Artificial Intelligence: The Job Killer

The inspiration for this post comes from watching an interview featuring Earnest Hausman, a current member of the University of Michigan Wolverines football team. Hausman was born in Uganda and adopted as a child, and just recently returned to Uganda for the first time since he left.

Earnest visited his village for the first time since he was a child and discovered that they did not have access to clean drinking water. He came back on a second trip with a plan to drill a well for his family and village to use. As I am watching this video of this giant truck drilling in the middle of this village, a stark contrast of technological progress was evident. I don't know how they were getting water before, but I believe a lot of resources and energy were devoted to getting water to sustain this village.

So, I'm watching this interview unfold and they are standing at the pump and you can see the containers to gather the water as one is being filled. You see the spirits of all of these people being lifted. My immediate thought was, \"Think, of all the work, they don't have to do to get water anymore\". They can literally spend their time doing other things to make their village better now. This is the power of technology.

Here, in the U.S. and around the world, artificial intelligence is in full swing. We've reached a point where companies looking to save money on labor are opting to use A.I. and the jobs market is headed towards peak demand.

Will A.I. take our jobs?

I say, \"Yes, but only if you let it.\"

Throughout history, across the U.S., and many other countries and many other periods through the development of the human race, there has always been a cycle of new technology changing the workforce and ending traditional jobs. Whether it's the lightbulb ending the demand for professional candle makers, or the automobile ending the stable industry, the underlying factor that remains consistent is that there are new jobs and possibilities that the new tools create.

Think about the well in Uganda. What did the people do before the well was drilled? Who got the water and carried it back to the village? Those were jobs. They were essential to the life of the village, and now those people may find themselves in search of a new thing.

But think about the possibilities. With the time and energy saved, the village can redirect into education, small businesses, and building stronger infrastructure like schools and clinics. As that change compounds over time, even greater tools are unlocked, and those tools create more tools and so on.

The villagers may be unemployed as water collectors and carriers, but more work needs to be done. This brings me to the purpose of writing this article. A.I. will, and already has, taken many jobs, but it has opened up so many more possibilities for other jobs that didn't exist before. It makes it easier for people to build better tools and frees us up for the opportunity to learn more. I've heard people say that A.I. making us dumber, but I strongly disagree with the logic of this argument. I believe that it's making us smarter in different areas of life.

When you point to students using A.I. to write a paper, and say they aren't learning, to me, that's like telling those villagers to go get water the same way they did before. Do you not see the well in the center of the village? This is why the education system has failed us. In the real world, those students will go on to work for a living, and the only thing that will matter is the outcome. No business owner is going to ban their employees from using A.I., if it's bringing in more money. It's not cheating to use A.I., it's reality. In the real world, if that village doesn't use the well, that village would struggle with the same issues as before. Stop sending students in search of water when the information is right there. Think about how to incorporate it into learning instead of banning it and consider the infinite possibilities and jobs that artificial intelligence can create. You got this!