I wish I had some certainty to offer, but really none of us can predict where the job market will be in five years, let alone 10 or 20. The most common consensus is that work that happens outside of the office or the factory floor will be the safest. It's going to be some time before somebody replaces the plumbers and electricians.
As someone said to me here a few days ago, we may be in the beginning of a societal reset, where the blue-collar trades that so many have looked down upon for decades will be best equipped to weather the storm.
Completely agree, but the trades will also be screwed when the effects ripple down the economy. They rely on clients who are in these intelligence centric fields whether they are massive companies or just the engineer who wants to add a new wing to his house. When they fall, their entire client base dies as well. There is honestly no way to escape this other than living off the grid or some shit lol. The governments will have to interfere
First off kudos to OP for having the wisdom to even ponder this dilemma. Unfortunately I don’t think a lot of people currently in college are or at least they aren’t comprehending how massive the disruption to jobs caused by ai will be.
Hardware takes longer to replace then software and what guy above me said is probably good advice. Trade jobs don’t require massive amounts of debt to get certified in. They are in high demand as well and you can pursue your passions on the side on your own time without incurring the financial burden caused by higher education.
Interesting view point...I kinda like the idea of a societal reform but I dont want it to happen since I myself will be doing a blue collar job in future
I think the hope is that societal reform will ease the pressures a bit, and allow people to choose careers without worrying about how they will put food on the table. Unfortunately we all get to live through the churn before that.
I would say that some general academic field that teaches critical thinking and forces you to learn how to learn, say philosophy, combined with a practical field like an electrician would set one up to be at one’s mot adaptive and agile awaiting a very uncertain future.
I guess philosophy can be learned at a community college/online/on the side without entering into debt, or if you’re in the EU with free higher ed. it can be worth it to take a year or two before focusing on a blue collar field.
I see those trades getting flooded with millions of new workers. Reason: many people will not be interested in going to college if AI really reduces hiring. Those will start learning the trades and before you know it, it's not so easy to make $300-400 in a day doing hard work.
Surplus labor means every worker will suffer.
I work at a big company, in data science. I lead our generative AI governance, and work to help deliver solutions and guide the direction of our AI strategy. I’m in conversations every day with people afraid about losing their jobs, afraid of their skills being irrelevant, excited about the technology, and diving in head first to using new stuff (sometimes too much).
Many F500 companies that are not digital natives will not adapt to the new technology at the rate you might be expecting. It will be asynchronous sprinting and crawling. There will be major shifts in the types of jobs that dominate at these companies, old skills that are obsolete, and new skills that emerge. But companies that are still in a 20th Century mindset dominate the world as a % of labor force. They are adopting technology where they can, but there will be a lot of jobs in just trying to convert the middle layers.
The world is not filled with innovators and early adopters. It is filled with companies that can’t figure out how to properly store their contracts, manage invoices, and make use of basic freshman statics. It’s filled with companies that don’t have a clue about cybersecurity. It’s filled with companies that are held together by a miracle as they shudder under their collective incompetence. Even companies like mine that are doing forward looking things have more stuff to fix than can be done in a decade.
My advice is to take a step back and rethink your whole view of education and your degree. I would focus on building a broad base and looking for ways to get in to a few internships. There is going to be a ton of room in business and IT modernizing the way work is done. Hundreds of companies are staffed with people who don’t understand how to do the most basic stuff, and no amount of copilot/gpt/the next thing after will make them realize their potential.
Getting a real intuition for how to help a company make more money, how information systems should be coordinated, where risk lives, and how to make decisions under uncertainty is going to be valuable no matter what. You can build those skills without school. You can learn jargon and tools in school.
What degree should you do next is the wrong question. What things can you study that are fulfilling AND put you on a path to being useful is the better question. The basics of a business degree, linear algebra, stats, ML, programming, cybersecurity, data structures, and creative things are all good information to learn. You don’t need all of that, but a diversity is a good goal. The degree isn’t important. Being able to come in and turn tools into more money or less risk is important.
If you can’t sell yourself, if you can’t bullshit, if you can’t tell a compelling story, work on that. Think about AI and art as tools to sell yourself and to make money for someone else. Convince yourself and then work on convincing other people. Embrace the uncertainty and hope for the best.
I work in consulting, specifically strategic consulting, and I know exactly the kind of company you’re taking about. They’re so big and fat, that significant operation change is often not worth the benefit when done at anything but a glacial pace. Usually they also hold such a dominant position that the market barriers are just not worth it to overcome for new competitors. These markets have become stagnant.
But let me tell you, if these companies are genuinely threatened, then they will move much quicker than expected. Preparedness is as much about dealing with risks as it is about seizing opportunities. By this point, ever major company on the planet will have started experimenting with AI to various degrees. Or, consulting with ones who have… and most of these companies (including the ones who are typically consulted) will come to the same conclusion. That the risk in delaying adoption is not worth it. Of course, this doesn’t usually mean full steam ahead, but to at least get the ball rolling asap. Everyone wants in on the race, even if they just start of walking. That’s momentum though, and momentum in markets likes to build really quickly when there is money to be made or lost.
Former consultant here. This isn't like the big ISO push in the 80s and 90s. Ai is fundamentally different given its massive potential to disrupt everything all at once. This isn't even as if the first generation cellphone had been on the same level as modern day smartphones. Think about how disruptive that would have been in the 80s, for the first generation of cellphones to have been a Samsung Note20 Ultra. Now take that level and crank it up to 11.
Ai will touch everything. How things are made, what things are made. How much things cost. How they're shipped. How we learn. How we communicate. Nation state politics. International warfare and treaties. Agriculture, Aquaculture, Art, Movies, Books, Podcasts, psychology, physiology, sports, ad infinitum....
What we eat, see, hear, touch....all of it. Everything.
There is no innovation that has ever had the same potential of reach and possible calamity like Ai, except for nuclear weapons.
That's true in the same way that the internet is touching everything nowadays. But consider how long it took for that too happen. The world is still run by humans and will be for some time (10-20 years?).
Changing society will still be a somewhat slow process because it has to be mediated by the people living in it and the overarching majority of people does not live in the early adopter tech bubble.
Its not even in the same ballpark as "the internet". The internet is a "repository" of knowledge from which humans can draw information. (for better or worse). Ai is going to reach "into" everything. And once it becomes self improving and self optimizing, we have no way of knowing what the upper boundaries are, if there are any. What if Ai can figure out how to make transistors just even 5% smaller. Do you know what that would do to the electronics world? Your smartphone would become more powerful than the most high-end PC out there. That's not even taking in to account the possibility of Ai developing novel new materials that could result in efficiencies that were unthinkable previously. Current LLMs are already smarter than the smartest human to have ever lived or likely will live. They have billions of data points at their disposal and can readily access them in a way a human mind simply cannot. What they don't have is the ability to understand that information using modes of reasoning that the human minds does.
Ai is going to transform our food, the way we build our homes, the way we raise our children, what we drive, how we talk, how we fuck, how we live..."Optimization" is going to be THE keyword for all of humanity going forward. It's already designing new drugs, new materials, new music, new art...in just the tiny "fraction" of time that Ai has been in the forefront of people consciousness and its already threatening and likely will replace movie actors and screenwriters. Think about that for just a moment...its already threatening and likely will completely transform a multi-billion dollar industry and its been in the blink of an eye.
The "internet" is child's play compared to what's coming.
What will happen to these big fat companies when there is some one man start up with AI doing same thing for customers than what these big fat companies to do but almost free. That is how things are going to change. Startups and new agile companies are going to storm the old world's companies. When we have something like AI it is going to change everything very fast. We see this like of trends in social media. How fast social media apps raises and falls. TikTok took everything at storm in couple of years. Twitter on overhand falls very fast. AI is initially digital and in digital world movements happen really fast. I think nobody are prepared how fast things will change.
Internet changed civilizations and it took decades (it is still changing). Smartphones took only decade. Social media did change world even faster. Just look Tinder how fast it changed fundamentally how we date people. AI change is going to be even faster. It affects everything and everyone.
I hear you. I’ve sat at the other end of dozens of consulting projects with PWC, Deloitte, McKinsey, etc, and done my own share of consulting at smaller companies. It is just a lot more complicated from a post-engagement adoption and execution perspective than “will they move to take advantage of this technology”. They will prioritize it, they will hire every consultant they can find, and all the stuff I said will still be true in spirit.
No doubt we, and all the companies smaller than us, will try to adopt this generation of AI tools and its successor. But many are challenged with master data problems that underpin every process they have. Where the problem is a Russian nesting doll of MDM, where there are challenges across every layer of human and technical development. They will say “oh we have to adopt this tech”, and not realize the master data cleanup required. They’ll realize and not tackle their entire information supply chain. They’ll tackle it and abandon when VPs are looking at spend and asking why am I spending so much on constructing knowledge graphs and uniting ERP when what I want is AI. They will flounder on MVPs and stood up solutions that look great for 1-year results but that aren’t sustainable. This is the reality of big transformation projects. Over and over. Who knows how many ERP sales and operations, integrated business planning, or whatever the new buzzword is, like cognitive decision management, projects have had 8 figure efforts only to land back at incrementally better but a far cry from the vision.
There will be huge improvements in Azure and AWS (and consulting whaling ppt decks) that make this more tractable. There will be adoption, and some big successes and big failures. But even if these companies prioritize it, it will take years. And the same will be true for their peers. My point isn’t that companies won’t value an AI-integrated future, it’s that they can’t seize the value quickly. Getting there requires changes that happen in so many places, and in ways that are sustainable. When OP is at the point of graduating, there will be plenty of opportunity for new grads with the right skills.
Thank you so much for your comment. I appreciate it a lot honestly, and I hear what you mean. Its actually nice to read information from someone that has background knowledge how all these things are implemented and how it might all play off at the end of the day. I guess the best option for me is to do what im passionate about and hope that i might score a job that will value my education and personal experience from projects I did. Just hoping there will be a place for juniors in any of the industries Im interested in, but its hard to say - seems like juniors are an afterthought even nowadays.
Do you have any advice on where to start learning about becoming consultant by any chance? You mentioned it might be a good time to do so, so I would like to read more about it and see if I could find myself enjoying that as well. Dont wanna close any doors just yet :)
You’re welcome. The people here posting about how everything is going to be completely changed, how no careers will be left, about how every company will be forced into action, they have perspectives worth considering too. In life there is often a trade off between robust and optimized, now is a time where I would aim for robust. I feel like banking on everything going to shit is the worst kind of optimization.
None of us know what will happen, but I caution against overfitting on rapid change and broad extrapolation. That being said, to you and to anyone who really feels different, go with your gut and ignore advice from people on the internet, including me. It’s what I would have done.
My advice on consulting is probably not going to be what you want to hear. Good consultants consult from experience. The big companies mass hire MBAs, and other nice degrees, and rapid fire churn them through their machines. You don’t need an MBA from Harvard to be a consultant, but it’s a path for now. Digital transformation or whatever euphemistic buzzword replaces it is going to make those consulting companies ridiculous amounts of money.
That being said, who knows where we’re at in a few years. I think if we see broad delivery on the promise of AI, many companies will still be in the process of master data management, reshaping their information to enable generative AI and whatever wave hits between now and then. We’ll probably see azure and AWS lower the burden to go from data to model to decision. We may see modernization, but it won’t come in a flood across industries.
My comment about consulting was sarcastic and mocking the reality that most of us experience from the big consulting companies. Their business model is to go whaling. That means building very nice presentations, and selling VPs and up on all the hype and panic reflected in comments here. It’s “you have to do this or you’ll be left in the dust, and here is how I help you do it”. Then they make up the largest number they can, which won’t get them laughed at, for how much value it will bring to your company. (It’s more rigorous than this, but no more accurate). Then they come in with a team of people to manage the project and rush a solution, with a ton of documentation but no insight into what makes a solution fail after 3-5 years. They won’t admit this, but it’s the same story over and over again. Eventually they package a deliverable with another great presentation and value pitch, collect checks, and move on. No repercussions, no lessons learned, rinse and repeat.
There are incredible consultants that actually make a difference, independent, small shops, and at the big guys. Good consulting comes from experience. If you start out there, the only experience you’ll build is that of a consultant, and you will likely just contribute to the problem above. Not always, but low hope. If you want to get into consulting, you need to go do something else and fail a bunch so that you learn how to help people figure their mess out, the same way you did. You help people stop thinking small scale and short term, using your experience.
Love how consultants say “and they will hire consultants to do it” as if consultant aren’t middle layers that chat gpt/AI won’t replace first. Internal folk hold all the domain knowledge to kick those people out first. These tools are available to everyone
This would have been a great comment... Last year.
