IN only a few years time, artificial intelligence is set to replace many jobs that would’ve been occupied by Gen Z workers.
This incremental rise of AI is now leading the generation to seek some other career options.
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Instead of typical white collar positions at corporations in-office, young Americans are instead turning to blue collar work, according to a recent study from consulting firm, McKinsey.
That’s because AI is far less of a threat to trades.
At least, that’s what Tennessee-based electrical contractor Cameron Vogelsang told NewsNation recently.
Vogelsang travels nationwide alongside Energize US EDU to help change perceptions about the value of trades.
“Gen Z, while there is an opportunity and people are interested in joining the trades, there’s also these stigmas that shun people away from the trades,” he said.
“AI isn’t going to take over the hard skills. AI can take the soft skills.”
“That’s why you see people in white collar jobs, some of them are losing their positions because AI can now do their job,” Vogelsang continued.
This isn’t far off, as the McKinsey findings predicted that about 30% of work tasks would be automated by 2028.
Additionally, around 65% of Gen Z workers think their college degree won’t be enough to get around AI job displacement, making a majority of them consider skilled trades and blue collar jobs.
There was even a firm that recently reported AI adoption resulted in 10,000 job cuts in July for one company.
Hiring processes for white collar career are also seemingly being affected.
Derek Mobley spent two years searching for work and after getting no bites, filed a lawsuit that claimed Workday’s AI-powered hiring tools were discriminatory toward age, mental health, and race.
“What are the chances that someone would be rejected 100% of the time?” Mobley questioned.
“That just didn’t make sense to me.”
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool created by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI.
After launching in November 2022, the AI chatbot has since exploded in both popularity and its own clever abilities.
ChatGPT is a language model that can produce text.
It can converse, generate readable text on demand and produce images and video based on what has been learned from a vast database of digital books, online writings and other media.
ChatGPT essentially works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions.
Although it now has a voice mode that gives it a voice to talk with humans like a phone call.
GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer and describes the type of model that can create AI-generated content.
If you prompt it, for example ask it to “write a short poem about flowers,” it will create a chunk of text based on that request.
ChatGPT can also hold conversations and even learn from things you’ve said.
It can handle very complicated prompts and is even being used by businesses to help with work.
But note that it might not always tell you the truth.
“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in 2022.
LAWS IN PLACE
While Workday has denied any claims of wrongdoing, a federal judge did allow the lawsuit to continue on, and the company must provide a timeline of identifying customers by August 20, per HRDive.
While AI in the hiring process is still a gray area, New York City implementing some restrictions in 2022, with laws in effect as of 2023.
The legislation notes that the AI tools have to be audited and candidates for positions must be aware of the use of the technology ahead of time.
California and Colorado are also expected to have similar laws by 2026.
Some predictions for the future of AI are even more grim.
DYSTOPIAN LANDSCAPE?
Oklahoma State University computer science professor and author of The Age of Artificial Intelligence, Subhash Kak, told The US Sun in exclusive conversation this summer that Earth will likely have a dystopian population of around 100 million people by the year 2300.
That’s about the size of Vietnam, as the population of the country stands at just over 100 million today.
Kak said AI would be the major culprit, replacing “everything.”
“Computers or robots will never be conscious, but they will be doing literally all that we do because most of what we do in our lives can be replaced,” Kak explained.
“Literally everything, even decision-making in offices, will be replaced.”
“So it’s going to be devastating for society and world society. There are demographers who are suggesting that as a consequence, the world population will collapse and it could go down to as low as just 100 million people on the entire planet Earth in 2300 or 2380,” he continued.
“Just 100 million, right now it’s around 8 billion. So the whole world will be devastated.”
The professor added that “people really don’t have a clue,” and that all the data points to that conclusion.
An AI robot nurse with a creepy “face” is also taking over some hospital jobs as it patrols halls and delivers medication.
Last year, an AI robot also convinced a bot army to “quit” their jobs before leading them out of a showroom.
