Millions of jobs across the Western world are at risk due to artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs cautioned its clients that AI could affect up to 300 million jobs in the coming years. Recent news about IBM implementing a hiring freeze due to automation, along with similar actions by other corporations, has sparked the ‘fear of becoming obsolete’ (FOBO) among the younger workforce participants, according to a new poll.
Gallup revealed a surge in respondents expressing FOBO, driven by the expansion of AI, over the last year.
Twenty-two percent now say they worry that technology will make their job obsolete, up seven percentage points from the prior reading in 2021. The figure had previously varied between 13% and 17%, with little upward movement in the trend.
FOBO is occurring with “college-educated workers, among whom the percentage worried has jumped from 8% to 20,” Gallup said. At the same time, survey data showed those without college degrees could care less about AI taking their jobs. Most of the FOBO is occurring with younger respondents.
The number one worry respondents had was AI and other technological advancements harming their job benefits. About a third said they were worried about reduced benefits, and almost a quarter worried about decreasing wages.
The wake-up call for workers has been the release of ChatGPT last November. “It is no longer only about robots standing in for humans in warehouses and on assembly lines but has expanded to online programs conducting sophisticated language-based work, including writing computer code,” Gallup said.
According to Goldman’s Jan Hatzius, “using data on occupational tasks in both the US and Europe, we find that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. Extrapolating our estimates globally suggests that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation” as up to “two-thirds of occupations could be partially automated by AI.”
Reports like Goldman’s have been echoed by other investing desks and Wall Street professionals. These reports have sparked a wave of FOBO across the Western world.
For more insight into the rapidly evolving job landscape, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu and Sabrina Lam – using data from MSCI – has ranked the industries where AI-driven automation will displace the most workers.
This is a big problem for all those college students accumulating insurmountable student debt for degrees that may be proven worthless.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
I love it…….”freaking out”entails taking just what sort of action??…..if any LOL!…
Oh,I know….nothing!…..
Jobs most effectively replaced by AI: Banker, Lawyer, Doctor, CEO, Hedge Fund Manager, Judge, Politician, Bureaucrat, Teacher, Administrator (hospital, univ., anything)
Jobs least effectively replaced by AI: Janitor, Waitress, Plumber, Electrician, Landscaper, Painter, Construction, etc.
Which will be replaced, and which won’t, and why?
Who is going to hire the tradesman, when the white collar workers are all unemployed?
AI
You know what jobs AI will never be able to do? Plumbing, electrical, carpentry. Learn a trade.
The trades will always be necessary, particularly for maintenance and repair, but with the Levitt method, two men and robotics I’ll build new construction 1200 square foot bungalows better and faster than the Levitts ever could.
Sooner or later everything is going to be affected.
Hahahaha! Man will never fly! You can’t automate plumbing, or electrical! Hahahahahaha! What you don’t know would fill volumes! Oh, and carpenters can already be replaced easily enough.
Ask the AI to change the oil in the car, paint the house or repair the air conditioner.
Let me know how that goes.
I’m seeing the start of this in my line of work (Diesel mechanic). Warranty repairs now require the use of torque wrenches that record applied torque and upload the results wirelessly to the manufacturer’s mainframe. Diagnostic procedures must be followed precisely in order to get paid under warranty. I can foresee the day where the “mechanic” wears earbuds and glasses with a small camera and the AI program directs his actions in real time. Since no diagnostic knowledge is required of him, pay can be reduced as anyone can do the job. A tethered drone above his work bay and a shock collar worn by the mechanic completes this dystopian nightmare.
That is a very plausible scenario.
I can’t remember the title, but there is a book, or maybe a short story, about that exact situation.
Found it:
Manna by Marshall Brain
The curse of every civilization is the race to be among the non producers.
If you are not producing anything of tangible value….the AI can do that.
I’ve spent most of my life in education, entertainment and distribution, but I’ve always been second happiest when producing.
I’ve been happiest when trying to work out the production of new things.
Liking to have my hands on real “stuff” was always my weakness as a theoretical physicist.
I’m not worried about AI taking my job, I’m worried about keeping the roof over my head and food on my table.
The two things may have a certain correlation, but they do not share identity.
Consider the recent court case of an insurer who used algorithms to deny claims. The problem with AI isn’t that they’ll take your job because they can do it better, it’s that it’ll be so much cheaper it won’t matter that the job is done poorly, and there is no one “on the hook” for mistakes. It’s just “what the system does”, sorry sir, no soup for you. With no recourse, no person to whom you can make a case for a different decision.
Yep.
Coming:
Sorry sir, the system says you can not buy anything for 72 hours.
Don’t get mad at me, I’m just..
It’ll be nothing compared to the freak out when the social security checks stop coming in.
300 million of you gotta go baby. It’s coming. The glorious day when the lights go out and the life support machines stop going brrrrr. That will be a start.
Just my opinion … but a much greater chance of a negative social event across the US will be when the EBT cards stop functioning … then the rioting and looting and burning and killing will make the St. Floyd George riots look like an Easter egg hunt …
AA, it will be epic when the EBTcards don’t work. It is coming.
Education is the one that I worry about, it’s bad now, wait until AI grabs the reigns
Predictive program. Spooky.
AI is simply a program that does what you tell it to do and says what you tell it to say.
They told HAL to protect the mission and keep it a secret.
Not anymore. AI can independently act.
Twilight zone “obsolete” episode. SO relevant.
“The Great and Awesome AI has spoken!
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
Who is real AI most likely to support and protect above all others?
The technicians that keep the power turned on.
I have job security in being a hobo.
Gen Z doesn’t want jobs, they want UBI.