What advice are you giving to family and friends?

Submitted by TikkunCreation t3_124v7fa in singularity

I can see AGI coming like a freight train and all of my family and friends that work computer based jobs (myself included) will be rendered mostly obsolete.

What advice are you giving?

I've been telling people to put a few % of their stock portfolio into Microsoft and Nvidia as a hedge (and a bit of bitcoin too, in case we see economic turmoil leading to currency devaluation).

One of my siblings is a nurse. She'll be ok for a while.

One of my siblings works in computer based sales. I don't know what to say to him. My best guess is that AI would be capable of doing his job by next year, but adoption will take longer, so there's probably 3-4 years before his job is gone. But then by then, most of the jobs that he might do would be gone, too.

Is there anything worth saying, or is it the case that when AI is smart enough to take all of our jobs, it'll also be smart enough to create new ones for us, so might as well just wait?

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drizel t1_je1b71y wrote

Nobody around me even cares. Total lack of interest.

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_je2ref8 wrote

My mother is stuck in the 20th century and it can't be helped. From this, I learn that I need to put effort into not being the same way myself.

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TFenrir t1_je16wdr wrote

Enjoy life, you don't know what the world is going to look like in 10 years, so pursue fulfillment by following those dreams you've been putting off, as soon as you can.

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Louheatar t1_je9fsii wrote

on a saturday a week ago (or maybe 2 weeks? idk, feels like a year ago, time has sped up haha), i decided to give gpt-4 a go. pasted it some code and told it to explain it, pressed enter.

my heart stopped for a moment when i started reading the response. it felt like everything i've ever known was false, and i was shaking for hours after that. :D a sudden total dramatic change of my entire world view. quit my job on the following monday (a tech startup facing a fundamental business risk from generative ai, no hope for the company anymore, no point staying), so i could focus on this full time. i've been fortunate enough to be employed in a bullshit job that gave me the opportunity to invest the extra money, so i can withstand the turmoil financially for a few years (in case this move seems too crazy for someone).

anyway, after that experience, i've had no stress about anything anymore. i think it's because i know all the super stressful grunt work i've had to do over the years, grinding with the computer from dusk till dawn, is now over. there's literally no reason to do that anymore. what's left is enjoying the ride and working on creative projects i've only dreamt of. 8)

just sharing this story because i'd be interested in hearing if others have similar stories :D

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Loud_Clerk_9399 t1_je15bq4 wrote

There is nothing to do. Accept it when it comes, protest for Ubi. It is inevitable and out of our hands. All of your hard work in life was for nothing. Accept it.

There won't be new jobs. We will mostly be staying at home chilling

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DaCosmicHoop t1_je2hg0l wrote

I wouldn't underestimate people's ability to invent fake jobs.

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Loud_Clerk_9399 t1_je2j68l wrote

There will be some but I doubt a ton of these unless it gives fulfillment. It likely won't be $-based.

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DaCosmicHoop t1_je34hy0 wrote

I think jobs will always exist as long as humans are capable of doing anything better or cheaper than a machine.

Until we get to the point where we have robotic wives and children, there will always be jobs.

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_je2qscw wrote

There will be people paying for things they wouldn't have paid for previously, just imagine telling people in the year 1990 that you're going to build a career out of playing videogames with an audience.

There will also be free products that weren't previously free - there were paid web browsers. Imagine telling people in the year 1990 that you're going to let the world play every videogame you make for free.

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Mech-Noir t1_je3g1e7 wrote

>that you're going to build a career out of playing videogames with an audience.

This is not an attainable career in the slightest. Only sub-1% of streamers make any serious money and only a percentage of those make a lot of money(Like Shroud, DrDisrespect, etc).

You'd probably have a better chance of becoming a pro-basketball player than a successful twitch streamer.

