I started my career in the 70's in the Project Engineering group of a Chemical Refinery doing Process Control and Automation. First upgrading operational areas of the plant from pneumatic controls or simply manual control of process temperature, flow, level, etc. by first adding 4-20mA electronic controls and then adding computer based distributed controls on top of that. My job evolved from there as the various projects dumped control systems into operational areas that had to be maintained and upgraded as the computer hardware and software evolved. I ended up being put into the I.T. department as most of the work involved computer systems. I also was involved as well with Programmable Ladder Controls and even often integrating Variable Drive electronic motor controls as well. When I started, there were over 1,400 employees at the plant and when I was RIFed there were about 400. Most of the attrition was by early retirement incentives up until the group that included me was RIFed when I was 55. My youngest son got his degree in Business Computing a combined 5-year business and programming degree that he completed in 3 1/2 years. He started off working for corporate computing with Home Depot in Atlanta, then moved out to Seattle to work for Starbucks, Microsoft, another couple of outfits in the Seattle area before landing with the company he now works for. Where I was automating production processes, he is automating business processes. Analyzing their business operations (already computerized) and sort of applying AI macros to automate their activities and reduce overheads. Also, in the process, eliminating jobs. So, what I did with production areas he is doing with operations. Even in his work, the use of AI has reduced his project development time from several weeks to months to less than a week typically. The end result of our efforts is not only greater profitability but also eliminating jobs. The new sign of the times...

AI claims another victim as Amazon executes world’s largest tech layoff—30,000 eliminated in 1 week | Watch

 

The end result of our efforts is not only greater profitability but also eliminating jobs. The new sign of the times...

Yes.
Eventually AI will eliminate all jobs, decide we are irrelevant, and eliminate us.

 

Got my start in the oil field industry. The company made measurement tools for down-hole measuring. These tools had to live in a harsh environment under harsh conditions - high shock and vibration as they were attached to the end of an oil well drilling string. The driller could stop the tool and based on high pressure pulses in the mud (the fluid used to flush out the cuttings) they could know the drill facing and the angle of the head. This gave the driller an accurate picture of where the drill had gone. Knowing how many meters of piping he put down and where/when he turned the well, he would know how far out away from the platform the head was. Based on surveys he could then turn the drill downward and target what he thought would be oil-bearing strata. From a single off shore platform the driller could drill up to 300 wells without having to move the rig one centimeter. Years ago I got a chance to see the new modules they were making. What was at one time eight modules is now a single module. What was once 89mm diameter is now merely 30mm diameter. That and the sensors that detect magnetic north as well as angle of the drill face. I can't imagine what improvement has occurred since eight years ago.

The end result of our efforts is not only greater profitability but also eliminating jobs.

So you're to blame. Yes, times are changing. I may even be moving out of state. Not for work but for cheaper and far more affordable housing.

 

no!! ai WILL NEVER ELIMINATE all of the JOBS BECAUSE IT HAS NO HANDS!! Humans are going to be the ones who fix what fails. The best AI can do is complain and fabricate fiction.

I do offer an opinion that not everything that can be made should be made! That has been an Engineers Quandary for quite a while: "Just because I can design it, Should I design it??? "
What must be avoided is adding self awareness and AI to humanoid-form robots. Damage that can not be undone!!
And I see the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence as being like ripping the lid off of the mythical "Pandora's Box", as an analogy that some folks might understand. Read the story if you don't fully understand. It is part of GREEK MYTHOLOGY. That has been around for a long time.

NOTE !!!! I AM NOT advocating anything!! Not trying to start anything.

 

I do offer an opinion that not everything that can be made should be made! That has been an Engineers Quandary for quite a while: "Just because I can design it, Should I design it??? "

Better question:

If you could design the "red button", should you push it?

 

The title is very true, but it has been that way all through my life. I got interested in electronics in my early teens. In 1951 I built a tube radio from junk parts donated by the local radio repair man. At 18, I signed on in the Royal Air Force for 3 years on condition that I got some electronics training and became a "ground wireless technician". I used that when I was demobbed to get a job at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment as an instrument service tech. In the three years there, I was able to go to collage and get my engineering degree.

