You think it will never happen to you, of course, but think carefully. While you might not be a factory worker at a car plant – after all, robots have taken over the delicate process of putting today’s complex automobiles together, you’re already giving work to robots.
Ever used an automation tool to help ease your business by automatically posting content? That job could have been done by someone. Yet, because robots, AI and other automation tools don’t need to get paid and are many times more efficient than the average guy, thousands, if not millions of people are using robots to do jobs.
Sometime in the future, you might find that the robots are coming for your job – and the only defence you have against that is to find a new industry that the robot overlords haven’t taken over just yet.
A robot can be a better doctor, a better CEO, even a better writer and artist. Sure, they’re not quite there yet where they can write War and Peace – but blink your eyes and the next tech leap forward might reveal a new breed of robots that makes you wonder if you’ve just woken out in a summer sci-fi blockbuster movie.
You might say this sounds great. After all, who likes working anyway? We only do because we need money to do stuff like living and enjoying life, and if we’re lucky we get a job that we genuinely love. But even then, the thought of having a robot do all the work means we can finally relax and do what we want.
If Elon Musk says that the robotification of the world makes Universal Benefit Income, then celebrations all around – humanity will enter into a golden age as people finally are able to focus on their real passions and find their true potential. In the background, robots work, doing jobs that we wonder why we ever did.
That’s the dream of course – with or without an ugly robot uprising about their robotic rights – but back to reality: people who are losing their jobs to robots aren’t exactly enjoying their new-found freedom. Jobless and almost penniless, with the jobs they’re good at gone and little to no support, the future looks bleak.
But still, robots are better. Pick up your cellphone and ask Siri – or whichever smartphone assistance you have - a question. Seconds later, you’ll have the answer and a whole bunch of extra information. There’s a reason that robots are better than us, even if they lack the human soul that we have.
You might be thinking of an industry where robots aren’t going to make it. Truck driving, perhaps. The freedom of the open road, see the country…ah, but driverless cars are coming in, courtesy of companies like Uber and Tesla. Sure, a few accidents here and there, but if you think trucking companies aren’t going to make an investment here and cut out the guys who you have to pay and keep happy in exchange for a machine that can work 24/7 with a little maintenance here and there, you need to think again.
Ah, you say. Maybe a mechanic job will work for me? Nice try, but you can bet the future is armed with an army of robot mechanics. Just about the only thing they can’t do is feel emotion – but one day, who knows?
AI is increasing exponentially, thanks to the techheads in San Francisco who are creating that sci-fi future, and fresh progress in making robots better than they were yesterday is happening every day in multiple domains. Bill Gates and Elon Musk believe we’re on the verge of an incredible AI revolution, and it’s not hard to see why.
You only need to look at the US economy today to see that it’s not healthy. The employed population has sunk. The middle classes are embattled, and corporations get richer. Essentially, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Ask any millennial out there, and they’ll tell you that the game was rigged from the outset.
As robots slowly claw their way to become the world masterrace – they are incredibly helpful! – it may be impossible not to lose your job to them. You should stay away from routine, boring tasks, and let a robot do that (let’s face it you already do for some areas of your business!). In fact, the jobs that are the least likely to go are the highly skilled ones that require you to be a sharp, intelligent thinker who can handle tricky and surprise events. Think a doctor, or a CEO.
The employment catastrophe is not here yet, but it remains a ticking time bomb that society shows no intention of tackling. In the end, it all falls down to you and how you will handle it, and what you will do to protect yourself from the spectre of unemployment by robot.
If you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em. And that, for many internet marketers, will mean stacking high the automation tools that help them to sell and expanding their profits to build a robotic apocalypse proof business. That’s efficiency, and more profits. In a robot world, capitalists who own the robots will win.