Podcast Final

The episode discusses the growing impact of AI on various industries, including the fear of AI taking over jobs. Examples like a McDonald's restaurant run by AI and the potential for AI to edit or write books are mentioned. Concerns about the dangers of AI copying copyrighted work and the need to prevent its rise are highlighted. The possibility of a universal basic income (UBI) as a solution is discussed, but it may not be feasible in the short term. Another solution is to reskill and upskill employees to prevent AI from replacing them. The last solution is to adapt and embrace AI in the workplace. The article emphasizes the need to address the future impact of AI and invites readers to consider their feelings and potential actions. And welcome back to another episode of How to Survive in the 21st Century. On today's episode, we'll be focusing on AI and its effects on the world today. AI has been around for longer than we think. It was first created in 1950 and is still growing and changing constantly. Now we have had JetTBT since November of 2022. AI is still continuously growing. It is becoming a more ubiquitous topic, especially in our generation of college students. There are many people out there who are afraid of everything that could be and already is capable of, especially when it comes to our future careers. There are two guys in my philosophy class who are changing their majors just because of what AI can do and because they do not want a career that could be taken over by AI before they even graduate. A couple weeks ago, my dad even told me about a new McDonald's that is almost completely run by AI. So where do we go from here, and why does this even matter? Well, writing has always been something I've loved. Ever since I was in eighth grade, I knew that it was something I enjoyed doing and wanted to get better at and learn more about. When I got to my junior year of high school, sitting in chemistry class one day, daydreaming per usual, I realized what I wanted to do and the sort of aha moment. I wanted to major in English and be a book editor. It was as simple as that, not a huge revelation by any means, but I was beyond excited that I finally had a plan, an end goal. At lunch that day, I told all my friends about my so-called revelation in chemistry. Some were excited for me, others less so, but I did not mind because I finally knew what I wanted to do. So fast forward two years and I am in college and my career might not be as easily attainable with AI being prevalent in today's world. Book editing is not rocket science by any means. It is a career that AI could easily learn how to perfect and eventually take over. With the rapid growth of AI, the likelihood of our careers being taken over by it increases daily. But it may be something we have to learn to work with rather than against. AI, or artificial intelligence, is something that most of us are familiar with by now. In our world, AI is growing and changing every day. It is mostly on computers and can do an array of things, from writing an essay, to solving a math equation, to ordering food for you through an AI agent. But have you ever stopped to consider, on the opposite side of the spectrum, the dangers of AI? New AI technologies are constantly being produced and quickly becoming very popular. In an article about AI taking over, Hillel Itali states, for a vast number of book writers, artificial intelligence is a threat to their livelihood and the very idea of creativity. More than 10,000 of them endorsed an open letter to the Authors Guild this summer, urging their AI companies not to use copyrighted work without permission. AI not only draws from the work of others when asked to write, but also does so without permission. And not to mention, it has learned to copy the writing styles as well. If something such as McDonald's can be completely run by AI, it would not be difficult to program AI to learn how to edit books or even write them, especially since AI is already well-versed in editing and grammar techniques. My philosophy professor also recently shared with us that he has a friend whose job it is to make sure that AI does not take over. He works at a company where all the employees' jobs focus specifically on preventing the rise of AI. And when ChatGPT came out, my professor said they were all freaking out, trying to figure out what solutions and how to slow the buildup of AI. He mentioned just yesterday in class that he feels as though we are all unprepared for what's going to be happening with AI. That something big is coming that none of us know nothing about. Kind of ominous if you ask me. So how do we stop it? And can we even stop it? In a study done by researchers to see how much people knew about AI and how they felt about it, the research shows that between 37.8% and 51.4% of respondents gave at least a 10% chance to advance AI, leading to outcomes as bad as human extinction. This is what Kelsey Piper states in an article about research that has been done regarding AI and how the vast majority of people feel about it. Many people fear the future of AI and how it will affect them, and rightly so. If AI were to take over our careers, such a shift in the workforce would drive down wages and conditions while increasing inequality, as was said by Phillipa Kelly. Universal basic income is a new topic of conversation that scientists and researchers are being forced to have because of how much AI is affecting our world. If it continues to grow and develop, people will continue to lose jobs, and then we might be forced to have a system such as UBI, where we all receive the same income no matter what, as well as no job. This would surely end up causing more problems, seeing as people want to have the freedom to choose their jobs. And not only that, but many people enjoy working and having that fulfillment in life. Luckily, a drawback with AI is that it would not be cheap to have it do these tasks. As was mentioned in the interview, people are spending anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars to be able to program AI to do these things. It is becoming more and more popular in the workplace as it continues to develop, and more companies are spending money on upgrading AI consistently. As of 2021, according to 86% of CEOs, AI is regarded as standard technology in their workplace. This is from an article about the rise of AI. If AI was already popularized in 2021, imagine how much that percentage has gone up since then. The AI McDonald's alone was a $300 million project. Some are now calling McDonald's the king of AI and fast food. So let's talk about solutions. Our first option would be UBI. This solution would require people being okay with losing their jobs, though, and I don't see that actually happening anytime soon. It would also require a lot of planning on a high level, and I truly don't see that being a short term project. This would have to be a long term solution, and therefore would take a while to execute. Another solution is to have employers start rescaling and upscaling their employees. The more skilled employees are, the less likely companies are to let AI come in and take over jobs of hardworking people, as well as help them adapt to change. This is probably the best solution, seeing as it does not need to cost anything extra and does not take long at all. Rescaling employees would probably take a few weeks maximum and would involve testing their skill levels and then training them in new techniques. The last solution and possibly hardest solution to agree with would be to adapt to AI itself. Embrace the technology, get accustomed with it, become familiar with what it can do, and learn to work with it. This solution would require us being okay with AI taking over in the workplace and choosing to not do anything about it, just sitting back and letting what happens happen. So, what do you think? Does AI scare you or upset you? Are you scared for your future and your job security? What will you do to make a change? Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.