Robots And Artificial Intelligence - They Can't Replace Everything

A story you are starting to hear more about is the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence or AI. This isn't about Skynet or the Matrix, but some people see it as catastrophic of a change. The narrative in the media makes it feel like this is the end of civilization as we know it. There is a fear it is going to destroy a lot of jobs out there. It is true, it will destroy a lot of jobs. But you don't often hear about all of the facts that are a part of it.

  1. It will end up creating more jobs than it will eliminate. All of the technology and manufacturing that is needed will end up creating more jobs than it eliminates.
  2. Our country and society has a history of destroying and creating jobs. Look at farming, around 1800 farmers comprised 85% of the workforce. Today that number is 2.6%. All of those jobs were destroyed and replaced by something else. Every month jobs are destroyed but new jobs, between 10-20% more than those that are destroyed are created.
  3. Not everything can be replaced by a robot and AI. There will always be room in the world for the craftsmen, artists and creators. You will never get a computer to be able to create the next great novel or movie. You can get robots to create assembly line furniture but there will always be a market for custom, one of a kind furniture.
  4. Automation is only good when it is a good process to automate. Having people that can define effective processes to be automated is going to be even more important.
Things change and evolve over time. The lesson is you can't be mad at the fact some sort of automation could take your job. You need to focus on how to automate parts of your work yourself. People that make their company more efficient are the most valuable, not the most expendable. It is why you need to keep learning new skills in life, because the world we live in today will look very different in 20 years. 



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