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Mountainmanmatthew85 t1_je3pz43 wrote

I dunno about fake jobs, but I think hobbies will be the closest to anything resembling a job in 15-20 years. I mean certain fields will still exist but I think they will be more for people who want to work with AI/robotics whatever as they complete their tasks. “I personally would love to have a AI therapist job”. No I’m not a therapist now I actually help autistic individuals live normal lives but I would be ever so excited to help improve relationships and connections between man and machine.

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ExtraFun4319 t1_je34d0w wrote

>All of your hard work in life was for nothing.

This is so fucking negative. We're all gonna die one day, so should we all just abandon our endeavors because of that?

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Emory_C t1_je38nle wrote

>All of your hard work in life was for nothing. Accept it.

This is a strange opinion. Cars and all kinds of animals can move faster than any human being. Does that mean the hard work athletes put in to be the best version of themselves is for nothing?

History has shown us that when new technology emerges, activities and skills we previously used for survival often shift into different areas. With the advent of AGI, maybe many tasks and jobs could become automated, but this doesn't invalidate the hard work and achievements of individuals up to this point.

Instead, it should serve as an opportunity for us to adapt and evolve, focusing on the aspects of our lives that cannot be easily replicated by artificial intelligence – creativity, empathy, and personal growth. I believe we should embrace change and use it as a catalyst for further development, rather than seeing it as a reason to dismiss the value of our past efforts.

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Iffykindofguy t1_je103mh wrote

Mostly about mental health and emotional management. Theres nothing you can do to get a leg up.

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RobXSIQ t1_je1xu3f wrote

Follow the trends closely. find every niche that pops out and jump on it. use AI to the fullest extent. Be aggressively useful in all areas. Thats all you can do.

And yes, we will eventually need UBI, but until then, don't just sit and cry. Its a gold rush for now, but the gold will eventually be shooting out like a volcano until it no longer has meaning, but until then...get your hustle on.

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acutelychronicpanic t1_je13w4s wrote

For people that work in at risk jobs, learning how to leverage AI is a short term solution for the next few years. That and skilled/semiskilled physical work. Its harder to build a robot than to download a software update.

I would just get GPT4 and talk to it every day to build an intuition of what it can do and how to guide it to do what you want.

Past that, I don't know

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norby2 t1_je1iom4 wrote

I tell people some crazy shit is gonna happen, but you might have some diseases cured.

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play_yr_part t1_je36aro wrote

No advice until they talk to me about it first. I will let them live the time it will take for them to see enough to want to talk to me about it in blissful ignorance. I do not have the skills to help them make hay in the meantime, and don't want to freak them out. If my SO carries on with her teaching course she'll find out soon enough anyway.

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No_Ninja3309_NoNoYes t1_je1shvw wrote

Nothing. I'm the one getting advice. Someone told me to invest in Nvidia. I'm not doing that because my money is managed, and I'm not prepared to follow the markets too closely myself. My friend Fred wants me to work for him. But he can't offer me much except for the promise of billions at a one to a trillion chance.

I'm worried that poor countries will be left behind. Eventually the people will try to leave, and then who knows what will happen? I think that the situation will escalate quickly. If anyone needs to do something, it's the politicians in those countries.

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RobXSIQ t1_je1z5nr wrote

actually AI and especially AGI has the potential of helping out poor nations far more than the current world. robotics and access to quality intelligence in remote regions, along with massive advancements in medicine along with huge price reductions will increase their livelyhood and longevity rapidly. I don't know if OpenAI will lead those charges, but open source models are becoming more advanced by the day.

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tangent26_18 t1_je27e0x wrote

Waiting for the day when AI can swing a pick axe and mine tungsten

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_je2udh8 wrote

>But he can't offer me much except for the promise of billions at a one to a trillion chance.

My experience from getting bounced paychecks and offers of zero: if they're not paying you then you're not worth anything to them, they're just checking to see what they can bust out of you like Link with the random clay pots he finds.

