Artificial intelligence will take all our jobs, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Word of Elon Musk who, participating via video link at VivaTech 2024 in Paris, described a future in which jobs will be “optional”. “If you want to do a job that’s kind of like a hobby, you can do that,” Musk said. “But otherwise, artificial intelligence and robots will provide all the goods and services you want and probably none of us will have a job.” For this scenario to work, he said, a “universal high income” is needed, not to be confused with universal basic income.
The capabilities of artificial intelligence have increased in recent years, fast enough for regulators, companies and consumers to understand how to use the technology responsibly. Concerns also continue to grow about how various industries and jobs will change as AI proliferates in the marketplace.
In January, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab found that workplaces are adopting artificial intelligence much more slowly than some expected and feared. The report also states that most jobs previously identified as vulnerable to AI were not cost-effective to replace. Experts also believe that many jobs that require high emotional intelligence and human interaction will not need to be replaced, such as mental health professionals, creatives and teachers.
Musk has openly expressed his concerns about artificial intelligence. During Thursday’s keynote, he called technology his biggest fear. He cited Ian Banks’s “Culture Book Series,” a fictionalized utopian look at a society run by advanced technology, as the most realistic and “best vision of a future artificial intelligence.”
In a jobless future, though, Musk wonders whether people will feel emotionally fulfilled. “The question will really be one of meaning: if computers and robots can do everything better than you, what meaning does your life have?”, he asked. “I think humans can still play a role in all of this, in the sense that we could give new meaning to life with AI,” Musk added. He then also urged parents to limit the amount of social media that children can see because “they are programmed by an artificial intelligence that maximizes dopamine.”
#Elon #Musk #prediction #Work #artificial #intelligence #hobby