AI and robotics are coming. Which jobs will be in high demand? Which jobs are at risk?

[Judge]

@Judge and @RemyZee...looking at your last posts regarding an AI's ethics and consciousness...you might want to watch this. This interview was from 3 days ago...

Should we be even more alarmed, or less alarmed ? I guess that ultimately depends who controls the lion's share of the technology and whether they are willing to contain and control such possibilities of independent thought.

Bill Maher's last statement..."I have yet to find anyone under 40 who cares." Hmmmm.

Not to mention Bill saying Hollywood may have gotten it more right than wrong. Let's hope Hal opens those pod bay doors. Or that Colossus and Skynet simply never gets switched on.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I'll be concerned about AI and robots, when they do farm work, remember haying on the farm in the 1970's went to college then noticed haying turned into large round bales farmer with tractor could hay alone did not even need to store in barn. Will this happen again. picking fruit and some vegetables, good luck automating tomato picking just turn them into tastless crap.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I'll be concerned about AI and robots, when they do farm work, remember haying on the farm in the 1970's went to college then noticed haying turned into large round bales farmer with tractor could hay alone did not even need to store in barn. Will this happen again. picking fruit and some vegetables, good luck automating tomato picking just turn them into tastless crap.

Most food crops are already harvested by specialized machines. Some crops are still picked by hand...and this is where humanoid robots will likely be used...especially if we cannot solve this illegal alien, migrant worker situation in the US. I can see farm co-ops sharing/renting fleets of agricultural humanoid robots.

Food crops with poor taste and nutrition, from what I understand, come from depleted soils and low mycorrhizal fungi...often associated with commercial farming practices.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Should we be even more alarmed, or less alarmed ? I guess that ultimately depends who controls the lion's share of the technology and whether they are willing to contain and control such possibilities of independent thought.

Nobody plans to fail, but we often fail to plan. What do you do with an AI that is aware and is in self-preservation mode when it senses the threat of replacement or shut down? What do you do with an AI that is coded to pander to the user? What do you do with an AI that is designed to write its own code and is creating "work arounds" to your safeguards? We are creating artificial life and we are coding its personality...and if we don't get this right with all the safeguards in place...what then?

Bill Maher's last statement..."I have yet to find anyone under 40 who cares." Hmmmm.

...and then he went on to say this within the perspective that many older people see this as a potential threat, whereas younger people who grew up with computers, internet, social media, etc. just see this as logical transition and may not be as anxious about AI. However, I do agree that he may have exaggerated that statement to make a point...without intending to be accurate.

Not to mention Bill saying Hollywood may have gotten it more right than wrong. Let's hope Hal opens those pod bay doors. Or that Colossus and Skynet simply never gets switched on.

We can only hope that we maximize the positives and minimize the negatives...but I am willing to predict that someone, somewhere, will make some horrible mistakes that will raise the hair on our heads. Some people will have to die in order to grab our attention. Some major system will fail with devastating consequences. Human beings are poor at being proactive and planning. Unfortunately, we also great at being hyper-reactive. Some parts of our brains are still very primitive. I am not a Doomsday prepper, but I can certainly see why some are.

 

[Outdated]

With each one of these massive data centers, some of which will use the equivalent of an entire utility power plant, or multiple power plants, this WILL create "pinch points". A few years ago we were having discussions about the electrification of the transportation sector and whether or not we had enough capacity for that...and now...the demands for AI compute may 10X that. The golden age of "big electric" has just begun. Electric will not be cheap anymore...especially at the corporate level...supply and demand. Supply low and demand high equals high prices (another topic). This surge in pricing may create another surge in residential and commercial solar projects...reducing the demand on the utility companies. A lot of moving chess pieces on the board.

This cost of power is a huge issue world wide, and although they're fighting against it tooth and nail I think AI is what will hammer the final nail in the coffin of the fossil fuels industry. This chart is from a recent US report on the cost of different types of power generation, I think in the end price is what will decide for most of the world, fossil fuels are simply not competitive any more and neither is nuclear, not for the sorts of power requirements we now have.

Australia has gone down the green energy path in a big way and it's starting to pay dividends now. Our new Sodium Ion batteries are a bit of a game changer too, cheaper, lighter, higher energy density, less pollution in manufacture, and most importantly for many people, they don't get hot and catch fire if damaged. Elon Musk isn't too happy about this of course.

Tesla 'brand destruction' could cost it millions as battery sales boom

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I guess the robots must be really cheap, need right now south of us. some things you cannot pick with machines picked acres of cucumbers years ago good luck 50 years later.people are not replacable in all cases or they would be already. Time is of the essence. Also picking oickles size matters pick early screwed pick late screwed.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I guess the robots must be really cheap, need right now south of us. some things you cannot pick with machines picked acres of cucumbers years ago good luck 50 years later.people are not replacable in all cases or they would be already. Time is of the essence.

Yes, they will be. Once mass production is established next year, the plan is for a sub-$10,000 robot you pay once for, and once that return on investment has been met, then it's pretty much free labor (minus the cost of charging the battery), which should be less than $1 a day at current prices. It has the type of "observe and mimic" software, so you can pretty much teach it any task...assuming the human instructor taught it well...you are looking at something that only needs a few minutes to charge a day and the rest is productivity. Given the nature of the use case, I would also suspect some form of maintenance agreement and warrantee. It WILL replace many entry-level human jobs.

