[Answer] How Can Ordinary People Keep Up with the Age of AI and Avoid Being Left Behind?

[Answer] How Can Ordinary People Keep Up with the Age of AI and Avoid Being Left Behind?

Machines replace people mainly in two dimensions: physical labor and mental labor. In terms of physical labor, robots are mainly able to perform dangerous or repetitive tasks, or jobs where robots can greatly improve efficiency. Typical applications include industrial warehousing, handling, palletizing, welding, and so on. In terms of mental labor, artificial intelligence technologies represented by machine learning are replacing pattern-based work that depends on experience, simple repetition, and standardized processes.

It is unlikely that machines will completely replace humans, because humans and machines each have their own strengths. For example, something very easy for humans, such as walking upright, may be incredibly complex for machines—at least for now. On the other hand, a task that is effortless for a machine, such as multiplying from 1 to 1000, may be extremely difficult or even impossible for a human. Therefore, in this era of rapid progress in robotics, if you want to avoid being replaced, there are several things to pay attention to:

1. Whether your work is creative. Simple repetitive labor can be replaced almost overnight, but creative work is much harder to replace.

2. Whether your work relies mainly on experience or on thinking. For jobs that require a large amount of accumulated experience—such as lawyers, accountants, and even surgeons—machine learning may soon outperform most people. So if your work depends more on thinking ability, it also becomes harder to replace.

3. The complexity of your industry and the difficulty of standardization. Only increasingly standardized models are truly suitable for robots. Personalized and customized products and services are more likely to require the human touch.

Finally, if you are a programmer, your worries may be slightly less severe. After all, if robots become advanced enough to write complex programs on their own, then a complete upheaval of the world may not be far away.