8 Jobs That AI Can’t Replace Anytime Soon

Author(s): Anikait Prasar

Originally published on Towards AI.

Everyone is talking about the jobs that AI will replace, but we are not looking at the other side of the coin, i.e., the jobs that AI won’t replace shortly. Keeping that in mind, in this article, I am going to mention 10 Jobs that can’t be replaced by AI anywhere soon. By near future, I mean a good 2–3 decades or even more than that.

1. Creative Artists

This is the first thing that would come to anyone’s mind when thinking about the items on this list. Artists is a very wide term that people generally confuse with just painters. It includes creatives who make things from their imagination and creativity. This includes professions like story writers, songwriters, painters, movie directors & producers, etc. An AI currently doesn’t hold the ability to think creatively and make new things out of the knowledge that it currently holds. Let’s take the example of a painter. A painter knows symmetry, different colors, frames of reference, etc. These are the basic prerequisites. But now, for creating an art piece, he would need to have a very different kind of idea, and after that, he would implement everything that he knows about colors, symmetry, frame of reference, etc., to complete the creation. An AI cannot think like that and cannot match human imagination currently.

2. On-Stage Entertainers

This is a whole different zone of jobs which includes singers, dancers, actors, comedians, instrumentalists, etc., anyone who entertains people for a living. I think that this profession is the last which would be replaced by AI. There is no way an AI ever entertain people on stage. Of course, you can use AI to write jokes for you, but we are talking about on-stage stuff here. Even in the far future, if robots are capable of performing concerts or dance performances on stage, no one would be interested in watching them. Just think about it, would you like to watch a robot dancing instead of some famous dancer like Chris Brown?

3. Teachers and Mentors

Teaching is a profession that requires experience and of course, robots will be able to replace teachers in the far future, but I don’t see any threats to teachers currently. Of course, even today, if you ask an AI a question, it can answer it easily, if you ask it to explain a simple concept, it will present it in a line or a paragraph, and you would probably be able to understand it because we are talking about a simple concept. But what about the difficult ones? Would you be able to understand something like Quantum Mechanics from the teaching of an AI? No. At least not now. You need a qualified teacher to teach you that stuff. And sometimes, even after that, you wouldn’t be able to understand it. Because of this, I believe that teachers won’t be replaced anytime soon as the Education system will take a lot of time to change.

4. Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs have a very great role in today’s society and any great role comes with a great responsibility which we can’t just give to an AI in the near future. Entrepreneurs have strong leadership and handle a lot of stuff, from managing people to planning stuff. An AI currently isn’t smart enough to become a leader. By this, I don’t mean that AIs don’t have enough knowledge. But, for an easier understanding, out of the parts of our brain, AI currently only has the part that remembers information. Entrepreneurship requires Critical and Analytical thinking, which an AI currently isn’t capable of and won’t be in the near future.

5. Healthcare Workers

Healthcare Workers include Doctors, Nurses, Therapists, etc. These jobs can’t be replaced by AI simply because they are very practical jobs. By this, I don’t mean that you don’t need any knowledge to become a doctor. You would, of course, require a lot of knowledge to become a qualified doctor. AI has all the knowledge required to perform a surgery but it can’t perform it currently as well as a professional surgeon. We can’t trust an AI for doing something that risky with the current capabilities and I don’t think that this is going to happen anywhere in the near future. It can be used for small things to help the doctor, though. And as for a therapist, once again, AI has all the knowledge required, but we can’t trust it on something this serious currently. It would take years of research to reach that checkpoint.

6. Scientists & Researchers

As I mentioned above, AI can’t think like a human mind in many ways. A human mind is capable of thinking creatively and critically which an AI is not capable of currently. Scientists and Researchers study different topics and discover stuff that we currently are not aware of. But an AI cannot do anything more than generate data out of the information it was given before. Scientists and Researchers have to think differently and reach a conclusion after what they learned/discovered. This includes studying a meteoroid that is called on Earth, studying a new type of virus, etc. An AI can help with small tasks like scanning the virus for something and other trivial tasks but it is not capable of reaching a final conclusion or getting a final result.

7. Chefs & Cooks

This one’s obvious. An AI is currently not capable of doing anything too physical that requires human intellect with handwork. Cooking requires knowledge of the recipe of the dish that you are going to create which an AI can be given easily. After that, it requires gathering the ingredients and following the recipe. That’s what an AI can’t do. For this, we would need a highly intelligent robot which we currently don’t have.

8. Lawyers and Judges

Judges and Lawyers play a critical role in the legal system. Judges make complex decisions that demand an in-depth understanding of laws, precedents, and the ability to interpret human behavior and intentions, Lawyers perform multifaceted roles, advocating for their clients, negotiating settlements, and representing the interests of individuals or corporations. The practice of law is not solely about processing information; it relies heavily on emotional intelligence, persuasive communication, and the ability to analyze complex legal issues in a broader societal context. Building trust and rapport with clients and judges is crucial, and human interaction is paramount in achieving this. While AI has shown promise in certain legal tasks, such as document review and legal research, it lacks the nuanced judgment and ethical reasoning required for the bench. That's why the legal system won’t change tremendously anytime soon.

Conclusion

There are a lot more jobs that I could include in the list but these are the ones that came into my mind while writing these. If you know some others, then do mention them in the comments. I also believe that there will be a lot of new jobs that are currently in the emerging stage which will also be irreplaceable by AI. That’s why you should always stay updated on such things. You might never know which job is based on the thing that you loved to do and thought was useless. This might happen sometime. So, with that, I’m going to end this article.
Thank You for reading!

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Published via Towards AI