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Revisiting the Jobs Artificial Intelligence Will Create (mit.edu)

Long-time Slashdot reader occidental shares a link to the audio of a new interview with the authors of the 2017 article "The Jobs That Artificial Intelligence Will Create" Authors Paul Daugherty and H. James Wilson show that four soft skills are becoming much more valuable as human-machine collaboration advances. These skills include complex reasoning, creativity, social and emotional intelligence, and sensory perception.

10 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. So 90% of the human race are excluded? by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because they do not have those. This is pretty much on the level of the fairy-tales climate-change deniers tell themselves.
    Only effect: Even less prepared when the inevitable happens.

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    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:So 90% of the human race are excluded? by apoc.famine · · Score: 2

      It's pretty impossible that complex reasoning, creativity, social and emotional intelligence, and sensory perception will ever be done by a machine.

      I mean, all that machines can do for creativity now is create art in multiple styles including abstract weirdness like Dali, create photorealistic art based on crude drawings supplied as source material, write shitty stories, and create pop songs. There's no way that they will ever do more than that in the future, right?

      I'm sure that they will never be able to sense emotions in people, nor will they replace a therapist. We certainly won't try to get AI to determine if people are likely to be criminals or re-offend if they have been convicted before.

      Computers definitely will never be able to see and sort things, smell, recognize songs, or have a sense of touch or feel pain.

      It's one thing to lay out soft skills that a lot of people don't have and say that's where jobs lie in the future. It's a whole different ballgame to ignore the fact that computers are already making inroads there, and already are better than some percent of the population at those things. Unless the authors are expecting technology to suddenly go in reverse, they're packing bags for a ship that's already sailed.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  2. Re:Supply and Demand by gweihir · · Score: 2

    That worked so well in China, where they do not have little things like human rights or real elections to stand in the way.
    As to attrition: That only works in special circumstances. In the west, it will take society with it.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. "Soft skills"? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Complex reasoning is "a soft skill"? Since when? (Also, I'm somewhat dubious that any kind of intelligence can be labeled as "a skill", as opposed to a trait or something.)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Any job that is replaced by AI and automation by Just+A+Gigolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Must be taxed to the full extent by the goverments, so that billions of people that are replaced by it can be fed, clothed and provided a place to live.

    1. Re: Any job that is replaced by AI and automation by Just+A+Gigolo · · Score: 2

      I did not realize that slashdot shitposters are nowadays AI powered!

    2. Re:Any job that is replaced by AI and automation by Just+A+Gigolo · · Score: 2

      So the raw materials have no value?

    3. Re:Any job that is replaced by AI and automation by Just+A+Gigolo · · Score: 2

      Not all unemployed are criminals.

  5. Re:Read the article by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the king wants to eat food, either he's growing it all himself on his estate, or he needs us to plant, pick, process, and transport that food.

    Yes, once upon a time it took a lot of hands to put food on the king's table. Everyone from the farmer to the miller to the baker and all their helpers had to get rather personally involved in growing the crops and creating that sack of grain, the flour and that particular bread. Something like 90% working in the primary industries, mostly agriculture. Fast forward to today and it's down to about 2% thanks to industrialization and automation, but there's still a farmer doing the farming. Is 0% achievable? Possibly. Maybe soon there is no farmer or farmhouse, it's just a plot of land and machines owned by a faceless mega-company that'll do all the plowing and sowing and watering and fertilization and pesticides and reaping and quality checking delivering sacks of grain in a self-driving lorry to a grain mill. Same goes for the mill, bakery and grocery store - there's food, but nobody makes the food.

    We are seeing the beginning of sci-fi territory where self-correcting, self-repairing machines can keep a society running whether or not the people actually have any clue what it's doing. Where the King has a new set of serfs that aren't so uppity as the old ones, of course it will take a royal court of privileged people like Michelin star chefs to design new food and those who design/maintain/repair the systems but all the rest are just nice-to-have not need-to have. While I don't think we'll have Elysium in space, it's not entirely unlikely we'll end up with something similar here on Earth. A tax heaven with all the rich people, served by robots and the best technology has to offer while everyone else need to fend for themselves. They just have to lose all the support staff they depend on today, but that's a work in progress.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  6. Re:Supply and Demand by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    You'd better spend a lot of that money on insurance and security then, because if you're living around a population of people with absolutely nothing you won't have your stuff for long.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.