AI and work, with advice for the future  – Twin Cities

Second Sunday Series — Editor’s Note: This is the last of 12 columns on AI and work, which appeared monthly this past year. 

In the process of wrapping up this 12-month series on artificial intelligence and work, I’ve been reminded of meeting my first tech evangelist.

I was just a few years into my career counseling business but already a substantial tech user myself, and writing a textbook on technical interviews for a local college. That project sprang from my national column on the use of computers in industry — a concept that seems as quaint now as a monthly review of how telephones are used by secretaries.

Now that I’ve established myself as old, here’s my point. In testing the textbook I encountered a man about my age who wanted to lecture me on the permanent nature of technology, as in: “It’s here to stay, get used to it.”

“I don’t need any help,” he announced during a job search class. “There’s always going to be work in tech. I’ll never have to look for a job.”

OK then.

I’ve thought of him often, right through tech booms and busts and the dot-com bubble of 2000, not to mention the recession of 2007-08 and of course the pandemic. I know he’s expanded his thinking, probably just after the first time he was cut from a job and couldn’t instantly find another.

My thinking has expanded too. Always a reluctant end-user and never a full-on evangelist, my enthusiasm for workplace technology lands somewhere between my admiration (not) for open floor plans and the joy I feel (not) when discussing productivity.

Which is to say, I don’t much like technology, despite my ongoing commitment to know what’s happening. Why? Because when all the hype is cleared away and we’re left with just the software or hardware or whatever, what we find behind the curtain is someone smarter than us trying to make money or control something.

That’s always been true of technology and it feels twice as true for artificial intelligence. I don’t fear AI and I don’t resist using it. But I worry intensely about the infrastructure sprouting up around us faster than we can even register.

Already we know (or at least suspect) the tremendous power wielded by those who can master and manipulate this technology for their own use. We’re giving away land and precious water for data centers, revising our education systems to churn out tech-ready graduates, and experimenting with “intelligent” robots to care for our sick.

This on top of the massive, ongoing theft of intellectual property that threatens every professional pursuit from the arts to engineering. Not to mention the possibly permanent loss of entry-level jobs as companies “hire up” while using AI for the routine work that used to go to new graduates.

That’s not very upbeat, is it? Let’s just say I believe that fellow from my class: Tech is here to stay, so we need to adapt. But I also believe my young self who knew he was wrong in trying to guarantee his future by climbing on board the tech train. Because that train has derailed numerous times and will do so again.

My advice is to keep your eyes open, and learn at least the baseline process for using artificial intelligence at work. Practice and have fun by creating poems and birthday songs for friends, memoirs capturing your youth, blueprints for the dream cabin you may never build … when you play, you learn, so have at it.

But if you’re seeking job security in an AI world, my advice shifts. You will never learn enough to become irreplaceable. For job security, focus instead on the old tools: Networking to cushion your landing during a layoff; soft skills that make you hard to fire; added training that broadens your value.

If you want even more job security, consider careers in the physical trades or self-employment.

But if security isn’t your motivator, then I say: Jump on board the AI train for at least a short ride. See where it takes you and what you discover. It really is here to stay and we’re going to need as many perspectives as possible to ensure this great power is used for good.

Thanks for taking this journey with me. I’ve enjoyed being educated and baffled this past year by the AI revolution, and I’ve deeply appreciated comments, corrections and queries from my readers. Onward we go!