The Industrial Revolution turned America from farmers into manufacturers. Farming went from 90% of the labor force to just 3%.
The coming AI Revolution? Will it take more jobs from Blue Collar workers or White Collar?
Harder to train robots to be plumbers than training artificial intelligence to create art, write reports, seek out information.
Interesting times are coming. Will America's youth return to apprenticeships and the trades rather than adding $250K in debt learning skills a computer can already do more cheaply?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
It's going to swallow up a whole lot of computer engineering jobs in the next few years, that's for sure. And while AI might not ever replace a plumber, the advances in robotics will make a severe impact in manufacturing. Auto assembly lines, metal smelting, mining . . . 3D printers are going to be scaled up to build new housing, which may include printed conduit lines for electricity and drain lines to take the black/gray water to the sewer lines/septic system. You'll still need a person to service/repair those lines for a while, but eventually when you call a plumber/electrician out they'll be bringing along a small robot to go into the lines to find/repair any damage and get you back up and running. Heck, even now they have larger ones running around in the water supply/sewer lines to install a lining on the older pipes.
Can you imagine what its going to be like with autonomous vehicles hauling asphalt to an automated paver that is GPS guided and can monitor/adjust itself to maintain an even thickness and the surface quality that its laying down? We already have tractors that are GPS guided to increase farm yields, how long before that becomes an autonomous task? Water sensors to know when to turn on/off the irrigation to save water and apply only the required amounts based on half or quarter acre readings, soil composition to know when fertilizer/pest control is needed, and in what area of the acreage . . .
Maybe by the time our grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren are running around it'll be a "Logan's Run" era of human existence . . . lol
Could definitely see human overseers for robot workforces, but still concerned we might see AI number crunchers making decisions about your Healthcare or even entitlement benefits.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
