Automation and Artificial Intelligence are affecting the future of work.

This is a very important topic of discussion but up for debate, because there really is no right or wrong opinion. But for me? The way I see it, I think automation and Ai are killing us that’s it, taking us straight to the ground one day at a time. It can not be denied, the fact that having such technologies is a huge advantage in improving the quality of our lives, but too much of a good thing is bad right? The idea of the two are great, I absolutely love them. But at some point in our lives it is crucial to just for once wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late, because these newly developed technologies pose as a threat to employment. It’s all fun now, exciting new machines, but what does that mean for you? The unemployment rate is skyrocketing as is, how much more when developments with these machines are made almost everyday?

With technology being so smart our jobs (those that we don’t even have yet) are at risk, especially seeing how lazy our generation really is. Certain industries won’t even need human labour at the rate we’re going, cause what do you mean you went from ordering whatever it is that you desired over the counter conversing with a person, to just walking in and being met by a row of automation ready to assist you at just the tap of a screen. The fact that certain restaurants, food outlets etc have replaced human labour with automation effortlessly is almost scary. I mean I get it’s cost effective, as machines do not need a monthly salary and businesses aren’t really running charities, there’s an endgame which is to keep the profit margin, so it is not a system made for a win-win situation but a win-lose situation, everyman for themselves. I will not sit here and say I am not enjoying these advancements in technology, I am, I ABUSE THEM! So now that makes me think, if I feel this way there are more people who feel the exact same way. We’re now becoming more dependent on them by the day. I can’t dispute that such makes our lives easier, but how many people have been affected by these changes? How many people have lost their jobs to a bot? But I mean the good does not exist without the bad, it is just unfortunate that it had to be at the expense of others.

Automation aside, Artificial Intelligence is another threat that I feel has been ignored. At this point in time ignorance is a choice. I myself have been a victim of AI, having these platforms do my homework, assignments, essays for me and just tweaking it here and there, until one day almost failing a class due to a high score of ‘plagiarism’ in an online test at that time I had just been introduced to ChatGPT and it absolutely drove me crazy, forgetting my lecturer did warn us about the university having systems that are able to detect the works of these platforms, I thought I had mastered the art of getting the information, adding a few details in every paragraph and just claiming the work as my own fully. That taught me good, that short cuts really aren’t worth it, at some point you will have to start over and do things the right way.

One day my friend and I were just having a conversation which led to me further expressing the concerns about the future that I have, our generation being so lazy, I think a very small percentage isn’t and we’ve all become so dependent on technology instead of our own knowledge and understanding. Like what does the future look like? We’re writing essays using artificial intelligent platforms (I said ‘we’ but I don’t anymore I learnt my lesson) my point is, what will we come out with from our respective universities, sure we’ll get the certificates but at the end of the day that’s just a piece of paper that holds no weight if you won’t be able to handle the tasks at hand, cause you had learnt nothing about your field of choice when you had the opportunity. The generations before us were and are experts in their fields of study, they could tell you about their work in their sleep, they know what they do like I know the back of my hand. Some of my age mates don’t even know what they’re studying, it is just fun for them to say out loud fancy degrees and course codes when asked ‘what are you studying?’, but at what cost? Will all of that matter in the next five years or so? I think not.

This definitely is a problem, but I can’t really say I have a solution, cause I don’t, even if I did who would even listen? I do think we should take charge of our thinking though, I don’t think many people understand how much added value an open mind can offer compared to one that is not. Number one, we must educate ourselves about the pros and cons of each development, what their effects on us are, that might encourage you to set boundaries for yourself, limiting screentime to leave space for you to be productive during the day, doing things that matter and will be contributing factors to your success story. I believe there are certain skills that these bots do not possess yet, like communication skills and what is killing them for us? Its our phones, our social media use, our lives revolve around social media, the one language we understand fully. We communicate through likes, reposts, shares and everything in between, it’s almost impossible that you find a bunch of teenagers/young adults, sitting and engaging in conversation without at least one person or two laser focused on their digital device and masking it as their ‘social bundles depleting’. There is so much happening around us, things that we know and things we could learn by the end of a simple conversation about lets say the lack of law and order, that’s just an example. But also Penuel (The Black Pen) once said “the quality of education, knowledge and intelligence in this country does not allow you to have some conversations with the average South African person” and I get that now. Bringing me back to my point of teaching yourself to learn, educate yourself.

I’m so comfortable speaking on this because I know what I am talking about, I have been a prisoner to my phone for the longest of time, it started off very small, as social isolation, to insomnia, feeling really uneasy and anxious if I didn’t have my phone with me and finally reached a stage where constantly checking my phone for new notifications every second minute was in routine for me, that’s when I knew something was wrong. It took forever, but whoever freed me from the shackles of my phone deserves a trophy. I’ve now been able to redirect my energy to the things that actually matter and I can’t tell you how much that truly changed my life for the better, my sleeping patterns and my mental health. But this is not about me.

Back to my think piece, I believe it’s time we have honest conversations with each other, for our sake and the generations to come. As much as automation and ai were made for the better good, it’s in our human nature to take advantage of everything we have been blessed with to make our lives easier, but we are more destructive than anything. The aim here is not to cancel out technology but to find ways to balance the two and maintaining a fulfilling life. Yet again, that’s just my opinion and that’s all it really is.