Journal
This journal will be unfettered, sensible, interesting and even entertaining!
Jobs and the Future
Can you Survive the Agentic AI Wave?!
Well surprisingly you can, starting right now !
The History of Jobs
There is a lot of talk about dystopian futures where the human is disenfranchised, and becomes overlooked. In many ways this is a choice, and people have been doing this to themselves as long as we have been on this planet. It starts with a negative bias, and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Technology is not to blame, this is just a convenient avoidance for taking personal responsibility.
There are many reasons why this happens, and it is a complex issue for sure. However a point I wish to make is about mindset. It is true that the former system (social contract), bred servile workers. The economic model was based on people getting an education, or skill and then selling that to an organisation that paid them for that. It was a cosy arrangement where wages made survival possible for the employee, and profits made the business owner more wealthy. We call this 'capitalism'. People were able to sell their physical and cognitive labour for money. Economies thrived and society developed subsequently, they needed each other.
Job Mindset
The problem is that this bred a mindset of 'working for someone else'. The individual made an uneasy pact to always 'get a job', with some employer. Mostly people compromised in order to have a better standard of living, have a family and have a home. While economies boomed after the second world war, and individuals could rise from relative poverty to a respectable economic level. The business thinkers got richer, and the entrepreneurial class thrived, despite being in the minority. The common attitude was always to get an education in order to get a better job.
The 'job' was not that satisfying to the vast majority, and risk-reward ideas were not widely promoted in schools and colleges. It was always to find another job, working for someone. Sadly at the end of the career of working, foe someone, it was often a shock to find that the savings accumulated were simply not sufficient for a decent older life, for the vast majority of people. Here the illusion of the system became apparent to the majority. A job, even with a seemingly massive organisation, did not automatically translate to security. Oftentimes employees were retrenched, or a pandemic halted their career, and this vulnerability became brutal.
Looking at how this blog is evolving, it looks like I have to change the title. from 'Super Human Intelligence', to 'Jobs and the Future''. I will do the SHI blog after this one! Anyway onwards ....
AI Democratisation
So here we are in the age of AI, and right at the cusp of full AGI. Openai o3 will definitely put a stamp on this once it is released this year (2025). Think about that for a moment - we are 1/4 into the 21st Century! At the speed of development, we are seeing Science Fiction become reality. This year is being called 'Agentic AI'. This means multiple AI Agents will be taking actions as a team, on complex tasks normally done by humans. This multiplication of AI Agents is going to have even more impact that the Chats were all know of and use every day. Well there are about 4 billion visits as of Dec 2024 (https://www.similarweb.com/website/chatgpt.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com).
I fear there are many more billions who have not adopted any form of AI, and are in the process of being left behind. Even in countries where there is access, many are in the denial mindset. This disequity is raising a lot of concern:
Thought leaders, knowing about the dangers of centralised control, of power in any form, are on the mission of democratisation of AI. One has to applaud Meta and Zuck for taking a strong lead in open-sourcing LLM's. This type of counter-balance matters. Others like Emad Mostaque are activists and actioners for Democratic AI. With the system rigged for ultra-capitalism, and the race on for the goals of AGI and ASI, nobody knows what will unfold. Let's see how that goes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LRBhT3TLr8
Rise of the Empowered Entrepreneur
So where to now? Since jobs are going to be done by entities much more clever than ourselves, what do humans do? To be clear many cognitive tasks/jobs will be better done by AI and moreso by Agentic AI's. We can rail agianst this but to no avail, as the march of progress or technology has no ears. I should say that humans till have agency in the physical world, and we want a democratic say in our own future. There is no doubt a new deal needs to be done. A lot of serious policy makers, governments, commercial enterprises, and technology moguls also want a dispensation that protects the human user-base. Perhaps it won't be that consumers are the prime consideration though, as technology has it's own masters to satisfy.
As far as opportunity goes, there has never been more in any time in history. Amazing potential is around every corner, if your mindset is open to new things. Technology as in 'automation', may serve manufacturing and marketing more than in human-centred areas. Also a lot of the AI rollout is in socially relevant areas like Health, Well being, Medicine, Disease eradication, Farming, and countless other spaces. It is truly an age of great opportunity, provided one pivots to embrace a new future. That requires an adaptable open mind for starters.
The Powerful Partnership
When AI, in any form, is coupled to humans, one gets a hybrid team of incredible power. The tools that are already available and those that will soon launch, are powerful aids for every kind of workflow and economic activity. All that is required ia a willingness to do the thing that humans do well, and that is 'learning'. Learning new skills, learning new approaches, learning all about our new economic partners, new engineering partners, new scientific assistants, new assitant chefs, new art tutors, new history experts, new psychotherapists, new digital advisors, and new collaborators.
This website is a testament to this partnership in action. I have been amazed at what one can tackle using these ai partners, in my case my interest is to explore science and find new solutions. It has been and remains an amazing journey.
What is your journey going to be? What new business are you going to start? What new forntier are you going to traverse? The field is wide open, and treasures are to be found and fortunes are to be made! Right now and for the next few years humans will still wield agency, and optimistically find the working relationship with this new intelligence.
Carpe Diem !!
© 2024 SMARTT