Oh, Noes, Students Fear AI Is Coming For Their Jobs

Perhaps they should get degrees, or learn tech jobs and trades, that AI can’t do, instead of all the stupid stuff they’re paying way to much for?

Students fear AI is about to ruin their future

After he graduated with a computer science degree in 2022, Robert Marsh “could get an interview basically anywhere”. Today, applying for jobs is a struggle.

“The complete and utter shape of everything is changing,” said Marsh, a 26-year-old software engineer based in Easton, Pennsylvania. “In almost every interview it’s kind of like: ‘Do we really need you?’”

Marsh is on the front lines of a new industrial revolution as AI washes over the labour market. Job opportunities for younger people in exposed industries are drying up, leaving many new graduates despondent and angry.

“My job prospects feel like they’re basically being taken away by a cabal of the world’s most wealthy and intelligent individuals,” said Marsh. “I just wanted to relax, have a nice career and maybe own a house. But there’s a conglomerate that’s seeing to it that I can’t have that.”

Well, I’m sure those involved with horses and carriages were upset over automobiles. Everything moves forward. Anyhow, maybe the whole “learn to code” meme has already lost it’s power

Among AI-exposed occupations such as coding and accountancy, employment is now 19 per cent lower than if it had kept pace with similarly aged workers in less-affected occupations, according to research from Stanford University. Experts say it is just the start.

“There’s something real going on,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. “We call it canaries in the coal mine?.?.?.?We see this effect in a few areas initially and I would expect over time there is a good chance that it will spread.”

At one point there were just way too many lawyers. Now it’s too many with some sort of computer science degree.

Warnings over the economic fallout have also mounted. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei said last year that AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs and push US unemployment to 10 to 20 per cent within one to five years.

“Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10 per cent a year, the budget is balanced — and 20 per cent of people don’t have jobs,” Amodei told Axios, outlining one potential outcome. “We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.”

Yeah, well, what if AI cures cancer? Baldness? Bad teeth? Diabetes? And more? Also, there are jobs in air conditioning, plumbing, and so much more! They could get jobs in installing and maintaining all those ordering machines at fast food and other places.

But 200 miles from Washington, in the university town of Bethlehem and the surrounding Lehigh Valley, where the FT is carrying out a multiyear reporting project, the revolution’s first casualties are emerging. Young people fear they are being treated as collateral damage.

“We don’t know where we’re needed anymore,” said Chloe Leong, an economics student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. “It’s terrifying. If the entry-level jobs are getting cut?.?.?.?what base do we have to start at?”

Things change, kiddies. Gotta change with the times. Switchboard operators are gone. Most travel agents are gone. Typists? Gone. Video rental store workers? Are there any actually left? People who repair TVs? People who know how to do that are mostly gone. A lot of manufacturing jobs, like for cars, small and large appliances, cutlery, and so much more that used to be done mostly by humans have been replaces with machines. Go with the flow or get left behind.