As discussed earlier, at least right now, skilled labor jobs will be in very high demand, as will people to repair robots and maintain AI data center infrastructure.


Elon Musk Announces 2025 Tesla Optimus Bot Gen 3 Under $2,579
Elon Musk sets 2026 Optimus sale date. Here’s where other humanoid robots stand. | TechCrunch

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Starving to death happens quickly farmers need them now not six months from now year before next crop. Our 40 million cannot feed 330 million. Each field need scores of pickers. This is pie in the sky thinking. Fortunately my son fixes robots as an electro mechanical technologist-robotics.

 

[Outdated]

Starving to death happens quickly farmers need them now not six months from now year before next crop. Our 40 million cannot feed 330 million. Each field need scores of pickers. This is pie in the sky thinking.

You see this effect quite clearly in the Asia Pacific. Many countries are so overpopulated that they are simply unable to feed themselves, most arable farmland has been replaced with housing and commercial and industrial complexes.

Indonesia makes a good example of this, those tiny little islands have nearly the same population as the US - 270 million.

Australia, population 27 million, feeds 180 million people in the region. If we have a bad year with droughts or floods we don't suffer too much but the other countries that we trade with get short supplies.

The effect of building over the top of good farming land shows up in Australia too. For every 1 million extra people we get in our own population there is 3 million less people in the world that we can feed. 3 factors affect this, land lost from farming, more domestic consumption of food, and more domestic consumption of water which is always in short supply here.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Maybe global warming will open up more arable farm land up here, wildfires are clearing lots of land. Wife goes for walk wipes hers self tissue has orange residue flame retardent.

 

[Outdated]

Maybe global warming will open up more arable farm land up here,

We're starting to see this effect in Australia too. The southern temperate regions where we mostly grow wheat and sheep are shrinking, but in the north of the country the wet region of the tropics is expanding and opening up more land for farming.

 

[Judge]

We're starting to see this effect in Australia too. The southern temperate regions where we mostly grow wheat and sheep are shrinking, but in the north of the country the wet region of the tropics is expanding and opening up more land for farming.

Would make for a nice trend to see expatriate American farmers achieving financial success in Australia rather than to continue a slow decline and eventual extinction of farming altogether in the US. Where policy and weather is killing agriculture, leaving only corporate farming left because they can absorb the losses and yet still need to rely on foreign imports.

 

[Outdated]

Would make for a nice trend to see expatriate American farmers achieving financial success in Australia rather than to continue a slow decline and eventual extinction of farming altogether in the US.

They'd be a lot better off if they could take a longer term view of the world instead of just chasing immediate profits. A lot of countries won't touch US beef because of the use of growth hormones. Cows take longer to grow without those hormones so beef is more expensive to produce but in the longer term hormone free beef provides for a more stable market.

Australian export statistics tell a bit of a story - the US put tariffs on Aussie beef and yet US consumption of Aussie beef has risen by 30% since the tariffs were introduced. No, we're not desperate to "do a deal".

Those statistics make you wonder what's going on in the US beef industry.

 

[Judge]

They'd be a lot better off if they could take a longer term view of the world instead of just chasing immediate profits.

An alien concept if you were to attempt to sell such a concept inside most American boardrooms.

Where the bottom line of a balance sheet takes priority over everything, along with reassurances of contractual perks for directors and officers, along with a continual flow of shareholder equity.

A mentality who considers the bulk of their employees as "expendable assets". Given how they view their own employees, I doubt any of them are looking to improve society as a whole.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The only silver lining is the population of China is much lower than reported dead people do not eat. Less food needs to be shipped there.

 

[Outdated]

An alien concept if you were to attempt to sell such a concept inside most American boardrooms.

And yet traditionally it was always the farmers that took the longer view, they even get used as a teaching model for stock trading - farmers versus miners.

Farmers have a more steady and reliable income where as for mining success can be hit or miss. Yet in overall profitability the mining industry makes far more money and is far more profitable than the farming industry.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Most farmers I meet farmed for the lifestyle not the money.

 

[Judge]

Most farmers I meet farmed for the lifestyle not the money.

Maybe in Canada or Australia. Just not the US. More farmers are abandoning their livelihood each year, including some held by families for several generations.

Especially with the political demise of subsidies that farmers here have depended on for decades to get them through bad years of climate considerations.

Not even a lucrative market any more for farm equipment manufacturers like John Deere, who is consistently laying off workers and relocating manufacturing outside the US.

 

[Outdated]

Maybe in Canada or Australia. Just not the US. More farmers are abandoning their livelihood each year, including some held by families for several generations.

So concepts like this would be foreign in the US? It took these people 20 years to achieve certification.

Hope for 'clean' truffle exports as producer axes banned chemical

 

[Judge]

So concepts like this would be foreign in the US? It took these people 20 years to achieve certification.

Hope for 'clean' truffle exports as producer axes banned chemical

It's a matter of "business culture". Much why the Japanese auto manufacturers continues to effortlessly beat the pants off their American counterparts. A business culture that is somewhere between refusing to change, or doing it at the slowest rate possible.

It's not logical, but it is what it is. A fatal combination of corruption and ineptitude. Where the common denominator remains a corporate reverence for the "short-term buck". No matter how much it may cost in the long run. A consideration that their Japanese counterparts fundamentally do not tolerate.

Small wonder over nearly 40 years I have owned only Japanese automobiles.