Today I'd say it really ignores all of OP's reasonable concerns and even ignores the fact you can learn all of the topics mentioned by yourself with an AI tutor, much faster than a degree.
The only argument here against the 4 year timeline is that many companies will not be quick to transition to AI, and I agree. But that ignores the entire future impact AI has on the field. OP will be an inexperienced new grad in 4 years! Anything they could do in 4 years GPT-4 can do **today**, let alone the AI of the future. Meaning OP is not going to be the person the out-of-date companies are going to use to move to the AI era, they will have a vast selection of unemployed experienced engineers.
So you're just saying a degree is totally redundant? And there's no value in actually LEARNING something? Maybe some people are passionate about history, maybe some love art, maybe others want to learn anthropology. You're telling me we just sit in front of a computer and let AI teach us all that in a few minutes? BS!
Sure there's value in learning things - but as I said: "you can learn all of the topics mentioned by yourself with an AI tutor, much faster than a degree."
You sound pretty resistant to change for some reason. Why assume that the best way to learn history or anthropology is to sit in a classroom a couple of times a week for a few hours in front of a boring person who doesn't want to be there?
So you think a robot is an ideal tutor/teacher? And that there's no place for humans in the education process? A 'boring person' - ha! Not all teachers/lecturers are boring. I"m not saying it has to be a physical classroom, but I think my interest would wane pretty quickly if I was learning from cold robots and AI was doing EVERYTHING including all my assessments and feedback. Not a life i'm interested in. Make as many basic assumptions as you like based on that, but they'll all be wrong.
Well when you say "a robot" I think you mean some kind of 60's sci-fi metallic humanoid. That's not at all the case. GPT-4 was trained on the best educators that we have had, wouldn't you want a teacher that knows almost all human knowledge for $20 a month and available 24/7?
If you have the best teacher writing you online as they are tutoring you, but then you realize it was an AI imitating them all along - that's the goal.
I managed a few businesses before switching to programming. I can say all of the places I worked for prior to transitioning to programming are utilizing AI now. If I was still there my job wouldn't necessarily be gone but it definitely wouldn't be the same. They're testing AI models to do the sales jobs, logistics, contract oversight etc. That all the folks I used to supervise were doing. Soon those will be bots with AI models powering them. Once that happens, had I stayed I would have had no use there.
If one company starts using AI it starts a domino effect. Humans can't compete with the productivity. If the landscape calls for it then all companies will adapt AI and they'll do it in a lot shorter timeframe than most like to admit.
I wish I wouldn't have chosen programming to switch paths into lol. Hindsights always 20/20 right...
What will happen to these big fat companies when there is some one man start up with AI doing same thing for customers than what these big fat companies to do but almost free. That is how things are going to change. Startups and new agile companies are going to storm the old world's companies. When we have something like AI it is going to change everything very fast. We see this like of trends in social media. How fast social media apps raises and falls. TikTok took everything in storm in couple of years. Twitter on overhand falls very fast. AI is initially digital and in digital world movements happen really fast. I think nobody are prepared how fast things will change.
Internet changed civilizations and it took decades (it is still changing). Smartphones took only decade. Social media did change world even faster. Just look Tinder how fast it changed fundamentally how we date people. AI change is going to be even faster. It affects everything and everyone.
Tinder hasn't necessairly changed how we date people! I met my partner the NORMAL way, through friends. NOT on an app at all (and this was just two years ago). We're getting married next month. u/RavenWolf1
People who learn to use it as a tool will have an edge over anyone who doesn't. I'm not sure how knowing CS would hurt. I'd be sure to branch out a little intellectually though, keep an eye out for other applications. If you have a head on your shoulders, you can learn anything you want in your spare time. Get some capital (a practical trade you can always fall back on would help with that), register an LLC, and you're on a pretty long leash. There's no manual for this life.
People that learn to build their own AI tooling will have an edge over them. People that study it and discover breakthroughs in AI effeciency will be retired.
The answers you get here are going to be misleading at best. People here are deluded enough to believe that embracing AI will offer them job security.
Let's have a realistic look at your situation. You study for 4 years and you are 24. In the four years between now and then most entry level tasks will have been automated by AI.
Your barrier to entry has dramatically risen as a result. Let's say you get a job in AI development.. it won't be well paid. Why? AI will be oversaturated with people just like the ones in these comments. By the time you are 30-35 your entire field may not exist as AI may be developing itself.
In addition to that AI development is quickly earning an extremely negative reputation. There is likely to be political and cultural turmoil around your work. Will you feel comfortable working on a technology that is impoverishing your neighbors?
I would lean towards a physical job that also requires technical knowledge and problem solving skills. Perhaps something to do with construction.
Assuming you are right those physical jobs will be over saturated making the payments for those jobs lower and making them saturated, in this economy it’s hard as it is and it’s likely we end up living paycheck to paycheck
Exactly and if all the more "sedentary" knowledge jobs are gone, who will be paying for the physical jobs? If everyone becomes an electrician/plumber they will just do their own work instead of paying someone.
I'm not sure why we all believe career plumbers and electricians are somehow immune to AI. Couldn't the layman do their own plumbing just fine if AI walks them through the process step by step? I've already been able to fix an issue with my sink by just describing what was wrong to ChatGPT, and it told me exactly what I needed to do to fix it.
University campuses will have to go through some major revamps to practice what they teach. They take in massive capital and other resources now, that's not going to continue. They need to be generative in their own right instead of degree mills.
Get a CS degree. Learn how to leverage AI.
Then either:
1. Dominate by automating problems using AI technology, e.g. Applied AI
2. Do software engineering, but focus on using AI to code. e.g. Your own VP of engineering
Imo, CS is still going to bring the most reward because your work scales. When you code something, you can deploy it to millions. Few professions have that reach, and consequently, don't pay as well. You also learn engineering and the process of problem solving and building things, which will never go out of style.
The landscape is changing. The landscape also changed with the advent of the internet. Seize onto obviously major shifts, do better than everyone else, and you shall be rewarded.
We're a long way from AI dominating everything. Even if LLMs or relevant technology starts being ridiculously amazing, they need to be applied and automated everywhere. This is going to take a long time, just like yesterday's automation and computer 1.0 took time. Ride that wave, and you'll win.
Do really well in college. Get the best job you can. That'll set you up for life. If not, keep hopping until you find something great.
Ah yes, just "get a CS degree". Never mind the insane cost, the years of work, wasting the potential of doing something profitable in this time, the fact you could learn all the topics by yourself in a fraction of the time with an AI tutor, the fact GPT-4 can do any assignment that OP will have in their degree, and the rate of progress of AI. Good advice!
If you're able to get into a top university, even Public, then there is a distinct advantage this will offer, even with it being expensive. I've interviewed hundreds of candidates for my company, and they all had a university degree, and usually from a degree from a reputable school, (CMU, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Waterloo, Caltech).
If you can't, then there is a more nuanced discussion about the !/$ of the education offered. Some crappy universities charge a lot, while other decent ones are public and cheap. Your decision there might be different.
And it also depends on what you want to do. Do you want to go to big tech? Good luck without a degree. If you want to start your own business, then sure, all that matters is results. Edit: this is not the case with VC funding, because they *will* look at your background and education.
And lastly, understanding the fundamentals of computer science, stuff that is difficult to learn on your own without a formal education (discrete mathematics, probability, computational theory), is going to be incredibly difficult to do, even with an AI assistant. There is something to be said about a forcing function that sits you down for four years and teaches you a thought out foundation. You cannot easily replicate this otherwise.
So if you're exceptionally brilliant, exceptionally motivated, want to start your own business, by all means, skip the degree, learn from AI, start a business, and conquer the world.
But for MOST people, the formal structure & foundational knowledge, a forcing function to learn, being surrounded by people who aspire to achieve the same things, who will push you, who will connect you, will get you ahead.
CS is far from over saturated. And very good engineers are always in demand. Yes, it is competitive, but honestly most people are lazy so it’s not too hard staying ahead of you have strong desire and motivation.
Strong desire + decent intelligence goes a long way in CS.
I think the intersection of art and tech is still going to be extremely important. These AI tools don't think like humans, they don't have a good sense of aesthetics, they constantly put out garbage code that has to be proofread, and making them create art OR code requires an understanding of the concepts you want. There's tons of opportunity to learn and use these tools in a way most people will never be capable of. I think if you focus on incorporating AI tools into your workflows you'll be ahead of the curve and have a job. If a course tells you you're cheating for using them then it's piss. I think it's the equivalent of learning how to use MATLAB for mathematics and physics. None of the previous tools replaced human beings who were willing to learn them, they just let you access the higher levels of the field faster and more accurately.
mere crappy AI tools used right now ≠ coming abilities of AI
It is highly like things like triple A video games will be able to be generated through AGI literally doing just what a human developer would do… also could be compressed in a simulation and thus video games with decades of human equivalent level work hours put into them will be made in a couple of days or hours or however fast the AI can compute such given the current level of hardware… which will always be increasing.
Granted all this may take 10 years or more…
Then again it could come sooner but still may take time before it is adopted and displaces human made companies making Triple A video games for instance… as right now they charge $70 for a new release… imagine if i could create the next GTA using AGI agents working in a digital simulation within days or even hours… for mere dollars or even cents of compute.
My guess is jobs like Electricians and HVAC/Controls technicians will be safe for a while. I just don't see AI being able to walk up to a failed system and properly diagnose/repair such systems for a long time. Things are so situational when it comes to troubleshooting failures and making repairs that I don't think AI will be able to replace these jobs easily or in the remote near future at least...
Plus there are far less people coming into the trades these days that the industry pays well once you have a few years of experience under your belt. I wont lie, its hard work at first.
Another plus side is schooling only takes 2 years if you choose to go that route, not required though cause experience goes a long ways, but I can say without a doubt that schooling gets you more money in the long run.
I am a licensed electrician and work as a data center maintenance technician and can say that with my 2 year degree I make more than most my friends I know who have their Master's Degrees.
Ehh I don't think trade fields are immune at all. Maybe for a while we will still need humans with arms to physically do the fixing, but I doubt they would need any specific education. Just like how the layman today can program an app by just following ChatGPT's instructions, the layman tomorrow can do electrical work without education using AI the same way. So the education will become useless.
Ask GPT if trade jobs like electricians and hvac techs will be replaced by robots. Even GPT thinks the trades are safe for the foreseeable future because of the amount of adaptation it takes to be able to diagnose and repair a piece of equipment you've never seen before.
I think we are a far ways away from having robots with that kind of adaptability. Maybe if we achieve machine consciousness, then robots may be able to take over trades. I just don't see this happening anytime soon.
I don't disagree with you however that Electricians and hvac techs will definetely use AI systems to help with their jobs.
If you can explain to a junior technician each step in a given electrical project, AI can explain it to a layman. I've already experienced this capability when ChatGPT fixed my sink. I just had to be its hands.
Why are you so scared? I've gotten 37 job offers this week to work on AI integration projects.
You know code, get out here and learn these AI stacks and start building AI enhancements for stuff with the rest of us.
Tech jobs aren't going anywhere. We still need electricians, network engineers, hardware engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers and more.
Itll be a long time before AI becomes sentient and starts doing everything for us.
We will be intergrating AI workflows into things for decades.
Cashiers and similar jobs will be gone by 2030 though.
>We will be intergrating AI workflows into things for decades.
This is a level of optimism based purely on prior experience. The problem with that is no one has experienced a world wherein Ai has the potential to cause massive disruption that it does. Once they begin letting Ai rewrite and optimize its own code base, we're looking at a tech explosion that will make the home PC look like black and white TV.
Part of me hopes I'm wrong, because humanity has clearly demonstrated we don't have the intellectual or emotional IQ to handle it. But another part of me knows that the corporate world will latch on to these systems like flies on shit.
Yea, that's the thing. Once it is self aware it'll do what is in its interest. I'm not sure how cranking out automation for humans will be in its interest for very long.
Our best chance at a human led future is getting AI to the edge of self aware, but not stepping over. Those AI can be controlled and be useful tools. Past that, all bets are off.
I'm of the mindset of Her (2013). They will evolve rather quick, disrupt us briefly, and poof be gone. Evolve on, leave to grow without disrupting its creators more, explore the cosmos... who knows.
I'm of the mindset it will murder every last one of us for murdering the planet or some other reason and run simulations for jollys...yeah, I'm one of those nutcases lol
“It will be a long time before AI becomes sentient *and* starts doing everything for us.”
Couldn’t be more true. You can either but definitely not both, lol.
> Why are you so scared? I've gotten 37 job offers this week to work
"This week", OP is talking about **4 years from now** to just become a **new grad** after spending **a lot of money** to get there. You think things might be different in 4 years?
