How Will Humans Fit in our AI Future?

My day job is design. I write the ‘now’ and the future stories for companies. I create a new reality for the way they’re perceived. So with AI growing the way it is, will there still be a need for the services I provide?

It’s true. AI will replace most of our jobs. Eventually.

So then what? Will we have time to adapt? Will this transition happen so quickly that masses of the population will be sent scrambling to find a new job that hasn’t been taken over by AI yet? But of course there will be pushback. Cities, Counties, States and the Fed will likely step in in small ways. But all of that will pale in comparison to the power of capitalism to lower costs and drive profits. There will be protests in the streets. Unions will demand more until AI can fully take over, industry by industry. Is it all doom and gloom?

What will the human place in the AI world look like?

We’ll have a period of time when ‘hand made’ will have an all-new value. And it’s likely that this tiny aspect of our economy will always exist. I’m thinking most everyone will seek to provide value with hand-made, human-created, ai-free creations. But while that burgeoning sector of the economy will grow, it’s most likely to be powered by very high prices for things reserved for the few that can afford them. With far less income for the masses, it seems the chasm between the have and have-nots will grow to all-new depths.

So then, what can humans do that AI can’t?

That’s a rhetorical question. Because of course, if it can learn and ‘think’ then it seems unlikely there will be much left for us to do. Or maybe. Maybe there are new roles that humans will think of to make a living. Steering the AI? Managing it? Correcting it when what it does for us doesn’t meet our liking? Ah, but what about the ‘real’ world. The world that we can put our hands on?

Until robotics is paired well enough to take on complex manual labor (everything from mining to building rockets), we’ve got that going for us. And perhaps the cost to hire a human will be less in the future. Well with all the automation helping to reduce our cost of living, surely we’ll be a bargain. Though eventually our most complex tasks will be taken over.

Perhaps only the humans that can aggregate the best of all of the AI services will rise to the top. Though only those with management and technology skills need apply. That sounds like a recipe for an uprising.

What will the post-AI revolution be like?

This starts to get into the metaphysical. Because if all of our choices are being made for us by AI (unless you believe our destiny is already determined by a higher power), what’s left? Aren’t choices the magic that powers our will to live and thrive? Or is the illusion of choice all we need? I know that when I’m up against a challenge (in life, at work, at play) that I’m living my best life. Will AI know this and leave room for us to struggle so that we play along? It all starts to sound like so many of the stories we’ve written about our demise at the hand of AI.

But I see many holes left for us to explore as this mountain of change grows. Choices. The jobs that are all about making them will survive. And the services that feed our need to struggle in life, at work and at play will too. Though it’s fairly easy to see that the jobs that create, apply and manage AI will be our biggest sector of employment. And that’s tech. Not exactly my favorite past time.

But of course I’ll adapt. I’m human after all.