There seems to be a lot of angst about Artificial Intelligence stealing people’s jobs. Already there are reports of journalists and reporters being laid off and AI used to produce click-bait headlines and bland content. The Screen Actors Guild is still on strike, something I get constantly reminded of while I browse YouTube, and its partially over AI-created content. Even the anti-work subreddit has posts about ChatGPT affecting workers.
As someone getting ready to leave the military, I’ve been asked if I think AI will make it hard for me to find a job.
My answer is a resounding NO.
First, as an author, I’ve used ChatGPT 4.0 to generate content for an upcoming training book. While ChatGPT is great at condensing materials and giving me a good starting point for technical books, it doesn’t produce interesting content. I still have to tweak what it outputs to turn things into compelling stories that people want to actually read. If you’re an author that cranks out multiple crappy books, then yes, ChatGPT is going to replace you. But if you write compelling stories that are interesting to human beings, then its unlikely you’ll lose your fan base.
BTW, shameless plug for you to buy my book, or the audio version if you need something to listen to in the car on your way to work.
Second, as a guy that installs networks and WiFi in my spare time, AI is no-where close to doing the renovation work I do. There are some robots like Spot that can perform some functions, but these excel at things that are repetitive and mundane. Problem solving work, like figuring out how to run an ethernet wire from one end of a historic church to another, still needs a human being to both figure out the solution and manually put it in.
The same goes for plumbing, electrical, locksmiths, and even painters. Those jobs that the laptop class looked down on because they don’t require four-year degrees are still very much in demand and won’t be replaced by AI anytime soon. AI can’t wire an outlet, plumb a faucet or change your locks, but it sure can analyze spreadsheets, manage social media accounts and write poorly sourced stories, so if that’s your job, you might want to update your resume.
Funny thing, the same people thumbing their noses at Joe the Plumber and telling them to learn to code are now being replaced by AI. Perhaps they should learn to work with their hands instead of getting expensive manicures?
In the military, AI could replace the hoards of worthless Admirals and Generals we have. Hey, maybe Senator Tuberville should propose cutting 50% of our flag officers and replacing them with a multi-license copy of ChatGPT 4? If we add the PowerPoint integration, we’ll get better products in less time and are far more effective!
You think I’m kidding, but you haven’t seen the idiocy that hides behind the stars on the collars of our top “leaders.” While I was attending class at a nearby staff college, I used ChatGPT during a flag officer lecture to see if I could guess what that person would say next. By typing his words into the ChatGPT prompt and asking for predictions as to the content of his next paragraph, I got a 75% match. In many cases, what ChatGPT said was far more interesting! Weeks later at the same college, I used ChatGPT to generate actions that China would take in a simulated war game and asked it to generate speeches that particular Chinese leaders would make based on actions that other players took. It was amazingly accurate, despite not having access to classified data, and was better than many of the summaries I’ve received from senior officers.
Trust me, I’d welcome my new robot overlords over most of our current flag officers.
Your job will get replaced by AI if what you do is repetitive and monotonous, or if you are supposed to be creative but only generate junk, like say most of the so-called journalists. AI tools are incredibly powerful, and I use them to enhance what I do, but so far they are still well behind true human ingenuity.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Skynet, or any other government agency.
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