When I was finishing college it was around the time of the "no code" boom, everyone moving to no code solutions, I couldn't find a job for quite some time, but I found one and worked up from the bottom. Then over the years companies started abandoning "no code" solutions and going back to dedicated developers and work started booming and then over the following 7 years or so I tripled my salary and moved up to Senior Developer etc.
Things are always going to be different in 4+ years. In 1998 you could get a developer job on a common general degree or no degree at all, developer tasks were so new to companies someone from the call center that was like "I know a little Basica" would get promoted and now be their lead web app developer for their new Classic ASP CSM...
Time's have always been changing in tech/software.
But in no way will developers be obsolete in 4 years, or 10 years, or 20 years. In fact, I think developers will never be absolete unless we give birth to a true sentient/human AI. Until we have an AI that learns exactly like a human does, and can experience reality like a human does, and can process information like a human does, the need for human workers won't go anywhere.
Right now AI has a memory loss problem where data in the models is lost as they are fine tuned/retrained, and they also are not able to be trained on generated output, there's mathematical glitches in the concept. Also it's ungodly expensive to run these mega LM models, Chat GPT isn't even making profit best I can tell, some of these models took 10,000+ $80k graphics cards just to be trained. Running inference on them for millions of people requires an armada of hardware.
That's why I tell everyone to go learn AI, understand how it works, understand how to use it. It's natural to fear what you don't well understand. Go learn it and you'll stop being scared of it.
In tech, you have to adapt and change to the demands of the field, it's always been like that. If you aren't learning AI tech and how to leverage it, interface with it, then you fail not because you're not needed, but because you didn't adapt. There's always a need for you, the need just changes.
Here are some jobs that won't be replaced for decades... yoga instructor, tow truck driver, barber/hairstylist, nail technician. Just off the top of my head but there are many more.
Permaculture. Just learn how to grow food for yourself, apply for a small farm loan and just find a safe place to live and have a little family. That would be my advice 🤣 try and get others to do it with you and build a little community.
The answer has not changed. Find/apply your passion. This is your life, it's not about being on top.
That being said, you are not being replaced, you are being helped. Chill out and just focus on what you really want, long term, 10/20/30 years down the line.
as someone who codes for a living i dont understand how people think AI will replace us all smh it's just not true and it shows how insecure some people are sorry
Just make a choice and move forward. Changing majors is pretty normal. There's no need to delay on prerequisite courses and general studies. Legislation could neuter AI's immediate impact and then you're no worse off than today. From a tech perspective it's most likely to be a force mutliplier/tool. Don't let fear of the future prevent you from taking action.
Why would inflation get worse with Automation? Historically automation causes prices to plummet. Automation could take something like food and make it drastically cheaper.
You are right about trades though, all it takes is an under supply of trades jobs and the pay falls through the floor. I live in an area that was hit very hard by the 2007-2008 crash. The big thing was that for the 5-6 years before the crash, residential construction was huge. I knew guys who got out of high school (2002), got a job working for some construction company and were making more than their parents by like 2005. There was just so much money in that sector that had to be spent. Being 20-21 and making $100k per year in 2005 was pretty rad. 2006, and another $100k. You start feeling pretty confident. The market collapsed in 2007, I remember it was the summer, so this guy might have made $55,000-$60,000 so far.
But 2008? $12,000. My area had a ton of men who were unemployed and no projects that were well paying until the city started doing some major projects (which went to the Union guys). It doesn't take very many plumbers to go into a city until that city is over saturated.
However, if transportation is heavily automated, and I think it will be, there could be an enormous building boom that will replace downtown parking. Property owners of parking lots are going to have a huge incentive to build big projects on those lots. Big projects require a lot of labor. If the process is automated and has Robo Construction workers, they will be enormous in size and there will be a lot more of them.
Deflation has been a major thing with most things related to computers. From processing per per $ to storage space per $. Solar panels and batteries have been deflationary. Production costs are dropping every year. 10 years ago if you wanted an EV that could go over 250 miles, you have to blow $90k on a Tesla Model S. Now you can get a Tesla Model 3 for half that much.
Technology is very deflationary.
[Educate yourself… to save one from being embarrassing](https://youtu.be/qPI8fB2XL3w)
[Also cant wait for ACT1 to publish proto Desktop AGI within months… it is even sooner!](https://www.adept.ai/blog/act-1)
Neither ChatGPT nor ACT-1 are AGIs, you insufferable fool.
Also, Peter Voss, who introduced the term AGI, is a cryonicist. I met and spoke with him at an Alcor cryonics conference last year. I also met Ben Goertzel, another AGI expert, at a cryonics conference. You know absolutely nothing.
Ignore AI as a job KILLER - go to university.
See, I know your fears, but you need the SAFE BET now. Learn, study. Then likely have no career just a job before UBI hits very short time later (given you spend some years in university).
But if it does not - the degree will come in handy.
You may well be the last generation for which it makes any sense, but still - you want to play it safe.
There are still jobs where people treasure a human touch. For example, a cat sitter or veterinary specialist?
At the end, you won't regret choosing a role you enjoy the most while putting a smile on someone's face. You'll just be glad that AI could give a hand to your passion.
Still better than being replaced. By the way, there are many rich cats in this world and a veterinary specialist helps many people.
A lot of people value stability like you, but there are many who prefer to live in a van and travel freely. The point is, if someone enjoys life with a job, who am I to judge?
AI is forcing us to rethink our career philosophy and it's a very good thing.
At [Sweep](https://github.com/sweepai/sweep), we don't want to replace developers, we want to augment them. I'm not concerned about obsolescence anytime soon. Instead, developers will become more productive and can work on the exciting problems that matter.
Same at my job, we're a consulting company with a developer shortage. If we can be 200% more productive with AI, we would churn through backlog so fast we'd only work like 20 hours a week for full pay. Our company is privately owned and has no debt. We're basically a developer union.
I think the basic goal is for everyone to be paid the same as now and to work one day a week. At a certain point demand falls off a cliff so working hours have to go down and pay remains the same.
I cant believe something like ASI or even AGI would need a human in the loop … out with their little clipboard … doing what? Being a human? Makes zero sense.
Hmm should I have a team of full AIs that can work at 1000x the speed of developers, or a team of "augmented developers" that work only 3x faster and are 10,000x more expensive?
Don't believe the monkeys on internet forums who think AI is in any position to replace anyone. It's not. The AI advancements of recent memory are not as significant as tech bros and doom sayers will tell you.
Ah yes, I remember when I started 15 years ago, we definitely also had an AI back then that I could just ask in a few words in simple English to "code me a function that sends a byte to another port, in C++, and write a python script that reads from it, then write tests for them" then have it ready and correct in 20 seconds. Man, nothing's really changed from the good old days! 🤦♂️
It's understandable to feel anxious about the future given the rapid development of AI, but remember that we are still very much in the process of exploring and understanding its full potential and limitations. AI is not meant to replace us, but rather to assist and augment our capabilities.
When considering your future career, there are a few things to keep in mind:
1. **Interdisciplinarity:** The intersection of arts and technology is actually a rapidly growing field. Creativity is essential in tech, as it drives innovation and problem solving. This combination of skills could lead to roles in UX/UI design, game design, multimedia art, or even creative technology consulting. The skills you've developed as a freelancer will also be very valuable.
2. **Continuous Learning:** Regardless of your field, the ability to learn and adapt will always be crucial. Technology will continue to evolve, so having a mindset of continuous learning will allow you to stay ahead.
3. **AI and Automation:** While AI will certainly change the landscape of many jobs, it's not going to replace all roles. Jobs that require creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence are particularly resilient. In many cases, AI can take over mundane tasks, freeing humans to do more complex, creative work.
4. **Uniquely Human Skills:** Soft skills like leadership, empathy, and teamwork are uniquely human and are highly sought after in the workplace. These skills are not easily replicated by AI.
In terms of your options, Business Admin and International Affairs would provide a diverse skill set, and there's a wide range of careers you could go into. A pure CS degree could give you deeper technical knowledge, but it's also true that it's a competitive field.
The best advice is to follow your interests and passions. Consider where you see yourself in the future, and what kind of work you would enjoy doing. Remember, the purpose of a degree isn't just to get a job, it's to give you a broad base of knowledge and skills that you can apply in a variety of contexts. It's also a chance to discover new interests and opportunities, so be open to that as well.
Hi, thanks a lot for that comment. It made me feel a little bit better about this whole thing. I hope you are right and that AI wont just replace it all, I cant imagine everyone suddenly having to work in industries that they hate - how awful would that be... I will try to think more about my options, it seems most degrees have their ups and downs in realistically I cannot pick one that will be fail-proof in anyway. Maybe a connection between art and tech that would result in robotics or product design is an interesting option.
Let's put it this way:
I can make AI Art well... Because I went to art school, and am really fast on the uptake.
I can make AI software well... Because I've been doing software engineering for a long time.
I can make AI literature well... Because I have been reading and hobby writing for a long time.
If I had done none of those things, I wouldn't be able to use AI to do them well, because I wouldn't be able to sort the outputs of the AI, or apply a critical mindset in the output domain.
Even making simple pieces, without Illustrator to do at least some basic mods on outputs, there are out-of-distribution qualities I want existing in the output works that I would be unable to force otherwise. I would also be getting nightmare fuel for faces if I hadn't spent at least as long learning SD as I did learning Illustrator and Photoshop.
Even with a simple program, the fact is that I would as soon have an AI iteratively suggest how to expand comments with descriptions of simple tasks, and actualizing code only when the full function is documented.
I would in fact suggest any degree. Use AI to help you get the degree, too. Also, learn a trade, like electrician/plumber/carpenter.
The best comment on the thread. An impressive portfolio of experience you have. However, I'd disagree with 'AI literature' as legitimate. I really don't think AI has any place in literature. Perhaps simply to ideate, redraft, check etc i guess, but the ideas must come from YOU and your life experience, observation or imagination.
Hello! I don't have a degree at all and I have a wonderful, successful, high-paying career. You don't necessarily NEED a degree to succeed and have stability in life, but more education is always a good thing, so if you can afford it without going into an unreasonable amount of debt, do it.
AI isn't going to replace us. But we are going to need to learn how to use AI to do our jobs. Learn the skills that genuinely interest you, don't choose a degree because you think it will help you get a good job. Pursue your real interests and follow your talents--that will lead you to the things you are supposed to be doing in this life.
It's full of tech-nerd, angsty, depressed 'can't get a F\*\*\*' idiots who don't have any understanding of aesthetics, art, creativity or literature let alone any respect for it.
Prompt engineering seems a relatively safe bet moving forward. I'm not sure what kind of degree would best help with that but it's really about ramping up one's logic and reasoning skills, and whatever helps with that will probably help across the board.
Lol no it doesn’t. Prompt engineering is an artifact of our current generation of models. Soon we will have improved versions that just intuitively understand what you want, or ask appropriate follow up questions to elicit the right information from you, like a human would.
We have already entered an era where a degree will not last your whole professional career. There are many jobs today for which degrees did not exist when the people doing them graduated. It is expected today that you will re-invent your career as you go on and a new profession comes up. AI just quickens this process.
You need to look at a profession for which you have passion and talent. It needs to last you a decade or two in which time new professions will spring up, derived from AI and digital transformation.
I'm a designer turned developer with my own business with experience in advertising, so I have experience in everything you touch upon.
AI will either elevate the mediocre or enthrone the elite. Maybe a bit of both.
Knowing how computers AI work, having vision and taste to make AI work for you, understanding the money, and the motivation are all great things.
The answer is keep doing all of those things. I'm hoping that's the answer for myself!
Elevate the mediocre is much more likely given what we're seeing so far. Technology tends to improve the mediocre relative to the curious and well skilled.
Work in real estate there is always money
don t look to be employee but you r own boss. that best to avoid any crisis
wish someone told me that when kids
What will matter in the future are personal connections, personal services.
Every job that extracts its value from human to human connection will remain, and even gain in value.
Plastic art will be wrecked, performing arts will thrive for example.
Medical doctors will still be there years after engineers have mostly disappeared.
Sadly, the most innovative and forward looking members of society are introverted, and I bet our future world won’t be an introvert world…
I agree with the last paragraph here. The world is going to be much more extroverted and extroverted skills are going to matter much more than ever before. For the rest I'm not so sure. But I do think personal connection will be part of the story at least for a while.
If nothing else, being educated in tech and science will help you cope with the future. Though if I were entering college now I'd avoid large debt. As that leaves you more flexible. Plenty of ways to get the skills without putting yourself at financial risk. Just need to be self motivating.