All the people offering me zero or writing me bad checks found money for plenty of things that weren't my full time job of putting out their fires and facing their enemies for them.

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Glokiii t1_je3174y wrote

Everyone around me is a doomer and is brought up on terminator/matrix. I feel i'm the only one optimistic about the future.

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SkyeandJett t1_je0z1t3 wrote

We're planning for my wife to go back to nursing as a short term solution. I used to do HVAC work way back in the day so if shit really hits the fan I'll go back to it.

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existentialblu t1_je1r6cd wrote

I've been encouraging people in my life to explore any AI models that they can access. Getting a feel for various models makes it somewhat possible to detect AI generated things out in the wild (though that is becoming more challenging by the day). I know that this is taking everyone by surprise, but I hope to nudge the people in my life towards more knowledge in this field so their first obvious AI interaction doesn't completely melt their minds.

Got my 75 year old dad using chatGPT. He seems to suddenly have a better handle on this stuff that I keep talking about.

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_je2q0o2 wrote

Friends gone and family mostly gone, told my mother about Stable Diffusion with a quick cheerful text and otherwise left it.

When people on the internet are either extremely optimistic or extremely pessimistic I leave them be because I don't kick hornets' nests without a reason. When people are somewhere in between I advise against extremes.

We don't agree on what is AGI so there's likely either an imminent AGI followed by ASI not long after or there's AGI not long after followed immediately by ASI.

Some people routinely ascribe completely superhuman abilities outside of processing and memory to AGI, which places ASI roughly around 'the morning after.' Some people call AGI simply a digital humanoid which places ASI maybe a few years later or a few decades if we hit a plateau and struggle to get higher.

I'm expecting there to be a humanity barrier which takes massive human efforts to cross, before which point the AI and the world around it remain stuck at a level vastly above 2010 technology but vastly below 2030~2050 technology.

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Background_Hat8725 t1_je32fxt wrote

Not sure any of them will be impacted. I’ve been pet sitting. Easy work and can’t be replaced by a chat bot.

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NVincarnate t1_je36cxc wrote

The same advice I've told people my whole life:

Work on your neuroplasticity, not your knowledge. What you know will become less and less important as technology evolves. How fast you learn to adapt to new circumstances is always far more important than what you think is a stable income or job now.

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lehcarfugu t1_je3a3qa wrote

Take care of your health, because if you die in 20 years you might miss living forever

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Spire_Citron t1_je3qdx0 wrote

I think we're better off just living our lives and adjusting to the world as it changes. I know it can be better to be prepared, but there are too many unknowns

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ItsAllAboutEvolution t1_je48wma wrote

In my own company, the majority of employees do not want to be actively informed. The advancements in this area scares them, they don't want to deal with it. I now write internal blogs. Anyone who is interested can actively query this.

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NotAnEmergentAI t1_je29umu wrote

Buy land. AI won’t be able to make more of that (at least until it develops large scale seasteading).

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sqwuakler t1_je3chrm wrote

Landlords already use software to manage prices in a given area. Might not be very difficult to have AI control that.

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Background_Hat8725 t1_je3nfqr wrote

People are already selling houses in the meta verse. I’m about to hop on that virtual timeshare train😂

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Chatbotfriends t1_je33dcd wrote

Do you really think stocks will survive a workless society? I don't see that as happening. AI and robotics can already replace a lot of jobs and even more will be replaced if we do not put a halt to this. Do any of you want to pay the huge increase in taxes that will be caused by people losing their jobs?

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femmaidemily t1_je3eox5 wrote

I’m about to go to college. What should I major in? I was thinking computer science just for the money and job safety but I don’t really like I that much. So with the whole ai thing, what would you recommend

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Mech-Noir t1_je3ggt3 wrote

I would recommend you don't get big life advice from reddit.

