Holy shit, stat of the day comes from this FT article (£) on jobs for graduates vs AI.
The ISE said graduate vacancies at the large employers it surveys had grown 4 per cent in the past year, compared with 6 per cent the previous year. But graduate hiring in the digital and IT sector fell 35 per cent, while in finance and professional services it was down 5 per cent.
Emphasis added because wow. I’m sure some of that isn’t just AI, but also wider tech cycles, but still.
I’m at an age where I think a lot about giving back to future generations, especially as my own kids get closer towards finding a job or a career or whatever you want to call it these days. A conversation the other day pointed out that people are more likely to use AI for menial tasks, which blocks off those in-roads that you’d normally take as a junior, as an intern, etc. This really made me think, especially alongside the push for Universities to have more industry links.
There’s a huge conflict going on here. Do businesses want to train people up, or don’t they? Do they even want human workers, or not – the overall push for AI and ML (oh, and de–unionising) seems to be decisively against this idea. Similarly people are having kids less, and at older ages (the parents, not the kids). But where does that leave us as an intergenerational society?
As we build hyper-automation into our lives, are we thinking about those that come after us as part of our decision-making? As with ecological concerns and resource usage, how many generations to come are we designing for? Or are we just taking what we can, and closing the door behind us?