AI won’t take your job.
The snide “AI won’t take your job, someone using AI will take your job” have turned into “The first job that AI took was Sam Altman’s” but maintained the same levels of inaccuracy.
I don’t talk about my work outside of work in my daily life, and one of the many reasons for that is the scarcity-based question that I will be asked without fail, every single time I mention I work with AI: “Is AI going to take my job?”. The smarmy response of “AI won’t take your job, someone using AI will take your job” is neither kind nor helpful nor actionable in these situations, so I smile and tell them “No”.
I’m not lying to them to protect their feelings. I’m not lying to them at all. AI will not “take” anyone’s job: it is and will change how we work and what the nature of our work is.
There are more jobs now then here have ever been in human history. Laundry changed from a grueling, all day ordeal or industrialized profession (which still exists at scale today) to a to-do list task that many people can accomplish via a pair of robots in their home. Graphic design possibilities exploded when typesetting no longer had to be done by hand. Optometrists have access to enhanced diagnostic tools and can provide more accurate vision care for more patients more quickly. Work doesn’t go away, it just changes.
Yes, some jobs will become more automated, but that should mean that humans do less grunt work and can move up the hierarchy of needs in functionality. Less lifting with your legs and more thinking about possibilities.
And yes, some jobs will likely remain human-only for quite a while: hair stylists and barbers, I’m looking at you!
Saying that “someone using AI will” take someone’s job without having the imagination to finish that sentence only serves to bolster the self image of the speaker without consideration for the potential existential dread of all those who quietly fear displacement but see no solution other than to push back against technological advancement.
AI won’t take your job, it will change the way you work.
This needs to be echoed, amplified, and expanded upon by everyone who considers themselves a “thought leader”, “AI enthusiast”, or whatever other titles are being invented, because average folks need to understand what and how AI will be applicable to them, and how it will make their jobs easier.
The first industrial revolution failed to deliver on the promise of more leisure time for all (weekends and benefits were hard-won by unions, not given by corporations), and we now have the rare opportunity of a second attempt at the broken promise. This must also come with livable wages for all, something that we are inching towards via increased union power, but may also come as a corporate anti-union pre-action.
Finally, Sam Altman didn’t lose his job to AI: he followed the tradition of many CEOs before him and was ousted by the board of directors.
The first CEO to lose their job to AI? We don’t even know her name.