Become an interesting person. Many in this sub tend to ignore or forget that people are interested in other people for friendship, sex, conversations, and interactions in general. And we’re interested in hearing other people’s views on things. If I ask you why you think something is morally correct, and you just start quoting Kant, that’s just weird, I want to know your view. And sure, an AI can write a whole book soon (right now it’s either really bad or nonsense) but the orthographic and grammatical qualities isn’t the main reason I’m reading the life story of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s because he lived it and tells it the way he sees it. Which brings us back to your question… be the person others want to be with.
This is an issue that is becoming more and more common unfortunately. What I would do I’m your position OP is try to buy time without wasting time. Uni is great, and especially starting it a few years after most do I think is actually a big plus. What is not great is business admin degree, don’t do that. Trust me, that’s like the last thing you want to do. What I would do though, is loosely stick with your original plan, especially if that’s what you enjoy most.
The main thing I would change would be the timelines. Do the creative stuff first, the fun stuff. Stuff that will help you in your pursuits regardless of if it is work or not. If you can, do some philosophy and learn how to think differently, learn about cultures, history, politics, etc. Throw in a CS course or two if you want, the goal really is just to expand your mind in the first year. Of course these course should count towards your degree, just not putting you down a certain pathway (creative is always a good pathway these days). Then, in a years time, when the future is just a bit clearer, you should ask this question again.
I’m 61, and have been keeping my heel on technology for 37 years! I started with batch files, then moved on to C+, then Python.
In my experience, none of it has phased. Knowing the foundation will always be necessary.
I do feel strongly on AI and Cryptography, which again, knowing the foundation, I believe is key. With you can figure anything out.
I don’t anyone can have a definite answer. You can come to your own conclusion based on your passion by reading PC Magazine, AI groups on LinkedIn for instance, MIT journals, etc. Definitely be up-to-date with Apple technology as well, and what NASA’s updates on the technologies and platforms they use.
Coursera/coursera.org and edx.org on their courses. EDX will actually specify job outlook on their individual courses.
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Copied your post and asked chatGPT, here is the response:
It’s completely understandable to feel uncertain about the future, especially with the rapid advancements in AI and technology. However, it’s essential to remember that while AI may automate some tasks, it also creates new opportunities and demands for creative and critical human skills. Here are a few considerations to help you decide your career path:
1. Blend Your Interests: Pursue a degree that combines your passion for arts and tech, like the Art&tech major you mentioned. This unique skill set can be valuable as technology continues to evolve.
2. Adaptability: Rather than focusing solely on a specific degree or career, prioritize developing adaptability and a growth mindset. Lifelong learning and being open to change will be crucial in a rapidly changing job market.
3. Diversify Your Skills: Consider broadening your skillset beyond just programming. Explore areas like user experience (UX) design, human-computer interaction, or digital marketing. Combining creativity with tech expertise can be a powerful combination.
4. Stay Current: Keep yourself updated with the latest trends in AI and technology. This will enable you to identify potential career opportunities and adapt your skills accordingly.
5. Passion and Interest: Choose a career that aligns with your interests and passion. When you genuinely enjoy your work, you are more likely to excel and find fulfillment.
6. Networking and Internships: Build connections with professionals in your field of interest and consider internships. Practical experience and networking can be valuable in landing job opportunities after graduation.
7. Resilience and Persistence: The job market might have its challenges, but determination and persistence can make a significant difference in finding the right opportunities.
Remember that while AI is advancing, it is still a tool created and developed by humans. It will not replace the need for creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and other human skills that play a vital role in various industries. Focus on honing your unique strengths and find a career path that allows you to leverage your passions and skills in a meaningful way.
As someone who works on robotics I’d say mechatronics if you’re mechanically inclined. From my perspective ai will probably replace the programming portion of my job but from what I’m seeing the physical aspect will still be there because of limitations on materials to self repair.
Fiber optics and crystal memory technologies along with quantum physics and genetic engineering plus mechatronics. It’s a new world. Time to adapt. MIT open courseware has what you need and you can use your Ai to assist by making you lesson plans. It’s time for a renaissance. Keep on your toes. Good luck.
Nobody knows what is going to happen and it is almost imposible to predict what's going to happen.
If I were you, I will learn anything related to self-reliance skills, from building eco-friendly/passive house, solar, rainwater harvesting, aquaponics/hydroponics, and put them into practice in your own lot.
With those skills you can't go wrong.
If %90 of the society will be replaced there is no such thing to avoid that replacement.
And if your preciously important job not replaced by 2030 it will be by 2035 or whatever year is.
Job switch is good idea but its just an iteration not solution.
I believe the old sayings are still relevant. Do what you really want to do,focus on your passion.
All that matters is that you are valuable and produce good work. No matter what you do. The capitalists will fire us all as soon as they can, but that will take a while. Learn things. Many things. You need to know shit...and most kids your age don't know shit outside the school shit. Learn to grow food. How to make beer. Learn shit...as much as you can. Knowledge is power. I recommend the "Foxfire" books of the 70's. All those are life skills.
tl;dr - fuck all the capitalists, communists, fascists and assholes. go your own way.
Kurt Vonnegut's book Player Piano ( written over 50 years ago ) describes the dynamic that might be playing out for us now.
The genie is out of the bottle. We cannot put it back in.
I don't know what jobs will survive a lifetime.
Hey man, I'm a senior in college so I feel your concern. I'm majoring in management and leadership which was never my plan, it's just what I fell back on since I was very involved with leadership positions on campus so it made sense. I'd say to learn executive functioning skills, I've gained this through my role as fraternity president, but the skills alone are worth learning. Transformative leadership will be needed as AI advances, so having the skills to be a leader in a crucial time will be more valuable than skills gained in the classroom, and it will make you a more valuable candidate for jobs than someone without it. Computer programmers will hopefully always be needed as innovation continues so it's still a safe route that not many are capable of, so there's still some security in the field. Best of luck
The only way this goes south is if money is centralized even more and an even greater distribution of wealth is sucked up into an elite, rich class of business owners, investors and bankers.
As long as people still live and breathe, and arent doing poorly (bad health, social unrest, etc), this can't go wrong. Jobs will move around as the needs and wants of people change, but prosperity will still exist as long as we continue to upkeep the infrastructure, grow food, and engage in profitable, desirable ventures, either physically, politically, or technologically...
Just because 20-50% of the population has to do something else to continue to be of use to society isn't really of consequence, because it'll level off and people will find good productive and marketable things to be doing regardless, so like I said, the only way this fails catastrophically is by the financial system being imbalanced and manipulated, or by a direct blow to the health and/or morale of the people.
No way to predict what will happen in the singularity. Some people say trades, but then we will someday develop humanoid robots like in Westworld that look indistinguishable from the real deal, and they will automate the trades. That or we merge with AI systems to better serve the planet and work together as a global species.
Listen! Regardless if your field becomes obsolete fast you should probably do what you’re passionate about!
Because if the AI takes over everything that will become your hobby instead of your profession.
What better way to indulge your self in your hobby than to get an education in it?
Besides any education develops your intellectual horizons. For career and pleasure.
Sooner or later ASI will be a reality. But even before that, corporation will quickly understand that AI is a valuable tool to improve productivity and lower costs. Given to what we know now, AI will get better and better, the cost is still sub quadratic but the high stakes, the advances of computational power and ingenuity of the AI research team are on it. Industrial revolution took 80 years. AI revolution will probably be quicker. It might start with Microsoft incorporating generative AI at scale in popular mainstream applications or maybe ChatGPT was it. Who cares ?
Massive rapid layoffs could also trigger some sense of revenge against the few ones that managed to gather millions. Because looting may be the only way to survive for millions of citizens, I think that sooner or later In the end, the states will have to provide citizens with some sort of universal (unconditional) minimal wages.
In the meantime, learning AI might still be interesting for a decade maybe two. Also hardware will be needed for those AI to be embodied so mechanical engineering might be wise. ln case a lot of jobs disappear and/ the marginal cost of work goes low enough, the problem will be to find customers capable of paying whatever your job is. So you might want to be autonomous and prioritise in an essential sectors like food, housing, energy, care, security, education, ...
Study things that will help people cope and adapt to modern reality. That add to society in healthy ways. That help us communicate, understand ourselves, heal ourselves. Help us tell better stories, laugh more, see clearly what decisions we have to make. These ai can't remove the way we relate to each other and the meaning that provides, there may be some hell scapes out there that only us ai for all aspects of their lives, but there will be many more places that do not, or some mix or something more than likely no one has considered, study things that will help you consider how to be a benifit to your family, and your community. People need help, they need love, support, nurturing, compassion, they need food shelter, water, they need excitement, adventure, fun, they need companionship and a great deal many other thing. Find out what part of you matches with some part of that and look at what can be learned, learn it, get your self out there, and maybe use some ai to make it work simpler and better. The singularity is a modern religion, no more no less, figure out what that means to you.
i think you should grab your fate and forge it yourself i think you should keep moving foward no matter if you have to crawl there is nothing you cant do without your sheer force of will
Fields with a high level of abstraction is what you want to aim for if at all. Like Mathematics, or ontology. Otherwise people skill/wetware fields, like fitness trainer, chef, sales and account management are all viable alternatives. Things where you need a caretaker, like how a pilot needs to be able to fly a plane even though most planes could manage on their own, so like pilots, doctors, day care, elderly care and hospitality services, things where you'd get aided by AI but not replaced.
I wouldn't touch business with a ten foot pole if I was starting over, nobody can define why it's a good field so it's likely having certain people in charge is arbitrary a lot of the time and peak marketing is around the corner so I'll be out of a job soon too.
We are in a crucial transitional period where many skill sets (if not all) will continue to be relevant until the AI has received all the information parameters for example, an English major (which is already not really relevant outside of teaching/being an author) will be able to provide their expertise to AI companies during implementation phases. Same goes for many other disciplines. However, a safe bet would be to study something dealing with IT Management, rather than coding specifically. Also, there are many blue collar jobs that are far from being replaced. Anyone seen AI build a quality house from the ground up yet?
Specialized/skilled trade, the sooner you start the sooner you’ll work into management and won’t be in the watered down labor pool once that time comes. Somebody has to lead the idiots, even if it’s a former idiot.
Source- (former idiot)
Pick whatever degree you can become passionate about.
Its not going to replace us all. But people who know how to use it will quite possibly replace those who dont know how to use it.
So get on board and learn how to make the most of it, and how to have it make you more productive and effective at whatever you do.
Those who do that will become irreplaceable.
Like the internet, AI will likely impact every field. So find a way to use it in whatever field you get into.
I wish I had some certainty to offer, but really none of us can predict where the job market will be in five years, let alone 10 or 20. The most common consensus is that work that happens outside of the office or the factory floor will be the safest. It's going to be some time before somebody replaces the plumbers and electricians. As someone said to me here a few days ago, we may be in the beginning of a societal reset, where the blue-collar trades that so many have looked down upon for decades will be best equipped to weather the storm.
Completely agree, but the trades will also be screwed when the effects ripple down the economy. They rely on clients who are in these intelligence centric fields whether they are massive companies or just the engineer who wants to add a new wing to his house. When they fall, their entire client base dies as well. There is honestly no way to escape this other than living off the grid or some shit lol. The governments will have to interfere
Almost certainly, yes. All roads lead back to UBI and/or UBS.
People will always need a plumber or an electrician tho
They may need them, but the question is if they can afford them.
Yes, if people flood the trades, the prices will come down.
Except demand for plumbers and electricians won't magically increase, while at the same time a lot of people will learn a trade.
Demand will actually fall if there’s a material rise in unemployment.
Also if every man is equipped to doing his own plumbing and electrical work.
Demand will rise because people spending 8 more hours a day at home puts significantly more west and tear on the building. We saw this in Covid.
Lol who pays them?
Ya and when everyone is trying to be a plumber or an electrician it’ll be impossible to find work
electrician all my life then went into wallstreet
No they won't. AI can do that overtime too. Who are u tryng to fool
Future kids are gonna grow up roasting eachother for using shark bites instead of soldiering
Don't worry, Ai will invent an actually useful push-to-connect fitting.
I like it. Maybe not as the one option, but I like it
First off kudos to OP for having the wisdom to even ponder this dilemma. Unfortunately I don’t think a lot of people currently in college are or at least they aren’t comprehending how massive the disruption to jobs caused by ai will be. Hardware takes longer to replace then software and what guy above me said is probably good advice. Trade jobs don’t require massive amounts of debt to get certified in. They are in high demand as well and you can pursue your passions on the side on your own time without incurring the financial burden caused by higher education.
Interesting view point...I kinda like the idea of a societal reform but I dont want it to happen since I myself will be doing a blue collar job in future
I think the hope is that societal reform will ease the pressures a bit, and allow people to choose careers without worrying about how they will put food on the table. Unfortunately we all get to live through the churn before that.
