical work is probably the best way to avoid AI completely, but eventually the hype will die down, so if you still want to work in IT, maybe something like a data technician or IT support?
Construction
Any careers that involve blagging and bullshitting your way through life on the works of others. In fact it's actually enhanced by AI.
So, politics and upper management
My BIL started brewing beer for a local brewery after he retired from the Army.
Engineer
Rocket scientist
Electrician
Plumber
Mechanic
Structural engineer
Surveyor
Anyone with a professional job that requires a degree, or even the most basic level of technical knowledge know that an LLM cannot replace their job by "putting words in enough of an order to sound like a person" or "drawing a picture that looks like something"
Pest control. Pretty easy to get into, pays well, can't be done with AI. You have to have the stomach for it, and killing things sucks, and you have to be able to walk away from an incurable situation if the people won't change their ways.
I think op is tired of squashing bugs tho
For all intents, it seems CAD is good for a while, at least til someone shows me a tool that goes straight from drawing to CAD and CAM paths. At least I'm also hoping myself. Besides, someone has to make those drawings, and for as long as my supervisors boss doesn't know how even tools wear, I think we're in the clear for.
I work in a warehouse, I come in at 7 and leave around 330. I put away freight, help the occasional customer, pick orders, ship out orders. AI can't do any of that in a small town. It still tries to get in where it can like customers wanting industrial automation products that have AI programming but that is way above my pay grade.
My previous job in a warehouse they were trying to do away with the manual routing of delivery routes by using an "AI" routing program but it was just an automated routing program they slapped the AI label on to charge more. It was just following rules not being actually intelligent.
live performer in circus will be safe (for some time) seriously, you've seen how this works, suddenly creativity can be achieved with little bit of randomness robots which should help us in menial tasks are surprisingly taking over art and creative things i mean it will take a while to fully take over but a lesson learnt is that you just need to throw in huge data to make it look wise and inteligent
CEO
Devs tend to say To hell with it! and lead happy lives in agriculture.
I know a couple.
As for agriculture:
Interstellar (movie) has a good example on how that could look like.
But remove the single person/family with corps.
TLDR: GPS controlled automated harvesting machines.
Surf lifesaver
(Apologies for the domain, couldn't find another direct link)
I feel this. I relatively recently pivoted into dev work for my career. I really enjoy it because we haven't forced AI into our workflows... Yet. We had a couple devs run an experiment to see who could finish an app first, where one generated as much as they could and another did it all manually. It wasn't even close. The manual job was faster to completion and good.
Unfortunately for me, my time is being split and I've been tasked to upskill on all of the different automation and AI tools that we have, because dumbass VPs drank the Kool aid, bought shit, and didn't hire experience to configure and run those tools. I've been reading so much garbage trying to master copilot studio, and honestly it's the worst product I've ever had to work with. I'm going to be having a heart to heart with my manager in the near future, and if I'm still stuck on the AI shit, I'm bouncing. I'll use what time I have to bolster my dev skills and leaving. If I can't find a dev job, it looks like I'll be pivoting my career again, and I've been thinking something like electrician. Honest work, not has hard on the body as say construction, and I feel it could still be mentally engaging compared to some other trades.
God speed on your future endeavors. Fuck AI.
Waiter?
I work a physical/tactile job in healthcare. My job won't be in danger until robotics dramatically advance and cheapen. AI could conceptually do my job, but the physicality is missing. A lot of healthcare careers are this way. Not all of them are though, so be wise in your choice!
Barber
Chef
Event operations (we will always need competent people on the ground who can quickly make decisions when the inevitable moment plans go awry, this happens in every live event)
Or I guess building the AI?
I am with you. Do accounting and tried to use our AI, it's ok at some stuff but only the stuff that our intern could do for less cost than we are paying to license the AI. Fucking hate how it's stuffed into inappropriate jobs. I think that sort of program has a place, sort through enormous datasets and give us the interesting bits, can help with DNA science, it's not useless, but it can't even balance a bank account.
I'm a bar technician. I help set up bars at events.
I can see the staff being replaced by robots at some point but not the installation.
Unless it's some sort of futurama bar style robot
I love being a dev. I love being able to build things faster. I love solving an issue. I love working on a great product I believe in. I love working for a company that puts the well-being of its employees above its profits.
Nothing you've written is about the impact of "AI" (whatever this means) and it has everything to do with how you decide to work.
And who you go to work for.. most of us aren't so lucky
Yes, I am insanely lucky. But this took fucking effort.
Electricians baby. The nervous system of the ai.
What about robotics?
Naturally you can ask LeChat and you will probably get a sensible answer ;-) but in general jobs that deal with real people (sales, consulting, project management, politics, …) and real things (e.g. electrician, construction, gardener, creator of beautiful items (furniture, art), mechanic…)
Consulting and Project management are ripe for AI disruption. No way will they be eliminated, but an AI camera tracking the blue collar workers plus a “manager” who is just a data entry clerk, especially when combined with other data sources will remove a massive amount of managing a project.
Consultants and Sales to a large degree are just about listening to clients whine about something and repeating back to management (in a different voice) the same things that their own staff is saying. LLMs are good at being that different voice.
Thanks for adding more perspective. Sure, if you take for instance “sales”, that is a huge category, from people who do telephone sales, to car sales, to software sales, realtors, consulting sales, complex equipment sales… the more complex the product or service on sale is, the less likely it is that the sales person will be replaced by AI, and the more likely it will be that this person will use AI as an assistant. The OP will need to identify that sweet spot, and a good education will be crucial.
toilet man
Graphic design
Wouldn't that be very at risk by AI given AI Art?
As someone with a degree in the arts, I'm pretty sure that almost all art as a career is under threat from AI. Sure, AI can't match the human experience and expressiveness needed for really great art, but that's not what most artists do to earn a living. And the vast majority of the people who traditionally pay for artists to make stuff for them really don't care at all. Now they can get Grok to fart out a logo or a poster in 15 seconds and not have to talk to an artist, they're all set.
w they can get Grok to fart out a logo or a poster in 15 seconds and not have to talk to an artist, they’re all set.
As much as I would like it not to be true, I think that you're right.
Even though the "posters" and "graphics" that AI spits out are just awful/distasteful/etc. those very things are 80% of what people hire graphic designers for. (I know I am one). Most bosses want something NOW! If it looks presentable, it's good enough.
In my opionion AI would hollow out the "entry level" tasks that small to mid-clients hire graphic designers for. What I think would survive are the "big ticket" projects, where human expertise would be hired. But again, those projects are few and far inbetween, and only a handful of designers are able to deliver work on such a high level.
is this a joke?