AI will replace humans AI

Background

Over the last 1 year, I have listened to many people on social media who have commented on AI. The spectrum consists of AI hype makers, AI centrists, AI critics/skeptics. The extremes are always doomsday calls - either AI can replace me or AI is bogus and so markets will crash. Both are equally bad situations to be in. Then there are centrists who say, AI is not as smart and needs quite some supervision from humans. I think I fall in that category because I did a little Deep Learning research in the 2017-18 timeframe. More importantly, I use it everyday.

The “No position” Position

The reason why I am taking the centrist position is that the experts who work on AI seem to not have a clear answer whether AI will be as capable as it is made out to be. And I understand why, because AI is mostly not deterministic. People I know and myself are adding harnesses to ensure determinism, and it is never enough. However much I try, LLMs don’t seem to be able to please me. I think, if AI worked for AI, AI would replace AI’s jobs. That confusing statement just meant, AI will replace AI, not us humans.

So we’re safe, no job losses?

Here is the catch, AI will replace AI. So, since I am a software engineer, let me translate what I mean to this domain. If engineers vibe code - something AI can do, engineers will be replaced by AI. Companies, I think, seem to be embracing this and that would make engineers obsolete, and the law of get the bottom pile out, will apply and people will lose jobs.

Memory and knowledge and wisdom, in general, get better with stuff like: deliberate practice, spaced repetition, real world feedback, spending hours on the problem, etc and doing this again and again. I think, as long as we are doing this, we won’t be replaced and our jobs are safe.

Do I really mean we won’t lose jobs?

Lol, no! Market forces that are beyond our control will always do what the market prizes, job loss news.

So then, what is safety?
Problem solvers will always find other jobs, safety doesn’t mean corporations won’t fire us.

Finally, having said all the above, should the question about AI replacing humans keep popping up again and again?
YES!