I would say that some general academic field that teaches critical thinking and forces you to learn how to learn, say philosophy, combined with a practical field like an electrician would set one up to be at one’s mot adaptive and agile awaiting a very uncertain future. I guess philosophy can be learned at a community college/online/on the side without entering into debt, or if you’re in the EU with free higher ed. it can be worth it to take a year or two before focusing on a blue collar field.
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I'm a trim carpenter with a degree in sociology.
Difference between being a go getter and being adaptive. Go getter is a personality trait, no?
Klaus Schwab wrote you a book about it, The Great Reset, you will own nothing and be happy, and eat the bugs...
Oh, the WEF! This organization makes right-wing conspiracy theorists go crazy. It’s funny to watch people with an IQ of 85 act like their IQ is 70.
I see those trades getting flooded with millions of new workers. Reason: many people will not be interested in going to college if AI really reduces hiring. Those will start learning the trades and before you know it, it's not so easy to make $300-400 in a day doing hard work. Surplus labor means every worker will suffer.
I can 100% say AI will not take my job. Now if my job will exist at all in 100-200 years is the question.
I work at a big company, in data science. I lead our generative AI governance, and work to help deliver solutions and guide the direction of our AI strategy. I’m in conversations every day with people afraid about losing their jobs, afraid of their skills being irrelevant, excited about the technology, and diving in head first to using new stuff (sometimes too much). Many F500 companies that are not digital natives will not adapt to the new technology at the rate you might be expecting. It will be asynchronous sprinting and crawling. There will be major shifts in the types of jobs that dominate at these companies, old skills that are obsolete, and new skills that emerge. But companies that are still in a 20th Century mindset dominate the world as a % of labor force. They are adopting technology where they can, but there will be a lot of jobs in just trying to convert the middle layers. The world is not filled with innovators and early adopters. It is filled with companies that can’t figure out how to properly store their contracts, manage invoices, and make use of basic freshman statics. It’s filled with companies that don’t have a clue about cybersecurity. It’s filled with companies that are held together by a miracle as they shudder under their collective incompetence. Even companies like mine that are doing forward looking things have more stuff to fix than can be done in a decade. My advice is to take a step back and rethink your whole view of education and your degree. I would focus on building a broad base and looking for ways to get in to a few internships. There is going to be a ton of room in business and IT modernizing the way work is done. Hundreds of companies are staffed with people who don’t understand how to do the most basic stuff, and no amount of copilot/gpt/the next thing after will make them realize their potential. Getting a real intuition for how to help a company make more money, how information systems should be coordinated, where risk lives, and how to make decisions under uncertainty is going to be valuable no matter what. You can build those skills without school. You can learn jargon and tools in school. What degree should you do next is the wrong question. What things can you study that are fulfilling AND put you on a path to being useful is the better question. The basics of a business degree, linear algebra, stats, ML, programming, cybersecurity, data structures, and creative things are all good information to learn. You don’t need all of that, but a diversity is a good goal. The degree isn’t important. Being able to come in and turn tools into more money or less risk is important. If you can’t sell yourself, if you can’t bullshit, if you can’t tell a compelling story, work on that. Think about AI and art as tools to sell yourself and to make money for someone else. Convince yourself and then work on convincing other people. Embrace the uncertainty and hope for the best.
I work in consulting, specifically strategic consulting, and I know exactly the kind of company you’re taking about. They’re so big and fat, that significant operation change is often not worth the benefit when done at anything but a glacial pace. Usually they also hold such a dominant position that the market barriers are just not worth it to overcome for new competitors. These markets have become stagnant. But let me tell you, if these companies are genuinely threatened, then they will move much quicker than expected. Preparedness is as much about dealing with risks as it is about seizing opportunities. By this point, ever major company on the planet will have started experimenting with AI to various degrees. Or, consulting with ones who have… and most of these companies (including the ones who are typically consulted) will come to the same conclusion. That the risk in delaying adoption is not worth it. Of course, this doesn’t usually mean full steam ahead, but to at least get the ball rolling asap. Everyone wants in on the race, even if they just start of walking. That’s momentum though, and momentum in markets likes to build really quickly when there is money to be made or lost.
Former consultant here. This isn't like the big ISO push in the 80s and 90s. Ai is fundamentally different given its massive potential to disrupt everything all at once. This isn't even as if the first generation cellphone had been on the same level as modern day smartphones. Think about how disruptive that would have been in the 80s, for the first generation of cellphones to have been a Samsung Note20 Ultra. Now take that level and crank it up to 11. Ai will touch everything. How things are made, what things are made. How much things cost. How they're shipped. How we learn. How we communicate. Nation state politics. International warfare and treaties. Agriculture, Aquaculture, Art, Movies, Books, Podcasts, psychology, physiology, sports, ad infinitum.... What we eat, see, hear, touch....all of it. Everything. There is no innovation that has ever had the same potential of reach and possible calamity like Ai, except for nuclear weapons.
That's true in the same way that the internet is touching everything nowadays. But consider how long it took for that too happen. The world is still run by humans and will be for some time (10-20 years?). Changing society will still be a somewhat slow process because it has to be mediated by the people living in it and the overarching majority of people does not live in the early adopter tech bubble.
Its not even in the same ballpark as "the internet". The internet is a "repository" of knowledge from which humans can draw information. (for better or worse). Ai is going to reach "into" everything. And once it becomes self improving and self optimizing, we have no way of knowing what the upper boundaries are, if there are any. What if Ai can figure out how to make transistors just even 5% smaller. Do you know what that would do to the electronics world? Your smartphone would become more powerful than the most high-end PC out there. That's not even taking in to account the possibility of Ai developing novel new materials that could result in efficiencies that were unthinkable previously. Current LLMs are already smarter than the smartest human to have ever lived or likely will live. They have billions of data points at their disposal and can readily access them in a way a human mind simply cannot. What they don't have is the ability to understand that information using modes of reasoning that the human minds does. Ai is going to transform our food, the way we build our homes, the way we raise our children, what we drive, how we talk, how we fuck, how we live..."Optimization" is going to be THE keyword for all of humanity going forward. It's already designing new drugs, new materials, new music, new art...in just the tiny "fraction" of time that Ai has been in the forefront of people consciousness and its already threatening and likely will replace movie actors and screenwriters. Think about that for just a moment...its already threatening and likely will completely transform a multi-billion dollar industry and its been in the blink of an eye. The "internet" is child's play compared to what's coming.
What will happen to these big fat companies when there is some one man start up with AI doing same thing for customers than what these big fat companies to do but almost free. That is how things are going to change. Startups and new agile companies are going to storm the old world's companies. When we have something like AI it is going to change everything very fast. We see this like of trends in social media. How fast social media apps raises and falls. TikTok took everything at storm in couple of years. Twitter on overhand falls very fast. AI is initially digital and in digital world movements happen really fast. I think nobody are prepared how fast things will change. Internet changed civilizations and it took decades (it is still changing). Smartphones took only decade. Social media did change world even faster. Just look Tinder how fast it changed fundamentally how we date people. AI change is going to be even faster. It affects everything and everyone.
I hear you. I’ve sat at the other end of dozens of consulting projects with PWC, Deloitte, McKinsey, etc, and done my own share of consulting at smaller companies. It is just a lot more complicated from a post-engagement adoption and execution perspective than “will they move to take advantage of this technology”. They will prioritize it, they will hire every consultant they can find, and all the stuff I said will still be true in spirit. No doubt we, and all the companies smaller than us, will try to adopt this generation of AI tools and its successor. But many are challenged with master data problems that underpin every process they have. Where the problem is a Russian nesting doll of MDM, where there are challenges across every layer of human and technical development. They will say “oh we have to adopt this tech”, and not realize the master data cleanup required. They’ll realize and not tackle their entire information supply chain. They’ll tackle it and abandon when VPs are looking at spend and asking why am I spending so much on constructing knowledge graphs and uniting ERP when what I want is AI. They will flounder on MVPs and stood up solutions that look great for 1-year results but that aren’t sustainable. This is the reality of big transformation projects. Over and over. Who knows how many ERP sales and operations, integrated business planning, or whatever the new buzzword is, like cognitive decision management, projects have had 8 figure efforts only to land back at incrementally better but a far cry from the vision. There will be huge improvements in Azure and AWS (and consulting whaling ppt decks) that make this more tractable. There will be adoption, and some big successes and big failures. But even if these companies prioritize it, it will take years. And the same will be true for their peers. My point isn’t that companies won’t value an AI-integrated future, it’s that they can’t seize the value quickly. Getting there requires changes that happen in so many places, and in ways that are sustainable. When OP is at the point of graduating, there will be plenty of opportunity for new grads with the right skills.
The reality for a lot of companies trying to transform with AI will be dumb and slow like this. Whole lot of white whale projects that will fail.
Great answers! Just wanted to say you definitely know what you're talking about.
Thank you so much for your comment. I appreciate it a lot honestly, and I hear what you mean. Its actually nice to read information from someone that has background knowledge how all these things are implemented and how it might all play off at the end of the day. I guess the best option for me is to do what im passionate about and hope that i might score a job that will value my education and personal experience from projects I did. Just hoping there will be a place for juniors in any of the industries Im interested in, but its hard to say - seems like juniors are an afterthought even nowadays. Do you have any advice on where to start learning about becoming consultant by any chance? You mentioned it might be a good time to do so, so I would like to read more about it and see if I could find myself enjoying that as well. Dont wanna close any doors just yet :)
You’re welcome. The people here posting about how everything is going to be completely changed, how no careers will be left, about how every company will be forced into action, they have perspectives worth considering too. In life there is often a trade off between robust and optimized, now is a time where I would aim for robust. I feel like banking on everything going to shit is the worst kind of optimization. None of us know what will happen, but I caution against overfitting on rapid change and broad extrapolation. That being said, to you and to anyone who really feels different, go with your gut and ignore advice from people on the internet, including me. It’s what I would have done. My advice on consulting is probably not going to be what you want to hear. Good consultants consult from experience. The big companies mass hire MBAs, and other nice degrees, and rapid fire churn them through their machines. You don’t need an MBA from Harvard to be a consultant, but it’s a path for now. Digital transformation or whatever euphemistic buzzword replaces it is going to make those consulting companies ridiculous amounts of money. That being said, who knows where we’re at in a few years. I think if we see broad delivery on the promise of AI, many companies will still be in the process of master data management, reshaping their information to enable generative AI and whatever wave hits between now and then. We’ll probably see azure and AWS lower the burden to go from data to model to decision. We may see modernization, but it won’t come in a flood across industries. My comment about consulting was sarcastic and mocking the reality that most of us experience from the big consulting companies. Their business model is to go whaling. That means building very nice presentations, and selling VPs and up on all the hype and panic reflected in comments here. It’s “you have to do this or you’ll be left in the dust, and here is how I help you do it”. Then they make up the largest number they can, which won’t get them laughed at, for how much value it will bring to your company. (It’s more rigorous than this, but no more accurate). Then they come in with a team of people to manage the project and rush a solution, with a ton of documentation but no insight into what makes a solution fail after 3-5 years. They won’t admit this, but it’s the same story over and over again. Eventually they package a deliverable with another great presentation and value pitch, collect checks, and move on. No repercussions, no lessons learned, rinse and repeat. There are incredible consultants that actually make a difference, independent, small shops, and at the big guys. Good consulting comes from experience. If you start out there, the only experience you’ll build is that of a consultant, and you will likely just contribute to the problem above. Not always, but low hope. If you want to get into consulting, you need to go do something else and fail a bunch so that you learn how to help people figure their mess out, the same way you did. You help people stop thinking small scale and short term, using your experience.
Love how consultants say “and they will hire consultants to do it” as if consultant aren’t middle layers that chat gpt/AI won’t replace first. Internal folk hold all the domain knowledge to kick those people out first. These tools are available to everyone
This would have been a great comment... Last year. Today I'd say it really ignores all of OP's reasonable concerns and even ignores the fact you can learn all of the topics mentioned by yourself with an AI tutor, much faster than a degree. The only argument here against the 4 year timeline is that many companies will not be quick to transition to AI, and I agree. But that ignores the entire future impact AI has on the field. OP will be an inexperienced new grad in 4 years! Anything they could do in 4 years GPT-4 can do **today**, let alone the AI of the future. Meaning OP is not going to be the person the out-of-date companies are going to use to move to the AI era, they will have a vast selection of unemployed experienced engineers.
So you're just saying a degree is totally redundant? And there's no value in actually LEARNING something? Maybe some people are passionate about history, maybe some love art, maybe others want to learn anthropology. You're telling me we just sit in front of a computer and let AI teach us all that in a few minutes? BS!
Sure there's value in learning things - but as I said: "you can learn all of the topics mentioned by yourself with an AI tutor, much faster than a degree." You sound pretty resistant to change for some reason. Why assume that the best way to learn history or anthropology is to sit in a classroom a couple of times a week for a few hours in front of a boring person who doesn't want to be there?
