How safe is your job from automation?

[Stumpy Pepys]

So these days, I'm working as a technical writer, writing software manuals.

With AI and machine learning, it's really not inconceivable that a computer could one day parse the source code and knock out a somewhat readable user guide.

I give my career fifteen years.

[WOM]

Yup. Less than ten for me. We're currently doing subject-line testing (testing open rates for bank emails) and they're testing 14 computer-generated SLs against my 'handwritten' one.

I sort of feel like the village blacksmith who just watched his first car drive by the shop.

[ad hoc]

I read so many articles about teachers being replaced that I assume it must be true. But I'm still cocky enough to believe that even when it happens they won't be as good as me.

[Wouter D]

My job consists of researching new data mining methods, and teaching them to students. Demand for that will only rise throughout my lifetime, and I'm planning to live until I'm 256 years old.

[ursus arctos]

Law is such a multi-faceted and diverse field that it is impossible to give a single answer.

What I can say is that there are definitely tasks traditionally undertaken by junior lawyers that can already be done better by high end machines. The bigger questions for the profession are whether the automation of such tasks will hinder the training of young lawyers and what impact the trend will have on the economics of the profession.

[WOM]

We're currently doing subject-line testing (testing open rates for bank emails) and they're testing 14 computer-generated SLs against my 'handwritten' one.

I should note that some of those computer-generated lines sound like "Happy happy cowboy, okay?" and "Felicitations for most perfunctory banking offer!", but within 5 years, I've no doubt they'll be better than mine.

[San Bernardhinault]

It's more likely that my skills will be obsolete before my job can be fully automated. I give it 5 to 10 years.

[Gangster Octopus]

I've already got one utterly useless skill: cold typesetting...

[G-Man]

Journalism won't be automated, but the profession is being destroyed to such an extent that the need for skilled people in that profession will be subordinated to cheapness of labour.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Journalism won't be automated, but the profession is being destroyed to such an extent that the need for skilled people in that profession will be subordinated to cheapness of labour.

Some of it will be. Financial reporting for example.

[3 Colours Red]

I work on a till so I'm on borrowed time as it is. Mind you, with the slow progress of self service I might still be doing it when I'm 90.

[imp]

[Starts making notes for fantasy short story about a prototype robotic referee unleashed on the lower amateur leagues of the state of Hessen.]

[ursus arctos]

It is actually widely expected that some kind of robots or AI System will take over the calling of balls and strikes from home plate umpires in major league baseball within the next 5-10 years.

[San Bernardhinault]

I can just picture the red-faced thuggish idiots that Imp regularly describes in his reports going into angry huffs with the robo-ref and getting their manager on the phone to the manufacturer demanding that it get reprogrammed; either that, or actually breaking them because they think the replacement robot will be less biased.

[imp]

If the manufacturers had any sense (or sense of humour) they'd design said robo-ref to look like this:

****LIKE****

That look every time some twat moans that the robot gave the throw-in the wrong way.

[Stumpy Pepys]

[Starts making notes for fantasy short story about a prototype robotic referee unleashed on the lower amateur leagues of the state of Hessen.]

I started a (nil) thread a while back, postulating that an AI company could develop software to referee football in real time, given enough cameras (and possibly tracking devices). I'm surprised I've never read any articles about people researching it.

[Southport Zeb]

I work in special needs education. Many of our students would be quite happy if all the staff were replaced by computers, but given that a major part of the job is getting them away from screens and encouraging interaction with other people, I think My jobs probably safe for now.

[Amor de Cosmos]

It won't apply to me, but I reckon personal interaction will remain important in education for some time. It probably won't mean talking to a room full of thirty people though.

[Gerontophile]

The main part of my job is stacking shelves. But the stock itself is probably too intricate to be done by a bot of some kind. I have small hands, and I find it fiddly.

But having said that, if they got rid of packaging, and designed a sort of cubby hole system, it could be done. In fact, I can almost see a clear design in my head.

[elguapo4]

My job will survive for the moment but cutbacks will mean that I'll be doing a lot more work with worse hours

[Third rate Leszno]

If anyone can design technology that's as clueless and shit at doing business implementation of IT projects in the civil service as I am, they're welcome to take my job.

[Ginger Yellow]

Some of it will be. Financial reporting for example.

A lot of it already is, either literally or effectively. Stuff around earnings releases. Sentiment analysis. But you can't automate investigative reporting. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Satchmo Distel]

My kind of university social science teaching might be done in future by a person connected to 500 students by some Skype type device, but it's hard to convey passion for your subject to people who are not physically present. It would come across on screen as too loud and shouty.

Our best job security is that we are ludicrously cheap; American universites make a huge margin per professor.

[Lang Spoon]

Digital transformation seems to be the word du jour. I assume this means we will be asked to describe our jobs till it can be automated out of existence, build some software around the daily processes that unfortunately involve people.

[Fussbudget]

My current job is essentially a support function of a support function of a support function of an industry that will probably die completely in the UK post-Brexit. I suppose you could probably automate it, but why would you bother?