AI and the Purpose Perplexity

All hail the era of meaningful jobs, sans menial tasks.

- RACHEL GENEVIEVE CHIA

There is a scene in Wall-E that paints — in glorious high-definition — what life might look like if robots took our jobs.

It is a vision that’s equal parts repulsive and enticing. Dissolving into levitating armchairs with screens, men — little more than fatty blobs — are whisked around on self-driving routes, while machines cook, deliver drinks, brush teeth, give massages, teach, cut hair, and clean. There is no labour: people game, watch shows, and video chat all day.

Is it a dystopia? Perhaps not in the late aughts, when Pixar’s acclaimed flick debuted. But big recent strides in selfdriving, language models, and generative art make this apocalyptic future look close.

Depending on who you ask, AI will make obsolete anywhere from 85 million (according to the World Economic Forum) to 800 million jobs (according to a 2017 McKinsey Institute report).

In Singapore, Oxford Economics reckons half a million will be affected, with the culling concluding no later than 2028.

Some roles are in more trouble than others, but few will emerge entirely unscathed. Influential firms such as Goldman Sachs and ChatGPT maker, OpenAI, estimate that up to 50 per cent of the tasks that comprise any job are automatable — meaning no one, not even singers, plumbers or chief executives, will ever work the same again.

DREAM JOBS?

Despite these figures, AI is not some monstrous job-eater. It’s simply the latest result of humanity’s longstanding distaste for boredom.