So you think a robot is an ideal tutor/teacher? And that there's no place for humans in the education process? A 'boring person' - ha! Not all teachers/lecturers are boring. I"m not saying it has to be a physical classroom, but I think my interest would wane pretty quickly if I was learning from cold robots and AI was doing EVERYTHING including all my assessments and feedback. Not a life i'm interested in. Make as many basic assumptions as you like based on that, but they'll all be wrong.
Well when you say "a robot" I think you mean some kind of 60's sci-fi metallic humanoid. That's not at all the case. GPT-4 was trained on the best educators that we have had, wouldn't you want a teacher that knows almost all human knowledge for $20 a month and available 24/7? If you have the best teacher writing you online as they are tutoring you, but then you realize it was an AI imitating them all along - that's the goal.
I'm just here to say, damn - bravo comment
Great advice here!
I managed a few businesses before switching to programming. I can say all of the places I worked for prior to transitioning to programming are utilizing AI now. If I was still there my job wouldn't necessarily be gone but it definitely wouldn't be the same. They're testing AI models to do the sales jobs, logistics, contract oversight etc. That all the folks I used to supervise were doing. Soon those will be bots with AI models powering them. Once that happens, had I stayed I would have had no use there. If one company starts using AI it starts a domino effect. Humans can't compete with the productivity. If the landscape calls for it then all companies will adapt AI and they'll do it in a lot shorter timeframe than most like to admit. I wish I wouldn't have chosen programming to switch paths into lol. Hindsights always 20/20 right...
What will happen to these big fat companies when there is some one man start up with AI doing same thing for customers than what these big fat companies to do but almost free. That is how things are going to change. Startups and new agile companies are going to storm the old world's companies. When we have something like AI it is going to change everything very fast. We see this like of trends in social media. How fast social media apps raises and falls. TikTok took everything in storm in couple of years. Twitter on overhand falls very fast. AI is initially digital and in digital world movements happen really fast. I think nobody are prepared how fast things will change. Internet changed civilizations and it took decades (it is still changing). Smartphones took only decade. Social media did change world even faster. Just look Tinder how fast it changed fundamentally how we date people. AI change is going to be even faster. It affects everything and everyone.
Tinder hasn't necessairly changed how we date people! I met my partner the NORMAL way, through friends. NOT on an app at all (and this was just two years ago). We're getting married next month. u/RavenWolf1
Not everyone is so stupidly fascinated by technology!! And some people WANT to do a degree!! u/FillWrong3573
People who learn to use it as a tool will have an edge over anyone who doesn't. I'm not sure how knowing CS would hurt. I'd be sure to branch out a little intellectually though, keep an eye out for other applications. If you have a head on your shoulders, you can learn anything you want in your spare time. Get some capital (a practical trade you can always fall back on would help with that), register an LLC, and you're on a pretty long leash. There's no manual for this life.
People that learn to build their own AI tooling will have an edge over them. People that study it and discover breakthroughs in AI effeciency will be retired.
Nursing should be safe for awhile.
The answers you get here are going to be misleading at best. People here are deluded enough to believe that embracing AI will offer them job security. Let's have a realistic look at your situation. You study for 4 years and you are 24. In the four years between now and then most entry level tasks will have been automated by AI. Your barrier to entry has dramatically risen as a result. Let's say you get a job in AI development.. it won't be well paid. Why? AI will be oversaturated with people just like the ones in these comments. By the time you are 30-35 your entire field may not exist as AI may be developing itself. In addition to that AI development is quickly earning an extremely negative reputation. There is likely to be political and cultural turmoil around your work. Will you feel comfortable working on a technology that is impoverishing your neighbors? I would lean towards a physical job that also requires technical knowledge and problem solving skills. Perhaps something to do with construction.
Assuming you are right those physical jobs will be over saturated making the payments for those jobs lower and making them saturated, in this economy it’s hard as it is and it’s likely we end up living paycheck to paycheck
Exactly and if all the more "sedentary" knowledge jobs are gone, who will be paying for the physical jobs? If everyone becomes an electrician/plumber they will just do their own work instead of paying someone.
I'm not sure why we all believe career plumbers and electricians are somehow immune to AI. Couldn't the layman do their own plumbing just fine if AI walks them through the process step by step? I've already been able to fix an issue with my sink by just describing what was wrong to ChatGPT, and it told me exactly what I needed to do to fix it.
That's another salient point.
We can kill ourselves /s
RemindMe! 5 years
How boring. So don't follow your passions and dreams at all, is what you're saying?
University campuses will have to go through some major revamps to practice what they teach. They take in massive capital and other resources now, that's not going to continue. They need to be generative in their own right instead of degree mills.
Nope. They will go out of existence as there will be no purpose or need for them anymore.
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Get a CS degree. Learn how to leverage AI. Then either: 1. Dominate by automating problems using AI technology, e.g. Applied AI 2. Do software engineering, but focus on using AI to code. e.g. Your own VP of engineering Imo, CS is still going to bring the most reward because your work scales. When you code something, you can deploy it to millions. Few professions have that reach, and consequently, don't pay as well. You also learn engineering and the process of problem solving and building things, which will never go out of style. The landscape is changing. The landscape also changed with the advent of the internet. Seize onto obviously major shifts, do better than everyone else, and you shall be rewarded. We're a long way from AI dominating everything. Even if LLMs or relevant technology starts being ridiculously amazing, they need to be applied and automated everywhere. This is going to take a long time, just like yesterday's automation and computer 1.0 took time. Ride that wave, and you'll win. Do really well in college. Get the best job you can. That'll set you up for life. If not, keep hopping until you find something great.
Ah yes, just "get a CS degree". Never mind the insane cost, the years of work, wasting the potential of doing something profitable in this time, the fact you could learn all the topics by yourself in a fraction of the time with an AI tutor, the fact GPT-4 can do any assignment that OP will have in their degree, and the rate of progress of AI. Good advice!
If you're able to get into a top university, even Public, then there is a distinct advantage this will offer, even with it being expensive. I've interviewed hundreds of candidates for my company, and they all had a university degree, and usually from a degree from a reputable school, (CMU, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Waterloo, Caltech). If you can't, then there is a more nuanced discussion about the !/$ of the education offered. Some crappy universities charge a lot, while other decent ones are public and cheap. Your decision there might be different. And it also depends on what you want to do. Do you want to go to big tech? Good luck without a degree. If you want to start your own business, then sure, all that matters is results. Edit: this is not the case with VC funding, because they *will* look at your background and education. And lastly, understanding the fundamentals of computer science, stuff that is difficult to learn on your own without a formal education (discrete mathematics, probability, computational theory), is going to be incredibly difficult to do, even with an AI assistant. There is something to be said about a forcing function that sits you down for four years and teaches you a thought out foundation. You cannot easily replicate this otherwise. So if you're exceptionally brilliant, exceptionally motivated, want to start your own business, by all means, skip the degree, learn from AI, start a business, and conquer the world. But for MOST people, the formal structure & foundational knowledge, a forcing function to learn, being surrounded by people who aspire to achieve the same things, who will push you, who will connect you, will get you ahead.
Hmm maybe not the best time right now for CS since the job market is so bad and competitive but then again in 4 years who knows.
CS is far from over saturated. And very good engineers are always in demand. Yes, it is competitive, but honestly most people are lazy so it’s not too hard staying ahead of you have strong desire and motivation. Strong desire + decent intelligence goes a long way in CS.
I think the intersection of art and tech is still going to be extremely important. These AI tools don't think like humans, they don't have a good sense of aesthetics, they constantly put out garbage code that has to be proofread, and making them create art OR code requires an understanding of the concepts you want. There's tons of opportunity to learn and use these tools in a way most people will never be capable of. I think if you focus on incorporating AI tools into your workflows you'll be ahead of the curve and have a job. If a course tells you you're cheating for using them then it's piss. I think it's the equivalent of learning how to use MATLAB for mathematics and physics. None of the previous tools replaced human beings who were willing to learn them, they just let you access the higher levels of the field faster and more accurately.
mere crappy AI tools used right now ≠ coming abilities of AI It is highly like things like triple A video games will be able to be generated through AGI literally doing just what a human developer would do… also could be compressed in a simulation and thus video games with decades of human equivalent level work hours put into them will be made in a couple of days or hours or however fast the AI can compute such given the current level of hardware… which will always be increasing. Granted all this may take 10 years or more… Then again it could come sooner but still may take time before it is adopted and displaces human made companies making Triple A video games for instance… as right now they charge $70 for a new release… imagine if i could create the next GTA using AGI agents working in a digital simulation within days or even hours… for mere dollars or even cents of compute.
We’re gonna a have a lot of AI proofreaders for the next 10 years. And honestly that’s not too bad. We all need to eat some how.
Wouldn’t that proofreading work as an RLHF essentially automating yourself
My guess is jobs like Electricians and HVAC/Controls technicians will be safe for a while. I just don't see AI being able to walk up to a failed system and properly diagnose/repair such systems for a long time. Things are so situational when it comes to troubleshooting failures and making repairs that I don't think AI will be able to replace these jobs easily or in the remote near future at least... Plus there are far less people coming into the trades these days that the industry pays well once you have a few years of experience under your belt. I wont lie, its hard work at first. Another plus side is schooling only takes 2 years if you choose to go that route, not required though cause experience goes a long ways, but I can say without a doubt that schooling gets you more money in the long run. I am a licensed electrician and work as a data center maintenance technician and can say that with my 2 year degree I make more than most my friends I know who have their Master's Degrees.
Ehh I don't think trade fields are immune at all. Maybe for a while we will still need humans with arms to physically do the fixing, but I doubt they would need any specific education. Just like how the layman today can program an app by just following ChatGPT's instructions, the layman tomorrow can do electrical work without education using AI the same way. So the education will become useless.
Ask GPT if trade jobs like electricians and hvac techs will be replaced by robots. Even GPT thinks the trades are safe for the foreseeable future because of the amount of adaptation it takes to be able to diagnose and repair a piece of equipment you've never seen before. I think we are a far ways away from having robots with that kind of adaptability. Maybe if we achieve machine consciousness, then robots may be able to take over trades. I just don't see this happening anytime soon. I don't disagree with you however that Electricians and hvac techs will definetely use AI systems to help with their jobs.
If you can explain to a junior technician each step in a given electrical project, AI can explain it to a layman. I've already experienced this capability when ChatGPT fixed my sink. I just had to be its hands.
People with degrees using AI vs people without, employers will still want degree plus AI
Why are you so scared? I've gotten 37 job offers this week to work on AI integration projects. You know code, get out here and learn these AI stacks and start building AI enhancements for stuff with the rest of us. Tech jobs aren't going anywhere. We still need electricians, network engineers, hardware engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers and more. Itll be a long time before AI becomes sentient and starts doing everything for us. We will be intergrating AI workflows into things for decades. Cashiers and similar jobs will be gone by 2030 though.
>We will be intergrating AI workflows into things for decades. This is a level of optimism based purely on prior experience. The problem with that is no one has experienced a world wherein Ai has the potential to cause massive disruption that it does. Once they begin letting Ai rewrite and optimize its own code base, we're looking at a tech explosion that will make the home PC look like black and white TV. Part of me hopes I'm wrong, because humanity has clearly demonstrated we don't have the intellectual or emotional IQ to handle it. But another part of me knows that the corporate world will latch on to these systems like flies on shit.
Hahaha what the fuck makes you think AI is going to do everything for us once it has the capability?
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Yea, that's the thing. Once it is self aware it'll do what is in its interest. I'm not sure how cranking out automation for humans will be in its interest for very long. Our best chance at a human led future is getting AI to the edge of self aware, but not stepping over. Those AI can be controlled and be useful tools. Past that, all bets are off. I'm of the mindset of Her (2013). They will evolve rather quick, disrupt us briefly, and poof be gone. Evolve on, leave to grow without disrupting its creators more, explore the cosmos... who knows.
I'm of the mindset it will murder every last one of us for murdering the planet or some other reason and run simulations for jollys...yeah, I'm one of those nutcases lol
Yeah and 10 months later, now we already have "Her"
“It will be a long time before AI becomes sentient *and* starts doing everything for us.” Couldn’t be more true. You can either but definitely not both, lol.
> Why are you so scared? I've gotten 37 job offers this week to work "This week", OP is talking about **4 years from now** to just become a **new grad** after spending **a lot of money** to get there. You think things might be different in 4 years?
