Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to decimate the IT job market. This isn’t me making a doomsday prediction; it’s fact. After all, why pay a whole team of developers big bucks when you can get the job done in a fraction of the time at fraction of the cost with just one developer and a ChatGPT subscription?
AI is in its infancy and you’re not going to get Shakespeare even if you ask it to write a poem about your cat. Nor are you going to get it to come up with the next great pop song. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. With regard to IT, it won’t be long before you can just speak into your computer’s microphone and say, ‘make it so’. You won’t even need to put on a Captain Picard accent.
What does this mean for those on the spectrum, where the only realistic options are swinging a keyboard or playing a musical instrument? Get that violin out. What about academia, you ask? Unless you believe that Maui fished up the North Island and Maori science is actually science, forget about it. In other words, expect unemployment for those with autism – the group already having the highest rate of unemployment, with only 20 per cent being in full time work – to get worse, much worse. And don’t expect the government to do anything about it. The government barely even recognises it as being a problem (however if you’re transgender, on the other hand…).
Of course AI will never completely get rid of all IT jobs. It is a creative industry after all. Although, come to think of it, in the future you won’t have ‘developers’. Instead you’ll have ‘code editors’.
And what of support roles? Well, we’re almost at the point where you’ll barely be able to tell the difference between talking to human and talking to an AI bot. Soon the only time you’ll be talking to a real human is when there’s something seriously wrong.
If you think I’m exaggerating consider this: about a month ago I wanted to create a New Zealand tax app for my iPhone. With a bit of wrangling, it took me around an hour using AI An hour. Possibly even less. I know next to nothing about building iPhone apps.
My advice to young people seeking a career in IT is: don’t, unless your family is rich and you have the backing to start your own IT business (AI related, of course). You’re better off doing building – as in nails and planks. But, thanks to the previous Government, don’t expect even that to last very long.
