Geoffrey Hinton says plumbing is one of the safest jobs from AI takeover—for now.
The so-called Godfather of AI warned of massive job losses in a June 16 interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast. AI will eventually outperform humans at almost everything, Hinton said, but physical jobs like plumbing won’t be replaced anytime soon.
"I’d say it’s going to be a long time before it’s as good at physical manipulation,"
Hinton said.
"So a good bet would be to be a plumber."
Hinton highlighted call centers and paralegals as high-risk jobs. He said AI will replace most routine intellectual tasks.
"For mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody,"
Hinton warned.
He added you’d need to be "very skilled" to have an AI-proof job.
Hinton sees job displacement as the biggest near-term threat to human well-being, even if universal basic income becomes a reality.
"People would lack a sense of purpose without a job," he said.
He pointed out AI is already replacing jobs that recent graduates used to get.
Some believe AI will assist workers rather than replace them. Hinton agrees, but notes this means one person will do the work of ten, leading to massive layoffs.
Healthcare might absorb these changes because demand there is huge, but most industries won’t be so lucky, he says.
