Kids, Jobs and AI

Recently, I got involved in a number of job conversations. Not for myself or colleagues but for our kids. Many of my friends have kids who either need to decide which major to choose or wonder if what they’re studying is what they really want.

Most kids look up to their parents. Mine is not an exception. He’s getting dismissed from the military service (ROKMC!) in about 5 months and he wants to be a software developer. While I am flattered, I start wondering if that’s the best job that won’t get replaced by AI during his career.

It's difficult to say which job is completely immune to replacement by AI, as technology continues to evolve and impact many industries. However, some jobs that are less likely to be fully replaced by AI in the near future include those that involve:

Human interaction and empathy: Jobs that require a high degree of personal interaction and emotional intelligence, such as counseling, social work, and teaching, are less likely to be fully replaced by AI.

Creativity: Jobs that require creativity, such as writing, graphic design, and music composition, are less likely to be fully replaced by AI.

Problem-solving: Jobs that require critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making, such as scientific research, management and entrepreneurship, are less likely to be fully replaced by AI.

Physical tasks: Jobs that involve physical tasks, such as construction, agriculture, and manufacturing are less likely to be fully replaced by AI.

It's also worth noting that many jobs will likely evolve rather than disappear due to AI. For example, while some tasks may be automated, human workers may still be needed to supervise and maintain the AI systems, and to make strategic decisions.?

Additionally, some jobs that may be less likely to be fully replaced by AI may still be impacted by AI to some extent. It is important to have an open mind, be adaptable and continuously learn to keep up with the changes in the workforce.

OK, I only wrote the first two paragraphs above and the rest was AI’s work. Everyone talks about #ChatGPT these days so I followed the trend and wanted to see what it has to say when I asked what’s the best job that won’t get replaced by AI.?

Nothing surprising or creative in the answer from the chatbot and obviously it didn’t fully get the point as it responded physical tasks might not get replaced. That’s because I said “AI” in my question while I meant “AI + Robot” and we all know manufacturing automation is happening today.?

It is granted that today’s chatbot technology doesn’t understand what’s implied in the question but the response above has some points and made me think about the nature of the jobs that I am familiar with.

The simplest form of problem solving in software development is to produce output based on input parameters and constraints. Let’s say I want to control a GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) device connected to a USB port of a Linux PC. I can imagine an AI can write a simple Python script in few seconds given the exact GPIO controller name and port number.

I need a bit of soldering and wiring as well because I need the GPIO to control an external power supply through a relay so that’s the physical aspect of problem solving but of course robots are much more accurate and efficient than me in soldering wires and connectors.

I need to spend some time to find the most cost effective GPIO device with USB interface and Linux driver due to the budget restriction but again, given the right parameter (that it has to be cheaper than $10), an AI can find it in seconds from the Internet. The business part of the problem is solved as well!??

Pretty gloomy so far because AI (and robot) can kick my butt all the way here. What if I don’t “like” the design though? While it works, I “feel” that it’s not “safe enough.” There has to be a way to make it “more robust” and “look better.” Can AI (+ Robot) understand these requirements and implement them??

In the profession of project management, problem solving depends a lot on a clear definition of requirements. We all know that most projects miss milestones not because of incapable team but because of the lack of clear understanding of what those milestones really are. How do you meet a quality target if nobody can clearly define the criteria??

The difficulty of defining clear project requirements stem from the gap between the business decision makers who don’t fully understand the technical feasibility and tradeoffs and the engineers who don’t fully understand the business mandates and priorities.

I had a colleague who asked me yesterday if a project manager should come from the technology background and my response is “Definitely yes, the more solid technology background the better.”?

Where I didn’t have a chance to articulate more is that a project manager also should have a very strong understanding of the business priorities as well as human natures of how the priorities are explicitly stated or implied by another form of communication. That’s the human interaction and empathy part of problem solving and it’ll take a while to automate them.?