The potential impact of AI on society

Source: Flicker

Where is AI headed? How much is it going to change the future?

---

There are two main questions to ask when thinking about the potential impact of AI on society:

• How will AI impact our current work?
• How will it impact jobs in the future?

In this article, I want to consider the second question, and to look at which of the major industries and roles are most likely to be affected.

What role could AI have in our future jobs?

In general, AI could replace a wide range of jobs in the future, from jobs requiring low-level human intelligence (computer-assisted tasks) to jobs requiring deep human thinking (artificial intelligence).

While some people worry that AI could put everyone out of work, I think this is a bit of an over-reaction. I think there are a few broad categories of jobs that are likely to be affected. For example, translation will be on of the first jobs to disappear. Generally, jobs that rely on widely available data may be affected most, because the prediction part of these jobs can be automated using AI. On the other hand, there are jobs that rely heavily on human judgment which may not be readily amenable to automation. Those jobs, like the medical profession, will probably last longer.