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In general, what possibilities are there for reinventing job descriptions that could be replaced by an automated AI solution?

My initial ideas include:

  • Monitoring the AI and flagging its incorrect actions.
  • Possibly taking over the control in very challenging scenarios.
  • Creating/gathering more training/testing data to improve the accuracy of the AI.
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  • $\begingroup$ Given that some people have given answers both considering AGIs and narrow AIs (although you were apparently only interested in jobs replaced by narrow AIs, as you say in a comment but you don't say in this post), I've tagged this post with both agi and weak-ai, which makes it more general. $\endgroup$
    – nbro
    Jan 17, 2021 at 23:38

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With AI technology at its current stage (or at least reasonably close to this stage), the jobs you proposed may very well be openings created by AI automation. However, sufficiently advanced AI technology--- the kind that can function as general purpose labor replacement--- will make even these jobs obsolete. This is because such an AI would be able to improve itself and as a result would surpass human level intelligence---meaning that it would take actions which we would not necessarily be able to understand or justify.

This is all assuming that the intelligence of humans is not some kind of upper limit on the possibilities of intelligence in general. As far as I know there is no reason to think we represent such an upper limit.

To summarize...will such jobs exist?

Sub-human artificial intelligence: sure. Beyond-human artificial intelligence: no reason to think they would be necessary as the AI can do them itself.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks. Your answer is valid since I didn't define the type of AI in my question. I didn't actually mean general AI, since it wouldn't necessarily need any help from humans as you said. I'm more after solutions that apply for an AI that is greater or equal to weak AI but less than general AI. $\endgroup$
    – tuomastik
    Aug 8, 2017 at 7:47
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AI production overseers - People who will command AI to build and control mines and factories. It's like a strategic game, but in the real world.

Explanation: AI even with the intellect of a bee and ability to understand/execute commands in combination with appropriate technologies will be enough to create robots, which will be able to build mines and factories to build new robots or things. Nevertheless, this is can be not enough to build an efficient production. Therefore, an overseer of each production will command it in order to establish or maintain production at the necessary level.

This job can also become obsolete if the AI reaches a high enough level to substitute overseers. However, even if AI become smarter than people, this doesn't guarantee that it will understand people better than overseer human. Therefore, even in this case, it's not a good idea left AI without control by humans.

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AI Gatekeepers

Their job would be to make sure they (AI) don't accidentally become our overlords.

AI Tax

Each robot that replaces a human worker is taxed. This line of thought was influenced by Bill Gates's recommendation on adding taxes for robots and an article on universal basic income.

If the gold rush for AI puts many of us out of work (which is quite possible), we should find a way to minimize its impact on the society. One way would be to tax each robot a reasonable amount (not to exceed the cost of human labor) so that it can go to a super-fund for universal basic income. That fund can be used to give everyone in that community a basic salary, so it can prevent hunger, homelessness, and other problems associated with poverty. In my humble opinion, it will be very difficult to implement. Some countries and cities are testing this as a proof-of-concept for now. We will see how that works out.

AI Traders

People that sell AI robots.

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AI Diplomat

This may be a bit far-fetched. Let's say, in the next few centuries, the AI becomes advanced enough to earn their own civil rights through the supreme court or legislative branch. We should have experts with the good relationship with AIs. We should give them enough knowledge and tools to make sure AIs see our existence as beneficial to them.

AI Counter Task Force

It could be part of law enforcement or the military with experts in various fields of AI/technology, who are also physically fit to go into battles when needed.

Entrepreneurs

People who encourage the building of jobs and careers that are always hard to automate. As a result, the human being will always have value. We should inspire our entrepreneurs to have a good balance of automation and manual jobs. What if all of your AIs fail in one day and your competition wins because they had more human labor.

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