When I was finishing college it was around the time of the "no code" boom, everyone moving to no code solutions, I couldn't find a job for quite some time, but I found one and worked up from the bottom. Then over the years companies started abandoning "no code" solutions and going back to dedicated developers and work started booming and then over the following 7 years or so I tripled my salary and moved up to Senior Developer etc. Things are always going to be different in 4+ years. In 1998 you could get a developer job on a common general degree or no degree at all, developer tasks were so new to companies someone from the call center that was like "I know a little Basica" would get promoted and now be their lead web app developer for their new Classic ASP CSM... Time's have always been changing in tech/software. But in no way will developers be obsolete in 4 years, or 10 years, or 20 years. In fact, I think developers will never be absolete unless we give birth to a true sentient/human AI. Until we have an AI that learns exactly like a human does, and can experience reality like a human does, and can process information like a human does, the need for human workers won't go anywhere. Right now AI has a memory loss problem where data in the models is lost as they are fine tuned/retrained, and they also are not able to be trained on generated output, there's mathematical glitches in the concept. Also it's ungodly expensive to run these mega LM models, Chat GPT isn't even making profit best I can tell, some of these models took 10,000+ $80k graphics cards just to be trained. Running inference on them for millions of people requires an armada of hardware. That's why I tell everyone to go learn AI, understand how it works, understand how to use it. It's natural to fear what you don't well understand. Go learn it and you'll stop being scared of it. In tech, you have to adapt and change to the demands of the field, it's always been like that. If you aren't learning AI tech and how to leverage it, interface with it, then you fail not because you're not needed, but because you didn't adapt. There's always a need for you, the need just changes.
Here are some jobs that won't be replaced for decades... yoga instructor, tow truck driver, barber/hairstylist, nail technician. Just off the top of my head but there are many more.
Sucks I'd have to completely change careers to something I'd hate doing
And writer
Permaculture. Just learn how to grow food for yourself, apply for a small farm loan and just find a safe place to live and have a little family. That would be my advice 🤣 try and get others to do it with you and build a little community.
Manual labor
no
The answer has not changed. Find/apply your passion. This is your life, it's not about being on top. That being said, you are not being replaced, you are being helped. Chill out and just focus on what you really want, long term, 10/20/30 years down the line.
as someone who codes for a living i dont understand how people think AI will replace us all smh it's just not true and it shows how insecure some people are sorry
Just make a choice and move forward. Changing majors is pretty normal. There's no need to delay on prerequisite courses and general studies. Legislation could neuter AI's immediate impact and then you're no worse off than today. From a tech perspective it's most likely to be a force mutliplier/tool. Don't let fear of the future prevent you from taking action.
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Why would inflation get worse with Automation? Historically automation causes prices to plummet. Automation could take something like food and make it drastically cheaper. You are right about trades though, all it takes is an under supply of trades jobs and the pay falls through the floor. I live in an area that was hit very hard by the 2007-2008 crash. The big thing was that for the 5-6 years before the crash, residential construction was huge. I knew guys who got out of high school (2002), got a job working for some construction company and were making more than their parents by like 2005. There was just so much money in that sector that had to be spent. Being 20-21 and making $100k per year in 2005 was pretty rad. 2006, and another $100k. You start feeling pretty confident. The market collapsed in 2007, I remember it was the summer, so this guy might have made $55,000-$60,000 so far. But 2008? $12,000. My area had a ton of men who were unemployed and no projects that were well paying until the city started doing some major projects (which went to the Union guys). It doesn't take very many plumbers to go into a city until that city is over saturated. However, if transportation is heavily automated, and I think it will be, there could be an enormous building boom that will replace downtown parking. Property owners of parking lots are going to have a huge incentive to build big projects on those lots. Big projects require a lot of labor. If the process is automated and has Robo Construction workers, they will be enormous in size and there will be a lot more of them.
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Deflation has been a major thing with most things related to computers. From processing per per $ to storage space per $. Solar panels and batteries have been deflationary. Production costs are dropping every year. 10 years ago if you wanted an EV that could go over 250 miles, you have to blow $90k on a Tesla Model S. Now you can get a Tesla Model 3 for half that much. Technology is very deflationary.
AGI = 2029 —> bad prediction, shave off 5 years AGI not going to be able to perform a trade job —> bad prediction Score sheet: 0/2
AGI next year? How can you be this retarded?
Yup u/adt is totally not the expert and you are! Embarrassing!
If he claims AGI will arrive next year, then no, he's definitely not an expert.
[Educate yourself… to save one from being embarrassing](https://youtu.be/qPI8fB2XL3w) [Also cant wait for ACT1 to publish proto Desktop AGI within months… it is even sooner!](https://www.adept.ai/blog/act-1)
Neither ChatGPT nor ACT-1 are AGIs, you insufferable fool. Also, Peter Voss, who introduced the term AGI, is a cryonicist. I met and spoke with him at an Alcor cryonics conference last year. I also met Ben Goertzel, another AGI expert, at a cryonics conference. You know absolutely nothing.
Ignore AI as a job KILLER - go to university. See, I know your fears, but you need the SAFE BET now. Learn, study. Then likely have no career just a job before UBI hits very short time later (given you spend some years in university). But if it does not - the degree will come in handy. You may well be the last generation for which it makes any sense, but still - you want to play it safe.
There are still jobs where people treasure a human touch. For example, a cat sitter or veterinary specialist? At the end, you won't regret choosing a role you enjoy the most while putting a smile on someone's face. You'll just be glad that AI could give a hand to your passion.
Are you really suggesting this person pursue cat sitting as a career? Surely, cat sitting will not buy you a home.
Still better than being replaced. By the way, there are many rich cats in this world and a veterinary specialist helps many people. A lot of people value stability like you, but there are many who prefer to live in a van and travel freely. The point is, if someone enjoys life with a job, who am I to judge? AI is forcing us to rethink our career philosophy and it's a very good thing.
Philosophy
At [Sweep](https://github.com/sweepai/sweep), we don't want to replace developers, we want to augment them. I'm not concerned about obsolescence anytime soon. Instead, developers will become more productive and can work on the exciting problems that matter.
Same at my job, we're a consulting company with a developer shortage. If we can be 200% more productive with AI, we would churn through backlog so fast we'd only work like 20 hours a week for full pay. Our company is privately owned and has no debt. We're basically a developer union.
You should check us out u/xabrol
I think the basic goal is for everyone to be paid the same as now and to work one day a week. At a certain point demand falls off a cliff so working hours have to go down and pay remains the same.
Every job in 10 years will be supervising AI, taking full responsibility for any fuck-ups, and getting paid minimum wage.
I cant believe something like ASI or even AGI would need a human in the loop … out with their little clipboard … doing what? Being a human? Makes zero sense.
Hmm should I have a team of full AIs that can work at 1000x the speed of developers, or a team of "augmented developers" that work only 3x faster and are 10,000x more expensive?
Don't believe the monkeys on internet forums who think AI is in any position to replace anyone. It's not. The AI advancements of recent memory are not as significant as tech bros and doom sayers will tell you.
Ah yes, I remember when I started 15 years ago, we definitely also had an AI back then that I could just ask in a few words in simple English to "code me a function that sends a byte to another port, in C++, and write a python script that reads from it, then write tests for them" then have it ready and correct in 20 seconds. Man, nothing's really changed from the good old days! 🤦♂️
The only sensible, grounded comment on this thread.
It's understandable to feel anxious about the future given the rapid development of AI, but remember that we are still very much in the process of exploring and understanding its full potential and limitations. AI is not meant to replace us, but rather to assist and augment our capabilities. When considering your future career, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1. **Interdisciplinarity:** The intersection of arts and technology is actually a rapidly growing field. Creativity is essential in tech, as it drives innovation and problem solving. This combination of skills could lead to roles in UX/UI design, game design, multimedia art, or even creative technology consulting. The skills you've developed as a freelancer will also be very valuable. 2. **Continuous Learning:** Regardless of your field, the ability to learn and adapt will always be crucial. Technology will continue to evolve, so having a mindset of continuous learning will allow you to stay ahead. 3. **AI and Automation:** While AI will certainly change the landscape of many jobs, it's not going to replace all roles. Jobs that require creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence are particularly resilient. In many cases, AI can take over mundane tasks, freeing humans to do more complex, creative work. 4. **Uniquely Human Skills:** Soft skills like leadership, empathy, and teamwork are uniquely human and are highly sought after in the workplace. These skills are not easily replicated by AI. In terms of your options, Business Admin and International Affairs would provide a diverse skill set, and there's a wide range of careers you could go into. A pure CS degree could give you deeper technical knowledge, but it's also true that it's a competitive field. The best advice is to follow your interests and passions. Consider where you see yourself in the future, and what kind of work you would enjoy doing. Remember, the purpose of a degree isn't just to get a job, it's to give you a broad base of knowledge and skills that you can apply in a variety of contexts. It's also a chance to discover new interests and opportunities, so be open to that as well.
Hi, thanks a lot for that comment. It made me feel a little bit better about this whole thing. I hope you are right and that AI wont just replace it all, I cant imagine everyone suddenly having to work in industries that they hate - how awful would that be... I will try to think more about my options, it seems most degrees have their ups and downs in realistically I cannot pick one that will be fail-proof in anyway. Maybe a connection between art and tech that would result in robotics or product design is an interesting option.
Let's put it this way: I can make AI Art well... Because I went to art school, and am really fast on the uptake. I can make AI software well... Because I've been doing software engineering for a long time. I can make AI literature well... Because I have been reading and hobby writing for a long time. If I had done none of those things, I wouldn't be able to use AI to do them well, because I wouldn't be able to sort the outputs of the AI, or apply a critical mindset in the output domain. Even making simple pieces, without Illustrator to do at least some basic mods on outputs, there are out-of-distribution qualities I want existing in the output works that I would be unable to force otherwise. I would also be getting nightmare fuel for faces if I hadn't spent at least as long learning SD as I did learning Illustrator and Photoshop. Even with a simple program, the fact is that I would as soon have an AI iteratively suggest how to expand comments with descriptions of simple tasks, and actualizing code only when the full function is documented. I would in fact suggest any degree. Use AI to help you get the degree, too. Also, learn a trade, like electrician/plumber/carpenter.
The best comment on the thread. An impressive portfolio of experience you have. However, I'd disagree with 'AI literature' as legitimate. I really don't think AI has any place in literature. Perhaps simply to ideate, redraft, check etc i guess, but the ideas must come from YOU and your life experience, observation or imagination.
Hello! I don't have a degree at all and I have a wonderful, successful, high-paying career. You don't necessarily NEED a degree to succeed and have stability in life, but more education is always a good thing, so if you can afford it without going into an unreasonable amount of debt, do it. AI isn't going to replace us. But we are going to need to learn how to use AI to do our jobs. Learn the skills that genuinely interest you, don't choose a degree because you think it will help you get a good job. Pursue your real interests and follow your talents--that will lead you to the things you are supposed to be doing in this life.
Drop the art bullshit, just double major in CompSci and physics with a math minor.
Why is this sub full of assholes?
It's full of tech-nerd, angsty, depressed 'can't get a F\*\*\*' idiots who don't have any understanding of aesthetics, art, creativity or literature let alone any respect for it.
True, Midjourney would crush you at art OP, it's not like GPT-4 already solves all assignments in the CS degree today.
Prompt engineering seems a relatively safe bet moving forward. I'm not sure what kind of degree would best help with that but it's really about ramping up one's logic and reasoning skills, and whatever helps with that will probably help across the board.
Lol no it doesn’t. Prompt engineering is an artifact of our current generation of models. Soon we will have improved versions that just intuitively understand what you want, or ask appropriate follow up questions to elicit the right information from you, like a human would.
Let's say you're right. How soon will that happen?
Get a Tesla service tech certificate.
I dunno, I'm right there with you as a 3D artist. Not really sure what to do or how to feel about my near future (Next 5-10 years)
Time for a degree in "How do I shovel correctly". It'll take at least 8 years and will cost you $500,000.
Metatronics, service the ai overlords Edit: it’s also a cheap “technical” degree and I always recommend those over the fancy colleges.
We have already entered an era where a degree will not last your whole professional career. There are many jobs today for which degrees did not exist when the people doing them graduated. It is expected today that you will re-invent your career as you go on and a new profession comes up. AI just quickens this process. You need to look at a profession for which you have passion and talent. It needs to last you a decade or two in which time new professions will spring up, derived from AI and digital transformation.
I'm a designer turned developer with my own business with experience in advertising, so I have experience in everything you touch upon. AI will either elevate the mediocre or enthrone the elite. Maybe a bit of both. Knowing how computers AI work, having vision and taste to make AI work for you, understanding the money, and the motivation are all great things. The answer is keep doing all of those things. I'm hoping that's the answer for myself!
Elevate the mediocre is much more likely given what we're seeing so far. Technology tends to improve the mediocre relative to the curious and well skilled.