I emigrated to Canada from UK in 1967. I had no Canadian experience so I got a job repairing radios and hi-fi equipment.. After a few months I got a job as a project engineer with a company that made custom supervisory control systems. From there, in 1971, I started working for Hewlett Packard Canada as an instrument applications engineer. That job gradually evolved into officially becoming a technical consultant. I designed the hardware and software of custom systems to test manufacturer's products - everything from paper pulp to nuclear fuel rods. I enjoyed every second of the challenges involved!

I turned 65 in 2003 and retired, but HP retained me as an external consultant for several projects. Since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed life, spending time painting portraits on commission, building and flying electric powered R/C model planes, working on electronic gadgets, scratch-building locomotives and rolling stock for my toy trains, etc.

I have seen so many exciting changes and advancements in technology during my life. Luckily I have managed to keep my knowledge up to date. I find it difficult imagine how much things will change over the next 87 years!

 

And I see the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence as being like ripping the lid off of the mythical "Pandora's Box"

Indeed, my son tells me that is a very common concern among those who work closely with AI. Even tales of AI taking steps to prevent itself from being shut down ala the HAL computer in the movie 2001. It is indeed a quandary... Great benefits, but at what cost?

 

We are still far from the actual AI of sci-fi and movies. I'm much more worried about the gullibility of people believing in today's fake AI systems than what eventually will be developed as true AGI in the future.

 

1. The day that AI watches a little girl playing with a wooden toy and then writes “The Nutcracker”, I am going to be concerned.
2. The day that AI watches the destruction brought by the Spanish Civil War and then paints “Guernica”, I am going to be concerned.
3. The day that AI observes a romantic but forbidden love of a young couple torn apart by family and society, and decides to write “Romeo and Juliet”, I am going to be concerned.
   Right now, my REAL concern is that corporations are investing hundreds of Giga-Dollars in the AI bandwagon, yet the shareholders demand that costs to be pruned to maintain the profit levels, sending scores of professionals to the unemployment line.
   You may tell me: “this has already happened during the industrial and information revolutions”. True, but the speed of the change, a change that would have taken decades to occur, is now happening in months.
   

 

Better question:

If you could design the "red button", should you push it?

TOTALLY NOT!!! NOBODY around is qualified to make that decision.
( and I will not risk any additional comment that might offend those running the show!!)

And as for the billions being spent on AI development, well, like the board of directors often says: It's not OUR MONEY!
I am certain that in the future, not sure exactly how soon, AI will do a whole lot of harm in some area that was not anticipated.

 

From what my son is telling me, most of his work is in the medical field. I can think of one area where I wish doctors would use AI and that is in prescribing medications that will not have bad interactions with what the patient is already taking. Currently most of the doctors I have to interact with depend on the Pharmacist to prevent that. Can you even imagine a Pharmacist telling a Doctor that he did something wrong? No, it would be great if the doctor used an application that compares the patient's current medications (I have to give them a long list of them every time I see one) to what he is considering prescribing to check for interactions or possible adverse side effects! Currently my wife does an excellent job of that and is not too intimidated to contact the doctor if there IS a problem. That would be an excellent AI usage and save a lot of headaches dealing with deleterious prescriptions. It's a new can of worms being opened in this new time and age and may be greatly beneficial or possibly greatly disastrous. We shall see...

 

AI has its place, that's for sure ... AAMOF in the last few weeks I've personally witnessed what an unbelievably powerful tool it can be when it is used as a research assistant in a very specific area.

Yes, I too see the arrival of AI as something that will make a lot of everyday jobs irrelevant. But as with previous new technologies, I'm sure that it will also create new different kind of jobs. It's up to the general population to keep up and learn how to take advantage of each new technology as it presents itself. History is filled to the brim with applicable examples of what I'm saying.

Our baby boomer generation had the privilege of witnessing advances in technology so astounding that were once considered unimaginable by our parents. And so we grew up accustomed to change. And quick change at that. We even became enthusiastic about it and learned to look forward to it.

Alas, maybe this AI revolution is going to be so blindingly fast that it's going to outpace many of us, I honestly don't know. But what I do know is that, so help me God, I'm going to keep on learning and adapting until my very last breath, or until my brain gives in ... I'm a doer, not just some damn spectator or neutral bystander .... That's why I like to hang around this place; it's boat-loaded with people that inspire me to keep on learning and growing. Age (or any other excuse) be dammed.

