As AI gets better, where does that leave us humans?

I didn’t get a laptop until right before my freshman year of college. I didn’t get a smartphone for another 10 months.

While approximately 60% of my life so far has been spent with fairly limited access to technology by today’s standards, everything I’ve worked for has been for where I am now: a remote knowledge worker.

I studied hard in high school to get into a good college. I worked hard enough in college to get a good job. That “good job” being one where I use my brain and not my hands.

In the fictitious words of Michael Fassbender’s Steve Jobs, a computer in the hands of the right person is like a “bicycle for the mind.” The right person can, quite literally, do anything. And so, for the last 15 years, that’s exactly where modern industry has gone. People go to school to get good jobs, and those “good jobs” are to work with their minds through a computer.

But what happens when the computer suddenly can do the thinking for you? Where does that leave us humans?

AI is coming for your jobs – or so the CEOs say

I’m not a doomer. I’m not an optimist. I’m a realist.

There is enough literature out there building AI up as the savior of the human race, and the death of it.

I don’t see it in either camp, to be honest.

I see AI as the best and cheapest alternative to a human.

As AI gets better, the ceiling for what it can do will be raised, as will the floor for what a human is eligible to do. In other words, when AI is “as good as a person,” then there will be no economic need to hire a person for the job. Our current economic system is not designed to endure costs. It is only designed to cut them wherever possible because our society has decided that “grow or die” is the only acceptable mantra.

That's capitalism for ya.

A person can cost six-figures, want raises, require health insurance, want to take time off, and potentially butt heads with employees. AI doesn’t do any of those things. Sure, there will be people required to use AI, but as AI gets better, only the most senior people will be required.

So, where does that leave us humans?

We were told that their $200,000 college educations were a worthy investment that would pay off in a 40+ year career of knowledge work. We were told to “study hard, otherwise you’ll work manual labor.”

Suddenly, we're finding that with each passing year, we may soon be replaceable.

It's not about AI. It's about the dignity of work

Let me be clear, I don't hate technology.

Ever since I was a child, I've loved technology.

I'm a tech junkie. I always wanted to use (and sometimes take apart) the latest gadgets. I've signed up for more software platforms than I can count. When OpenAI released ChatGPT, I quickly signed up to test it and see how far I could push it.

It was fun then. But seeing my profession, and the professions of many dear friends, tossed aside in favor of AI automating them is just... terribly shitty.

It's not about humans being better than AI. I know a day will come when AI is much better than I could hope to be. It's about the dignity of work, and seeing hard-won careers sidelined because of the greed of the few at the very top.

I’m self-employed as an SEO expert and content marketing strategist. I use AI to speed up my workflow and save time, and because of that, I have been able to do about as much on my own as I would with a team a few years ago.

But eventually I know a client will call me telling me that “AI is just as good as anything I’ve done and 1/10th the price” and that will be the end of my business.

The question I have is this: when that happens, where does that leave us humans?