By now most of us realise the question is no longer whether robots will be coming for our jobs, but rather when.
Fortunately, the question of how they will take our jobs is a little bit more nuanced than a total implosion of the job market that will relegate us all to serfdom on a techno-feudalist colony on Mars, subsisting on universal basic income, diet coke and protein condensate.
Human beings have proved remarkably resilient to threats from technological and industrial advancements, whether through mechanisation of agriculture, portraiture, writing or doing the laundry.
New technologies also tend to drive innovation and spawn new industries. Who would have thought, a decade ago, that it would be possible to be a social media influencer for a living?
But the global economy is developing so quickly under the new era of bot supremacy that even influencers are being rapidly replaced by digital avatars. Influencers, models, news presenters, doctors, lawyers, artists, singers, waiters, footballers — it seems no-one is safe.
Yet, the idea of AI has been around for more than two centuries. It is another instance, as Ernest Hemingway observed in his novel The Sun Also Rises, where “change happens slowly, then all at once”.
The field of computational programming in AI can trace its roots as far back as the work of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage around 1843. Advances in AI have come in slow motion since, until the rapid acceleration witnessed over the past decade, led by the US and China.
Most conservative estimates suggest 20,000 jobs have already been shed in 2025 alone, directly due to AI. And there is much more to come, imminently. Microsoft announced this week it would cut 9,000 jobs as it pivots to AI. Intel is to cut 20% of its workforce. The World Economic Forum estimates that 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce to automation.
For now, those most vulnerable to AI displacement are early-career graduates aiming for stable white collar employment. Many of the routine tasks done by juniors can now be done faster and better by a bot, at a fraction of the cost. Making the problem even worse is the technology itself: whacking out a CV and cover letter on ChatGPT is so easy.
But millions of people are competing for a dwindling number of jobs, with their increasingly similar applications in turn being assessed by AI recruitment bots in mere seconds. It is not uncommon to hear of graduates applying for more than 800 jobs before getting an interview, never mind an offer.
Experienced employees now in work are being encouraged to adopt AI in their daily work to optimise efficiency and quality, with the sickening knowledge they might be optimising themselves out of work by doing so.
In the meantime, in what could be described as the “global economy”, jobs are being shed as tariffs, inflation and geopolitical conflict bite. Inequality and unemployment widen, while AI companies such as Nvidia trade on insane, unsustainable multiples. Nvidia is valued at a market cap of $4-trillion — larger than all the publicly traded companies on the London Stock Exchange combined.
At this rate it seems only AI CEOs Jensen Huang, Elon Musk and Sam Altman have relative job security. So what can us mere mortals do, as these epic changes play out before us? A book I am reading offers a clue: we should become one with our machines, of course.
In The Singularity Is Nearer Ray Kurzweil proposes that human beings merge with their technology — to play out what is called “the singularity”, which he predicts will occur by the 2030s. Will you be prepared to automate your brain with nanochip implants in this new era, or will you be protesting for universal basic income?
• Dr Masie is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa.
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