AI will eliminate many ‘blue-collar’ jobs—and 4 other AI predictions

What will the future of AI bring? Will it revolutionize our world with groundbreaking innovations, creating efficiencies and possibilities we have yet to imagine? Or will it pose serious threats, disrupting industries, economies, and societies in ways we are unprepared to handle?

On May 30, 2023, over 350 AI executives, researchers, and engineers issued an open letter, warning that the technology they are developing could become a societal risk comparable to pandemics and nuclear war. They urged President Biden and Congress to explore regulations to prevent potential negative impacts of AI on our world.

However, some experts are more optimistic. Kai-Fu Lee, the CEO of Sinovation Ventures, the founding president of Google China, and the author of AI Superpowers, has studied AI for almost forty years. Lee has made some specific and, he believes, realistic projections of how AI will change our environment in multiple ways. Here are a few of his forecasts.

Rethinking the Workplace

By the 2040s, almost all data will be digitized—which means AI will have access to it all for decision-making and optimization. AI and robots will take over the manufacturing, design, delivery, and even the marketing of most goods, while AI service robots will perform all the household chores, which I’m sure you’ll be sad to hear.

This transition will eliminate many blue-collar jobs. But whitecollar jobs, as noted earlier, are also threatened by AI. After all, AI can assist research analysts, lawyers, and journalists by having access to infinite knowledge—so, while professionals will find much to love about it, those who do routine whitecollar jobs like telemarketing, accounting, or what’s derisively called “paper pushing” will be displaced by AI. Over time, AI will displace most entry-level positions.

It sounds bleak, but there is a silver lining. Lee agrees there will be countless new jobs created by the effort to optimize AI which will require a human touch. Positions like Prompt Manager, AI Trainer, AI Auditor, AI Ethicists, and Machine Managers will be necessary in order to help companies develop and use AI in a safe, responsible, and effective way. Ultimately, it will be a huge shift, but a positive one.

Revolutionizing Healthcare

The transition to digital data is already well underway in the healthcare industry. This shift empowers AI, enabling it to transform healthcare into a data-driven field, from diagnosis and treatment to health alerts, monitoring, and long-term care. The development of Generative AI tools like ChatGPT is set to revolutionize patient care. With the vast amount of data available, these tools will improve efficiency and the delivery of quality care by assisting in patient education, streamlining management plans, and reducing administrative tasks, allowing for more time to be spent with patients.

AI’s discovery of a new super antibiotic is also a harbinger of more and more AI-led scientific breakthroughs in medicine to come. Pharmaceutical companies will find their R&D costs cut significantly, simply because AI can help invent many drugs at much lower costs, including cures for rare diseases. Precision medicine, which will tailor treatments for specific patients, will also become more prevalent, with AI taking into account medical history, family history, and DNA sequencing.

Creating Safer and More Efficient Transportation

While AI self-driving software at present isn’t delivering on its promise, that will change in years to come. On-demand autonomous autos will be available to take you where you want to go at a lower cost and a higher degree of convenience—not to mention more safely. Lee estimates 90% of traffic fatalities will be eliminated. He also projects that self-driving vehicles will be part of an integrated “smart city” transport system, where the cars are able to communicate with each other and avoid traffic jams and collisions.

Enhancing Education

Just as AI will enable medicine to focus on each single patient, it will also enable education to focus on each single pupil. A virtual AI teacher can pay special attention to each student and answer any question with precision—as well as with more patience—than the average teacher. It can find ways to treat complex subjects more simply, in a way that a struggling student can better understand, and hopefully teach in ways that are more effective, engaging, and fun. Human teachers will become mentors and connectors for the students, offering the kind of emotional support and empathy AI will not possess.

Virtually Transforming Our Home Life

AI won’t just affect school and work; it will be waiting for us at home—with amazing new worlds of immersive virtual entertainment that will be indistinguishable from real life. The boundaries between reality and games, movies, and even remote communications will become increasingly blurred. Our kids may be able to interact with virtual representations of such legendary figures as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and we will be able to use virtual reality for specialized treatments of psychiatric problems such as PTSD. Finally, AI will make great toys and be great companions. They just won’t be human.

Lee’s outlook for a future with AI is a lot rosier than that of the AI associates who warn that the technology will be as big a threat as the nuclear bomb. Who’s right?

If we manage AI responsibly—perhaps through an international AI safety organization much like the International Atomic Energy Agency—it may markedly improve almost every aspect of our lives by freeing us from the drudgery of repetitive, mindless tasks that it can tackle with ease, allowing us to experience technology at a whole new transformative level.

Excerpted with permission from AI Made Simple by Rajeev Kapur.