Is AI going to take over?

Straying away from the cats for a hot blog minute. Something that has been trending is AI - it's hard to miss that AI is a thing - it's everywhere! From AI-created images, AI-written programs, and AI-written papers.

I've never been one of the tech-savvy people who need to have the latest and greatest thing that has come out with technology. I fought getting a smartphone for the longest time - I was good with the flip phone that took 20 minutes to write a text as you had to press each key multiple times to get the letter you needed. Now I use my "smart" phone more than Gene does. I still struggle with some things on it, but overall - I use it more than I do a computer.

I always used to say that the technology we have is nowhere close to being perfect or even working correctly 99% of the time, so maybe we should slow our roll on the advancement to bigger, better things with technology and perfect what we have. But what do I know? Granted, there's more money to be made if we roll out new and improved things more often. Sadly, the way of the world is more materialistic than it should be, and people just have to have the bragging rights for the newest thing instead of fixing something; we just toss it and buy a new replacement.

Years ago, when AI was just a murmur on the tech streets, Gene was like, "This is gonna be the greatest thing ever. Robots that do all the work, body parts that are replaceable so we can live forever, what's not to like?!" I was like, you know, that's just taking away jobs - which takes away our financial ability to afford living. More importantly, if we push forward with AI, it's just going to make humans a lump of stupid, non-thinking blobs. We need to be

challenged, we need to think, we need to push our limits. Having something like AI take over is taking all of that away. People will no longer think for themselves, have an opinion, or be able to carry on an intellectual conversation. The world would quickly become a place that I don't want to live.

Now that AI is becoming more prominent in our lives (Facebook with its "Meta AI", TikTok with AI-generated captions, emails/texts with predictive sentencing, Chat GPT (both paid and unpaid), Claude) - it's everywhere and without a choice. Granted, there are some upsides to AI, depending on how you use it and what your intentions are.

I have used ChatGPT (the free version) as a tool to help me brainstorm or get ideas of what to write about, creating unique names, etc. But that's it. There's potential for some really big changes with AI taking the lead in the technical world. Some of it is happening behind the scenes already at medium and larger companies. The average person may not see it, but it's happening and it's a bit scary!

Gene works for a great company and has been there for almost 10 years. He has been on several teams during that time. Recently, he joined a new team - basically the AI division. So he is seeing firsthand how it is changing or has the potential to change things in his company. Gene was excited to be on that team - he is on the leading edge of this new technology, so it is a great experience and looks amazing on his resume. However, the big drawback is the realization that in the distant future, his field of work could be eliminated or cut back to a minimal team of a few people. This was one thing I kept saying: jobs will be taken, and it's not the low-end jobs that no one wants that will disappear. He was adamant that would never happen. Now he sees that the potential is there, and it's scary!

Like most people who have a career in a specialized field, it's terrifying to hear in your 40s that you might not have a job in 10 years. Even though you planned to work until 65, now you're in the "unhireable" group for several reasons: age, skill set, pay rate, etc. Let's also be realistic about the fact that yes, it's discriminatory to not hire based on age - but we all know it happens, and companies find a way to not use age as the reason. That's the last place anyone wants to find themselves. While it's not the end of the world, it sure makes for a stressful time.

Gene and a friend recently got together. His friend, whom we hadn't seen since our wedding, voiced his concern about AI and his job security. He is also in the tech field at a different company in a different industry. Gene is in the restaurant supply industry, while his friend is in the medical industry, but both are on the back end of computer technology. There are no real answers to how likely this is to happen or what will happen to all the people in technical fields. Are they just out of luck and have to find a new field to work in? Will they have to consider early retirement if the day comes when their jobs disappear?

Til our tails cross again,

Mel