THEY'RE HERE!

    

Well, maybe more like this:

I've complained about the dangerous rise of AI over the last couple of years and that if the growth goes unchecked there will be serious consequences for us all.

I'm already pissed off at AI generated news reports and documentaries where the lazy reporter or film maker uses AI text and worse, gets AI to search for images in support. When it comes to historical documentaries the AI generated photographs and film clips usually bear little relation to the narrative. It's annoying but increasingly more prevalent.

We already know of AI putting people out of work in journalism, PR, marketing and IT services but increasingly there are encroachments into all clerical positions, legal institutions and even medicine.

 This is in the 'white collar' areas. In the 'blue collar' areas AI inspired robotics are increasingly putting manual labourers out of work and anything involving physical work is being replaced. Robotics have been around for decades in manufacturing (look at the car assembly business) but now smarter robotics drive cars, trains, planes and ships. In another decade or two there will be massive worldwide unemployment.

You'd think that we are ready for it but sadly, no, we are not. Supporting out of job workers isn't the norm except for the best socialist countries but even these will be swamped. Anti-socialist countries like USA will get a massive wake-up call soon and it will be their own own fault. For too long they have equated social support programmes with communism and haven't put in proper unemployment programmes, public housing initiatives and medicare assistance.

I read yesterday an interesting article in The Hill which raises red fags about the rise of AI.

It's well worth reading but here are some useful outtakes: (American spelling and unusual grammar left in for your annoyance).

•  "The AI revolution is here, and it’s gutting entire sectors with hurricane force. This isn’t an industrial transition, nor a replay of mechanization or globalization. It is a technological rupture of a different magnitude. Machines replacing not only muscle but cognition itself: judgment, pattern recognition, reasoning. And it’s advancing at a pace that outstrips legislation, labor markets, and political capacity, moving faster than most in government are willing to admit.

• Change doesn’t arrive gradually but in overwhelming waves. First, it replaces what we dismiss as “menial” cognitive work — call centers, customer service, scheduling, transcription. That phase is already underway. Then it moves into clerical roles, basic accounting, paralegal research, routine journalism, marketing copy, and compliance work. Those jobs are next. After that, no profession is spared, not even software engineering itself.

• Within a few years, AI systems will complete monthlong programming projects in hours. When that happens, junior developers will be removed rather than retrained. Teams will shrink. Entire layers will vanish. If the people who build the systems can be replaced by the systems, then no white-collar profession should feel insulated.

• Lay out the timeline honestly, and it becomes terrifying. In 2026, AI replaces support roles. In 2027, it consumes administrative and clerical work. By 2028, it’s performing serious professional tasks at scale. By the early 2030s, much of white-collar America may no longer be necessary to the current economic structure.

• The United States has no plan. None. No labor transition strategy. No reskilling conveyor belt capable of operating at this speed. No serious public conversation about income decoupled from employment. Just vague chatter about “innovation,” paired with the familiar promise that new jobs will somehow appear, as they always have.

• A society where tens of millions are unemployable is not a sign of free-market success but a powder keg. You can’t preach personal responsibility to a population for whom responsibility has been rendered economically irrelevant. You can’t defend social order while ignoring the conditions that make order possible.

•  The social consequences of mass displacement — crime, despair, radicalization, resentment — spread. They destabilize everything conservatives claim to want to conserve.

• We are approaching a moment where the question is no longer whether AI will replace jobs, but how a democratic society survives when it does. That conversation needs to begin now, while there is still time to shape policy deliberately rather than in panic. The country is already near a breaking point, marked by diminishing trust in institutions, the presidency and even one another. Some will argue that things could improve. They might, but it’s increasingly unlikely. For that reason, waiting is a luxury the country no longer has."