Teaching A.I. to take my job is a good thing

What could I possibly be saying when the job market is looking as bleak as it does now? What is even with that title? Let me explain and hopefully by the end, this is not just a click-bait title but something I have been toying with.

There are articles written out there that say that there is an A.I. bubble, something that is going to expand so much and then POP, all the investment will go down the drain because the infrastructure is just not going to be able to handle it. The jobs being lost now will be right back up, because there needs to be a “human” element to all of this, not a total removal of services.

What I do is teach. I’m an English teacher in a country outside of my own. I don’t have CELTA certification or TEFL. Did not go to school for it; I only had on the job training. Sometimes it works, sometimes I have to get tips from other books, magazines, and online tutorials about it to work with certain students special needs (not in that special needs way, more like with short-attention span or to make the material easier and more fun to toy with).

The pay is not great, and there are no perks to begin with (A B2B contract with the school so any perks I forfeited from the get-go. Free coffee from a not-well-maintained coffee machine in the office when I go there).

Again, why teaching A.I. is great? A.I. where it doesn’t get stressed, it doesn’t raise its voice or get cranky if it had a long day, or stuck in traffic? Where it can correct all manner of speech and dictate the appropriate tense, article, preposition in most sentences?

Because.

It will fail.

With a short-attention span these days, it is a gimmick these days. Sure, it may help some programmers or concept artists here and there, maybe even organize the ‘boring’ tasks of restructuring or cleaning up, but people, human people, every day people are going to want the tactile responses from a real human being. The experience, the history, the imperfections.

We see it all around us. The ‘sterilization’ of society. We want the streets cleaned, but we do not want to offer people adequate housing, food, or medical support. We want creativity, but we do not want to pay a living wage to artists or allow them to unionize for our films and/or TV. We want a partner, but we forget to fill the void within us that can only be filled by one person: ourselves (and therapy).

It is like farming but not wanting to get your gloves or overalls dirty. That is what they are there for! It is good to feel clean, but it is also good to feel dirty as well, it is what we have been designed for. Strengthened for. We as a society have forgotten that.

What I say is no different from what a lot of people would say. However, there will be a day where this cleanliness? This sterilization and bland architecture that seems to be all the rave? It will go away. People desire color, creativity, originality. Looking back at films and yes, some of aged well, others not so much, and others not at all. Yet, we get to learn from them and can make them better!

To me, A.I. is something that will happen, no matter what. But instead of an R2-D2 or Johnny 5, we are getting Yes-Men/Women who average out what is out there and sends that information to our screens. Even then, they break the ‘illusion’ of being real because they are essentially calculators with access to Word Documentation.

The thing is, human beings, in the long-term, desire to have healthy work and things that are made with not only craftsmanship, but also with soul. That have meaning. A.I. can not reproduce that. Try as it might but at the moment, it can’t.

Of course, I say, at the moment. If certain companies were to hold back, work with what they got, go small first before going big, then sure, it may take a few decades, might even be after the original makers are gone, but that’s the effort and longevity of those who propelled work and are remembered for doing so.

Hence why Art is forever. Invention helps humanity on the day to day, but Art? Art ensures people remember your vision. Beyond what one did to get there but the morality of that is still murky.

This is all just thoughts from my mind. I can say though that knowing what A.I. knows and what it doesn’t gives me a leg up. From that, I’ll be able to stand tall with my fellow humans because, ironically, we do have legs.