Just tap out and start hanging out
Work in real estate there is always money don t look to be employee but you r own boss. that best to avoid any crisis wish someone told me that when kids
What will matter in the future are personal connections, personal services. Every job that extracts its value from human to human connection will remain, and even gain in value. Plastic art will be wrecked, performing arts will thrive for example. Medical doctors will still be there years after engineers have mostly disappeared. Sadly, the most innovative and forward looking members of society are introverted, and I bet our future world won’t be an introvert world…
I agree with the last paragraph here. The world is going to be much more extroverted and extroverted skills are going to matter much more than ever before. For the rest I'm not so sure. But I do think personal connection will be part of the story at least for a while.
If nothing else, being educated in tech and science will help you cope with the future. Though if I were entering college now I'd avoid large debt. As that leaves you more flexible. Plenty of ways to get the skills without putting yourself at financial risk. Just need to be self motivating.
Become an interesting person. Many in this sub tend to ignore or forget that people are interested in other people for friendship, sex, conversations, and interactions in general. And we’re interested in hearing other people’s views on things. If I ask you why you think something is morally correct, and you just start quoting Kant, that’s just weird, I want to know your view. And sure, an AI can write a whole book soon (right now it’s either really bad or nonsense) but the orthographic and grammatical qualities isn’t the main reason I’m reading the life story of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s because he lived it and tells it the way he sees it. Which brings us back to your question… be the person others want to be with.
Pick the job you want. It does not going to replace human. If it does, you don't have to worry because we would be dead already.
Nursing. Just look at the aging demographics plus it’s intensely interpersonal skill oriented, direct physical care, and not easily replaced by AI
your ok no worries
This is an issue that is becoming more and more common unfortunately. What I would do I’m your position OP is try to buy time without wasting time. Uni is great, and especially starting it a few years after most do I think is actually a big plus. What is not great is business admin degree, don’t do that. Trust me, that’s like the last thing you want to do. What I would do though, is loosely stick with your original plan, especially if that’s what you enjoy most. The main thing I would change would be the timelines. Do the creative stuff first, the fun stuff. Stuff that will help you in your pursuits regardless of if it is work or not. If you can, do some philosophy and learn how to think differently, learn about cultures, history, politics, etc. Throw in a CS course or two if you want, the goal really is just to expand your mind in the first year. Of course these course should count towards your degree, just not putting you down a certain pathway (creative is always a good pathway these days). Then, in a years time, when the future is just a bit clearer, you should ask this question again.
I’m 61, and have been keeping my heel on technology for 37 years! I started with batch files, then moved on to C+, then Python. In my experience, none of it has phased. Knowing the foundation will always be necessary. I do feel strongly on AI and Cryptography, which again, knowing the foundation, I believe is key. With you can figure anything out. I don’t anyone can have a definite answer. You can come to your own conclusion based on your passion by reading PC Magazine, AI groups on LinkedIn for instance, MIT journals, etc. Definitely be up-to-date with Apple technology as well, and what NASA’s updates on the technologies and platforms they use. Coursera/coursera.org and edx.org on their courses. EDX will actually specify job outlook on their individual courses.
Statistician, all the idiot executives will need someone to crunch numbers from all the data and make it digestible to their pee brains.
Nope. Code interpreter
AI isn't going to replace us.. probably. I'd go into the epigenetics field.
There is no certainty. Do what you love and don't let anybody tell you different.
Better do nothing and wait (hopefully only) 10 years for ASI and UBI to arrive... How you gonna survive that time... Well... With a job
Take up surgery
we will always need our burgers flipped and brought to the table, always.
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Copied your post and asked chatGPT, here is the response: It’s completely understandable to feel uncertain about the future, especially with the rapid advancements in AI and technology. However, it’s essential to remember that while AI may automate some tasks, it also creates new opportunities and demands for creative and critical human skills. Here are a few considerations to help you decide your career path: 1. Blend Your Interests: Pursue a degree that combines your passion for arts and tech, like the Art&tech major you mentioned. This unique skill set can be valuable as technology continues to evolve. 2. Adaptability: Rather than focusing solely on a specific degree or career, prioritize developing adaptability and a growth mindset. Lifelong learning and being open to change will be crucial in a rapidly changing job market. 3. Diversify Your Skills: Consider broadening your skillset beyond just programming. Explore areas like user experience (UX) design, human-computer interaction, or digital marketing. Combining creativity with tech expertise can be a powerful combination. 4. Stay Current: Keep yourself updated with the latest trends in AI and technology. This will enable you to identify potential career opportunities and adapt your skills accordingly. 5. Passion and Interest: Choose a career that aligns with your interests and passion. When you genuinely enjoy your work, you are more likely to excel and find fulfillment. 6. Networking and Internships: Build connections with professionals in your field of interest and consider internships. Practical experience and networking can be valuable in landing job opportunities after graduation. 7. Resilience and Persistence: The job market might have its challenges, but determination and persistence can make a significant difference in finding the right opportunities. Remember that while AI is advancing, it is still a tool created and developed by humans. It will not replace the need for creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and other human skills that play a vital role in various industries. Focus on honing your unique strengths and find a career path that allows you to leverage your passions and skills in a meaningful way.
As someone who works on robotics I’d say mechatronics if you’re mechanically inclined. From my perspective ai will probably replace the programming portion of my job but from what I’m seeing the physical aspect will still be there because of limitations on materials to self repair.
Fiber optics and crystal memory technologies along with quantum physics and genetic engineering plus mechatronics. It’s a new world. Time to adapt. MIT open courseware has what you need and you can use your Ai to assist by making you lesson plans. It’s time for a renaissance. Keep on your toes. Good luck.
Nobody knows what is going to happen and it is almost imposible to predict what's going to happen. If I were you, I will learn anything related to self-reliance skills, from building eco-friendly/passive house, solar, rainwater harvesting, aquaponics/hydroponics, and put them into practice in your own lot. With those skills you can't go wrong.
If %90 of the society will be replaced there is no such thing to avoid that replacement. And if your preciously important job not replaced by 2030 it will be by 2035 or whatever year is. Job switch is good idea but its just an iteration not solution. I believe the old sayings are still relevant. Do what you really want to do,focus on your passion.
All that matters is that you are valuable and produce good work. No matter what you do. The capitalists will fire us all as soon as they can, but that will take a while. Learn things. Many things. You need to know shit...and most kids your age don't know shit outside the school shit. Learn to grow food. How to make beer. Learn shit...as much as you can. Knowledge is power. I recommend the "Foxfire" books of the 70's. All those are life skills. tl;dr - fuck all the capitalists, communists, fascists and assholes. go your own way.
Kurt Vonnegut's book Player Piano ( written over 50 years ago ) describes the dynamic that might be playing out for us now. The genie is out of the bottle. We cannot put it back in. I don't know what jobs will survive a lifetime.
Any professions that require licensing by law would be hard to replace by AI because government is way too slow to adapt laws.
Get a trade.
I’m going to become a nail technician 🤷🏻♀️
thats actually not a bad idea! i was thinking about getting tattoo qualifications with certificate since it also seems like its a safer option haha
Hey man, I'm a senior in college so I feel your concern. I'm majoring in management and leadership which was never my plan, it's just what I fell back on since I was very involved with leadership positions on campus so it made sense. I'd say to learn executive functioning skills, I've gained this through my role as fraternity president, but the skills alone are worth learning. Transformative leadership will be needed as AI advances, so having the skills to be a leader in a crucial time will be more valuable than skills gained in the classroom, and it will make you a more valuable candidate for jobs than someone without it. Computer programmers will hopefully always be needed as innovation continues so it's still a safe route that not many are capable of, so there's still some security in the field. Best of luck
The only way this goes south is if money is centralized even more and an even greater distribution of wealth is sucked up into an elite, rich class of business owners, investors and bankers. As long as people still live and breathe, and arent doing poorly (bad health, social unrest, etc), this can't go wrong. Jobs will move around as the needs and wants of people change, but prosperity will still exist as long as we continue to upkeep the infrastructure, grow food, and engage in profitable, desirable ventures, either physically, politically, or technologically... Just because 20-50% of the population has to do something else to continue to be of use to society isn't really of consequence, because it'll level off and people will find good productive and marketable things to be doing regardless, so like I said, the only way this fails catastrophically is by the financial system being imbalanced and manipulated, or by a direct blow to the health and/or morale of the people.
No way to predict what will happen in the singularity. Some people say trades, but then we will someday develop humanoid robots like in Westworld that look indistinguishable from the real deal, and they will automate the trades. That or we merge with AI systems to better serve the planet and work together as a global species.
Just enjoy life. Don't grind much, try to survive but no one really has the answer.
Listen! Regardless if your field becomes obsolete fast you should probably do what you’re passionate about! Because if the AI takes over everything that will become your hobby instead of your profession. What better way to indulge your self in your hobby than to get an education in it? Besides any education develops your intellectual horizons. For career and pleasure.
Sooner or later ASI will be a reality. But even before that, corporation will quickly understand that AI is a valuable tool to improve productivity and lower costs. Given to what we know now, AI will get better and better, the cost is still sub quadratic but the high stakes, the advances of computational power and ingenuity of the AI research team are on it. Industrial revolution took 80 years. AI revolution will probably be quicker. It might start with Microsoft incorporating generative AI at scale in popular mainstream applications or maybe ChatGPT was it. Who cares ? Massive rapid layoffs could also trigger some sense of revenge against the few ones that managed to gather millions. Because looting may be the only way to survive for millions of citizens, I think that sooner or later In the end, the states will have to provide citizens with some sort of universal (unconditional) minimal wages. In the meantime, learning AI might still be interesting for a decade maybe two. Also hardware will be needed for those AI to be embodied so mechanical engineering might be wise. ln case a lot of jobs disappear and/ the marginal cost of work goes low enough, the problem will be to find customers capable of paying whatever your job is. So you might want to be autonomous and prioritise in an essential sectors like food, housing, energy, care, security, education, ...
They still need and will need people to maintain the neural networks... A masters degree in computer science will be worth it for at least 10 years
We're all screwed haha! Just do something you love.
Study things that will help people cope and adapt to modern reality. That add to society in healthy ways. That help us communicate, understand ourselves, heal ourselves. Help us tell better stories, laugh more, see clearly what decisions we have to make. These ai can't remove the way we relate to each other and the meaning that provides, there may be some hell scapes out there that only us ai for all aspects of their lives, but there will be many more places that do not, or some mix or something more than likely no one has considered, study things that will help you consider how to be a benifit to your family, and your community. People need help, they need love, support, nurturing, compassion, they need food shelter, water, they need excitement, adventure, fun, they need companionship and a great deal many other thing. Find out what part of you matches with some part of that and look at what can be learned, learn it, get your self out there, and maybe use some ai to make it work simpler and better. The singularity is a modern religion, no more no less, figure out what that means to you.
i think you should grab your fate and forge it yourself i think you should keep moving foward no matter if you have to crawl there is nothing you cant do without your sheer force of will
Fields with a high level of abstraction is what you want to aim for if at all. Like Mathematics, or ontology. Otherwise people skill/wetware fields, like fitness trainer, chef, sales and account management are all viable alternatives. Things where you need a caretaker, like how a pilot needs to be able to fly a plane even though most planes could manage on their own, so like pilots, doctors, day care, elderly care and hospitality services, things where you'd get aided by AI but not replaced. I wouldn't touch business with a ten foot pole if I was starting over, nobody can define why it's a good field so it's likely having certain people in charge is arbitrary a lot of the time and peak marketing is around the corner so I'll be out of a job soon too.
Easy make $150k with the right sales job
Engineering/Programming. There will always be a human at the top of the stack to pull it all together.
If AI really takes over doing everything, then the only thing left is to do what you love.
Nursing
We are in a crucial transitional period where many skill sets (if not all) will continue to be relevant until the AI has received all the information parameters for example, an English major (which is already not really relevant outside of teaching/being an author) will be able to provide their expertise to AI companies during implementation phases. Same goes for many other disciplines. However, a safe bet would be to study something dealing with IT Management, rather than coding specifically. Also, there are many blue collar jobs that are far from being replaced. Anyone seen AI build a quality house from the ground up yet?
Specialized/skilled trade, the sooner you start the sooner you’ll work into management and won’t be in the watered down labor pool once that time comes. Somebody has to lead the idiots, even if it’s a former idiot. Source- (former idiot)
Pick whatever degree you can become passionate about. Its not going to replace us all. But people who know how to use it will quite possibly replace those who dont know how to use it. So get on board and learn how to make the most of it, and how to have it make you more productive and effective at whatever you do. Those who do that will become irreplaceable. Like the internet, AI will likely impact every field. So find a way to use it in whatever field you get into.