Artificial intelligence will destroy ‘laptop class’ workers

The coming artificial intelligence economic revolution will be a major shock to the world. There is a serious possibility that the next decade will bring about a series of social and economic changes akin to the Industrial Revolution and the advent of the internet combined. Many writers, human resource officers, lawyers, writers, artists, and even coders increasingly will be replaced by AI as the “laptop class” of workers is decimated. At the same time, blue-collar workers who work with their hands will enjoy job security; their services cannot be replaced by technology. Unfortunately for waves of young people, the media’s advice to “learn to code” may have been like investing in typewriters.

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a breakneck speed. Recent announcements of programs that can mimic human conversation, copy our voice, write research papers, and paint beautiful pictures are just a small sliver of the coming AI revolution. The coming changes in everyday life soon will become noticeable, including the popularity of AI-generated video games, music, art, and even movies. A short description and a click of the mouse can spit out a new novel by John Steinbeck or an economic treatise by Thomas Sowell.

Scores of jobs that require a college education will be changed nearly overnight. Rapid advances in this new technology will wreak havoc on the very people who prospered during COVID, especially those who work in the “knowledge economy” and can often carry out their duties from their laptops at home. Artificial intelligence advances within the next one to five years will outpace most work a human can input into a keyboard. Most content on the web will be written by chatbots. There will be AI influencers. Code will be written in a tiny fraction of the time it takes for humans to produce it. Graphic artists will lose most of their business to art generators. Even accountants and financial analysts may be outpaced by computers. ChatGPT already helps coders through basic code, which often needs refining. The chat service also can help replace many of the smarts needed to build a website. It already has passed an MBA exam and law exams.

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