If you're trying to figure out which career path is safest in the age of artificial intelligence, Tim Fung has some thoughts. The CEO of Airtasker Ltd., an Australian gig work platform, shared his predictions this week about which jobs will survive automation and which won't make it past 2026.
The Jobs AI Is Coming For
Speaking with Business Insider on Thursday, Fung painted a stark picture for certain gig workers. Drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and Lyft Inc. (LYFT) are particularly vulnerable, he said. Human ride-hailing drivers could disappear entirely within three to five years as autonomous vehicles become mainstream.
But it's not just drivers who should be concerned. Fung also expects AI to replace data scientists, coders, and engineers. That's right: the very people building the technology might find themselves out of a job because of it. The irony is almost poetic.
On the flip side, Fung believes blue-collar work like building fences will be among the last professions to fall to automation. There's something about physical, hands-on labor that's harder to replicate with machines. Fung went further, suggesting people would actually be happier creating art or working in trades rather than "doing more computer jobs." It's an interesting commentary on both the future of work and what makes work meaningful.
Sanders Takes Aim at Tech Giants
The automation threat hasn't gone unnoticed by politicians. Senator Bernie Sanders has been particularly vocal, questioning both Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft Corp (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates about their comments on AI replacing jobs. Musk has touted the idea of "universal high income" as automation takes over, which Sanders clearly finds problematic.
Sanders also pointed to Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) as a prime example of the coming displacement. The e-commerce giant announced plans to cut roughly 500,000 jobs as it shifts more work to AI, automation, robots, and other technologies. That's not a rounding error. That's a small city's worth of workers.
Musk Expands AI Empire
Meanwhile, Musk continues building out his AI ambitions. He recently announced that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has acquired a third building with planned compute capacity of nearly 2 gigawatts. He didn't disclose the exact location, but the scale suggests he's betting big on AI's future, even as questions swirl about what that future means for human workers.