Wondering Which Jobs AI Can't Take? Ex-Google Researcher Knows The Answer

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Geoffrey Hinton hints that, amid AI takeover, some jobs are safer, and he thinks plumbing is a good choice because machines won't be able to do physical jobs anytime soon.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI and a former Google researcher, recently shared his thoughts on how artificial intelligence might take over jobs. He warned that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon become better than humans at many tasks, due to which a large number of people will lose jobs. But Hinton also said some jobs are safer, and he thinks plumbing is a good choice because machines won't be able to do physical jobs anytime soon.
While appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Hinton said, 'It's going to be a long time before it's as good at physical manipulation as us. So, a good bet would be to be a plumber. In the past, new technologies have come in, which didn't led to joblessness. New jobs were created. So the classic example people use is automatic tele machines. When automatic tele machines came in, a lot of bank tellers didn't lose their jobs, they just got to do more interesting things."
'Here, I think this is more like when they got machines in the industrial revolution, and you can't have a job digging ditches now because a machine can dig ditches much better than you can. I think for mundane intellectual labour, AI is just going to replace everybody now. If I worked in a call centre, I'd be terrified. I think it's beginning to happen already," Geoffrey Hinton explained.
The Godfather of AI further shared that he came across a recent article that said many university graduates are already finding it hard to get jobs. One reason could be that companies have started using AI to do the kind of work these graduates would normally do. He explained that this new technology is very different from earlier ones. Hinton also said that in the future, only those with very special or advanced skills may be safe from losing their jobs to AI.
A recent report by SignalFire showed that major tech companies are hiring fewer fresh graduates for entry level jobs than before. One of the main reasons for this drop is the growing use of AI. The report said that in companies like Meta and Google, the number of new graduate hires fell by 25% from 2023 to 2024. In 2024, only 7% of their new hires were fresh graduates.
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