Unraveling the Enigma: The Unpredictable Impact of AI on the Employment Landscape

“No One Actually Knows How AI Will Affect Jobs”

“‘Who’s most equipped to be a subscriber to lifelong learning? The people who have been doing lifelong learning, which is the highly skilled,’ says Daly. ‘The less skilled are less likely to have been doing lifelong learning. They’re more likely to have been doing a job that’s quite routinized.'”

Welcome to the era where machines are taking over job roles and your position in the office might soon become as ‘automatic’ as your coffee maker. As much as it would be thrilling to have R2-D2 as your teammate, the reality, as pointed out by Mary Daly in a recent interview, is sounding the alarm sounding alarm bells for those in the lower skilled sector.

The world is revolving around the term ‘lifelong learning’. It’s not just something your annoying high-school counselor used to fester about, it’s a bitter reality of a market adapting to A.I might. Daly suggests that a readiness to continuously update oneself with skills is directly proportional to job security; so basically, the more you learn, the less likely your job will be snagged by a stylish, hyper-efficient algorithm.

Popping that professional atmosphere for a second, let’s visualize this scenario; educating your brain is like training yourself for a boxing match where your opponent is the A.I. And the one who’s not in the ring, is more likely to get knocked out. The fear isn’t about the robots taking over the world, it’s about them taking over your desk.

But don’t start drafting a complaint letter to Skynet just yet. Experts are suggesting a cohabiting solution, where artificial intelligence and human intelligence work in tandem. It’s about leveraging machines for tasks that are repetitive and routine, freeing up the humans to focus on tasks that call for creativity and judgement.

In this rather merciless, automated tech era, humans have an edge that no mechanism can compete with – emotional intelligence. Unless Boston Dynamics manages to conjure an emotive robot (fingers crossed they don’t) we humans will always have this advantage in our arsenal.

To end it on a less doom filled note and with a slightly cynical eyebrow raised, keep learning. Keep that curiosity aflame and engage yourself within the evolving technology. The robo-apocalypse won’t be as scary if you’re on top of the lifelong learning game. After all, it’s about training your mind and not your skills. In the competition between man and machine, may the best ‘brain’ win.

Read the original article here: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-impact-on-work-mary-daly-interview/