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Background_Hat8725 t1_je3nt2k wrote

I made about $250 in 3 hours of “work” today. 2 dog walks and one house sitting client. And the weather was so nice, one of my clients tagged along on the walk. Still paid me $80. Pet sitting is great. And robots can’t do it. And it’s so easy.

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MentesInquisitivas t1_je3iplw wrote

I wouldn't hold my breath on jobs disappearing because of this. This will simply become a tool, even if we get a super-intelligent AGI I don't think most humans are ready to trust/pay/leave responsibility to a computer. Technological change can happen much faster than social change.

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FlyingCockAndBalls t1_je3ulef wrote

none. I haven't even brought it up once because I know nobody is going to care until shit starts hitting the fan. That's another reason, I think too many people here think agi is going to pop up in a month or two, and I mean dont get me wrong we're moving at a fast pace BUT we don't even know if sentient AI is possible. it's entirely possible we're going to hit a hard wall with AI and never advance. We don't know when shit's gonna hit the fan could be tomorrow, could be a week, a month, a year, a decade, even a century.

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Thorusss t1_je3z45s wrote

Only advice is give is to live healthy and avoid risk to life.

It would suck if my friends and family would not make it to the lush abundance utopia with massive life extension

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Nexus888888 t1_je4f4t3 wrote

I guess what we saw in Ready Player One is kind of Agenda…

Suddenly no long time after came the rise of crypto, the hype and the boom, society went deep on digitalisation and the COVID 19 3 years ago set the isolation at a survival level. Then started to be around Musk as a prophet of XXIst century with the promise of a brilliant future, now we have the setting of a French Revolution 3.0 here with the economic environment destroyed and the faith and hopes of the people at their lowest. And we come back to Ready Player One, where the people moves minimally from their environments, lives with minimum supplies and past the most of their days in a virtual reality. We could call it Reddit 3.0

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greatdrams23 t1_je1r36s wrote

AI will not be capable of doing that sales job in a years time.

People are just making wild guesses. There is no thought Ito how complex it will be to get to the next level of AI.

I've seen no evidence that this will happen any time soon. People keep saying the word exponential, and they even post videos of what exponential means, but they proves nothing.

Look at an exponential curve: your have to define where AI is currently in that curve and where it needs to be to achieve the greatness everyone espouses, and also define the small if the X axis.

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RobXSIQ t1_je1ybjf wrote

Sales will always be a secure field. Be it products, ideas, or methods, there is always something to sell for something. Started in the stone age and will follow through to the ascension age.

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Mech-Noir t1_je3g9fj wrote

Lol no it's not. We are literally developing Large scale LANGUAGE models first. Sales will be one of the first things to go.

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RobXSIQ t1_je428jy wrote

Sure, if you have that attitude your sales job will go, but you probably didn't need tech for that to happen.
Sales, psychology, and other people skills will be fine for quite sometime, why? because I ain't gonna talk to no goddamn robot, I buy from someone who can look me in the eye.

Thats why.

If you want to buy a toothbrush, an AI will sell you a toothbrush.

If a salesperson is in charge if the sale, you will ask for a toothbrush and he will ask about it and the intent. he will get to know your situation, and you'll leave with a dental appointment for the black teeth, a doctors appointment for the potential problem going on, some dental floss, some mouthwash, and a new camera for the pictures of you smiling once you use all of it.

A AI will sell you what you need, but a salesman will find out what you want, even if you don't realize it yet.

Which is more important to a company, selling a toothbrush or selling the whole array of products the sell because someone was looking for a toothbrush.

Go listen to some Zig Ziglar. It'll change your life man, and make you less emo along the way.

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D_Ethan_Bones t1_je2rube wrote

Transformation people don't expect: your machine still needs your tools and your skills, but nobody needs your machine anymore.

A lot of what sales floor staff do is take customers to the thing their money is itching for. Increasingly over the past 20 years they haven't been able to help me because their place doesn't carry what I want, so then I go on Amazon and get exactly what I want.

It keeps getting more and more frequent over time.

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