There’s one train of thought in discussions about AI that aggravates me the most.

The conversation inevitably, yet casually, turns to when it will be time to eliminate job roles and pass the work off to AI.

I hear it all the time, and there are several problems with it. The least of which is the belief that an AI agent, in the current state of the field, can actually replace a human expert in a field or subject simply because it’s fast and efficient at doing similar work.¹

It can’t, at least not yet. And when it’s used as such, the results are often banal (AI slop is aptly named).²

But the issue with these conversations that bothers me the most is the nonchalance with which these comments are made.

We’re talking about people here. Human beings with hopes, dreams, and worlds as rich as those having the conversations. People with families, children, parents, and friends who rely on them.

And we reduce them to job roles?

I’m no Luddite. I know that technology changes the world of work. The steam shovel got rid of ditch diggers, and email eliminated the secretary pool.

AI will eventually have a major impact on the job market: it will change which jobs are available and, for those that remain, what they look like.

But in the meantime, let’s remember that we’re talking about people. And our decisions need to be made with empathy and understanding for the impacts they’ll have on them.

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1. If you actually think that AI is replacing human beings, you need to check out the addendum at the bottom of Cal Newport’s latest blog post. ↩︎
2. I assert that companies that make these decisions to eliminate jobs and outsource everything will thoroughly regret them in the next few years when the limits of these tools are exposed, and we enter the “trough of disillusionment.”
   
   The Gartner Hype Cycle is proven and applies to these AI companies as much as they have to every other culture-changing technology we’ve experienced.
   
   After the hype dies down, most things will go back to normal, except that people will use AI for things that it’s actually good at. ↩︎