Are you worried about losing your job to a robot or artificial intelligence?

The English teaching industry is about to be wiped out, that's for sure.

Talking about the "language" industry, translations, and interpreting face a big risk.

Governments around the world are going to need to step in at some point. Either regulating the use and adoption to save jobs, or start providing a universal basic income.

The English teaching industry is about to be wiped out, that's for sure.

I see a lot of posts like this, warning English teachers that their career is over and they should start training to be programmers or whatever. The issue is, even if English teaching was coming to an end, which I don't believe to be the case, those programming jobs are on the way out too. AI assistants are more than capable of creating boilerplate code in a tiny fraction of the time it takes an entry level programmer to get it done, and they are only getting better.

If AI is smart enough to make complex decisions that require an emotional/ humanitarian factor, then my job will most likely be gone in the future.

Technology refined and regulated created with a philosophy humanity in mind that helps this entire world over coming its challenges and helps protect our planet and is a great gift.

Technology being thrown into society combined with the philosophy of materialism and economic gain combined with a public that will use it only as a toy is truely a recipe for absolute disaster.

I am not worried about a job because my wife and I took the difficult path of creating our own lives and working for ourselves.

What I am worried about is the abuse of this technology and what it could create and the over reliance of it.

The abuse aspect will occure. Over reliance our the smart phone technology communications technology in the recent past two decades has been lucky. There has been a lul in solar mass ejections since just before the introduction of smart phones. A carrington like solar mass ejection occurs ever hundred and fifty years or so and it is only a matter of time until this type of solar mass ejection occurs again and still our technology is not refined enough to deal with such strong solar events.

Weather its over abuse or over reliance my point is our philosophy of why and how we use technology must change and change soon.

A robot may be "smarter" and cheaper than I am but it cannot relate feelings, experience and personal insights like I can. It cannot walk the walk nor talk the talk. It also has no muscles, charm or sexuality, cannot empathize or show real sympathy, may not really know the difference between the two and cannot dress to impress among other things. Believe it or not, those things still matter to many people.

and cannot dress to impress...

And there you are so, so wrong. The 'people' we'll be dealing with online in the near future, will look just anyway you want them to.

Jordi PuentealtoToday  09:34 am JST

Talking about the "language" industry, translations, and interpreting face a big risk.

I agree. DeepL is already far better than a lot of the people who manage to pass themselves off as translators. It won't put the good ones out of work, but the days for mediocre to average ones are numbered.

 It won't put the good ones out of work, but the days for mediocre to average ones are numbered.

Apply this to any field. The same can be said for programmers, analysts, editors, etc.

It also has no muscles, charm or sexuality, cannot empathize or show real sympathy, may not really know the difference between the two and cannot dress to impress among other things

99% of real people either dont have or cant do these things

No, I have had my own business for 27 years, so not even in the slightest.

Remember when email was going to make the office paperless? Crypto currency was going to demolish banks? Smoking laws were going to close pubs and restaurants? The list goes of dramatic watch-out, here it comes big changes

Who always paint the AI sky so ruthlessly? No one fully understands AIs potential. It will be absorbed into society just like all the other big chances.

If AI is that smart ask AI to pick the winning lottery numbers for you. If you win then you know AI is what it is all cracked up to be.

In the good old days (80s and 90s) the saying was: if a teacher can be replaced by a computer they should be.

With more advanced students I’m finding myself exposing the difference between two similar words (and confusing them). More fun.

My intelligence has been arguably artificial to begin with, so no.

No, not yet anyway.

@kaimycahi

I think you need to read up a bit on AI, bud. No matter how "smart" anything gets, it won't be telling you the right random numbers.

Translation of news articles and whatnot using ChatGPT is very powerful. Ahead of DeepL. Real teachers will at most be replaced with someone on Zoom in a different place.

Interesting.

As AI can largely replace white-collar jobs,perhaps blue collar jobs may become more valued and better paid?

I'm thinking mainly of currently undervalued professions such as nursing, social care and the hospitality industry.

Tool and die are safe thus far. Ask me in 5 years though.

A robot may be "smarter" and cheaper than I am but it cannot relate feelings, experience and personal insights like I can. It cannot walk the walk nor talk the talk. It also has no muscles, charm or sexuality, cannot empathize or show real sympathy, may not really know the difference between the two and cannot dress to impress among other things. Believe it or not, those things still matter to many people.

Deckard: hold my beer.

I have already lost my chance to have a proper job because of disabilities. No one will employ me, but I do not blame them, it would be difficult for them to do so.

Not in the next 5 years. After that, I'll be retired. 65 ~ 75 - I'm confident there will still be plenty of students who would rather speak face-to-face with a real person rather than a screen. By then I'll be strictly part-time.

Apps will which a point of perfection. Everyone will use one and why not? However, teaching language is one thing, teaching people to communicate is something else. AI, apps, or other non-human alternatives are a long way from replacing humans.

The quality of AI's and robots' performance has been improved rapidly compared with that decades ago. However, AI and robot are just the tool to push effectiveness of our job or lifestyle. We are the user of advantages of them, so I'm not afraid of being our job take place by AI and robots.

Not right now, but in 5 years AI maybe able to do what I do. I sort of predicted this a decade ago when there was a breakthrough in deep learning. It's why every penny I earned, go into investment in stocks of companies that are related to AI. When my job is gone, I'll be living of my savings.

My advice to people who are worried, save every penny and invest.

Until they can make a robot that can stand in one place for hours saying "Welcome to Walmart!", I'd say I'm safe. And when many of you long-term Eikawa teachers eventually decide to come home, you'll be working right alongside me.