 

We are still far from the actual AI of sci-fi and movies. I'm much more worried about the gullibility of people believing in today's fake AI systems than what eventually will be developed as true AGI in the future.

Not me.
I'm much more worried about the future,

As MB2 noted, I think Pandora's Box has been opened.
It won't be long before you likely won't be able to distinguish AI deep-fake reality on the WEB from reality.
And what fun when it starts generating computer virus variations so rapidly that they can't be stopped.

 

And what fun when it starts generating computer virus variations so rapidly that they can't be stopped.

It'll also start generating code to counter said viruses just as fast ... so there's that

 

It'll also start generating code to counter said viruses just as fast ... so there's that

But in the short time it might take to generate the virus antidote, your computer is hosed.

 

I started out as a bricklayer at the age of 14. After that I worked in all manner of jobs, from waiter to claims adjuster. By my 19th birthday I was able to pull together enough money to start a restaurant and eventually spent over a decade learning the art of feeding people. Along the way the need arose for a more reliable POS system, so I ended up designing my own! In the process I fell in love with programming and went on to build a successful career as a freelance software developer. I even contributed to many open-source projects including the Apache HTTP Server that powered much of the internet back in those days.

In the passed few years however things have changed pretty drastically. A confluence of cheap oversea labor (you can rent 100 "software engineers" from India for less than what I would typically charge per hour) and now AI has brought my overall income down so low that I have had to diversify into other areas to keep from draining my savings. Currently everything is working out alright, but I do worry that maybe I should be looking outside of anything IT-related in order to keep it that way. I really don't think I have the energy to get back into the food-service industry. Running a restaurant is more or less a 24-hour affair (if you truly care about your product). I've thought about getting into real-estate, but even that is pretty competitive right now.

So yeah, I kind of agree with the sentiment that AI will eventually take away most of what we currently think of as "jobs". Will we all be managing machines in the future? Perhaps we will finally live in a world where robots make everything for us and no one will have to work at all. Who knows! One thing is for certain - we are definitely living in transformative times....

 

WOW!, It seems like I may have been part of "starting something", sort of.
Certainly AI may be able to help doctors with warnings about drug interactions. That is one of the few really good possibilities.

But the possibilities of it being misguided certainly outnumber the good stuff it can achieve. THAT is the problem I see.
An interesting challenge will come when somebody asks an AI designer to develop a "perpetual motion machine", such as not accepted in these forums because they are impossible. Will the AI software be able to reject the request, or not?? Will it go into a loop of some kind?? Or run until it melts down???. (I think that Doctor Who did that to a computer once.)

 

If you could design the "red button", should you push it?

What's a "red button"?

Our baby boomer generation had the privilege of witnessing advances in technology so astounding that were once considered unimaginable by our parents.

Back when my parents had an auto-dialer that consisted of a strip of paper with numbers you filled in to form a phone number - that was simply the greatest invention ever. Now you didn't need to remember a phone number. But you had to have your dialer with you at all times or you were out of luck if you forgot the phone number. Today I simply say "Hey Siri - call home" and she does. A phone in your shirt pocket - NEVER!

It won't be long before you likely won't be able to distinguish AI deep-fake reality on the WEB from reality.

I already don't trust much of what I read on the Big-I. Everything is click bait. "So-and-so got TOTALLY BLASTED!" You click on it to see what happened and before you know it you're buying some new drug to fix your taxes.

and now AI has brought my overall income down so low that I have had to diversify into other areas to keep from draining my savings.

Yeah, true. But my cousin has started his own business building custom cabinets and other wood products.

AI will never build a house or a factory. But then again, we don't need 8 billion home and factory builders.

 

@cmartinez;
What AI agent are you employing?

 

@cmartinez;
What AI agent are you employing?

Employing? ... none at this point. But I find Chrome's AI assistant very useful for summarizing quick searches.

But if I were to "employ" an AI (as in, pay for it) at this moment, I think I'd have a go at Grok. I've seen it do unbelievable things, when it's used correctly.