There is no shortage of hype around AI coming for jobs, and while the U.S. labor market has begun to sputter, hard evidence of AI-related job losses is scarce.
Geoffrey Hinton’s message on a recent podcast about artificial intelligence was simple: “Train to be a plumber.”
Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist often called “the Godfather of AI,” said in June what people have now been saying for years: Jobs that include manual labor and expertise are the least vulnerable to modern technology than some other career paths, many of which have generally been considered more respected and more lucrative.
“I think plumbers are less at risk,” Hinton said. “Someone like a legal assistant, a paralegal, they’re not going to be needed for very long.”
Too bad most trade unions are literally white supremisist groups. Speaking from actual 10+ years experience in a blue state.
Yeah, a century of cops beating and murdering anti-racist labor rights organizers has that effect on people. Literal survivorship bias.
That’s why I am a Wobbly. I was raised to be a white pro-labor racist by religious weirdos. Yet the best, kindest, most understanding friends I ever made on the playground were non-white.
I am grateful that I cannot tolerate cognitive dissonance and have distanced myself from racism and kept my pro-labor stances.
It’s a long multi-generational fight, but what else can a person who strives to be decent do?