Future AI Jobs That Creatives Will Probably Hate
While imaginative humans might be out of a job soon, it’s not all bad news for artists willing to give up their soul
If AI companies and the corporations they serve have their way, creative humans along with their pesky paid vacations and benefits will soon be living together in abandoned warehouses, warmed by gathering around garbage can fires.
However, there might be some hope on the horizon. We writers and visual artists keep hearing how artificial intelligence won’t take away our livelihoods, and that the tech industry will instead create “new” jobs.
While AI takes care of the writing and illustrations, I’m hopeful there will be more opportunities for us to earn rent. They won’t necessarily be “creative” or lucrative positions, but beggars can’t be choosers, am I right?
Here are just a few of the possible positions that we can look forward to applying for in the near future…
AI ‘writer’
There are already numerous jobs for “AI writers”, which are less about writing and more about clapping for ChatGPT when it has said something clever.
There’s no one better than you, educated and experienced writers, to train artificial writing models to be their best.
What writer won’t be happy sharing all of their skills with an algorithm that will take their job? I mean, some of these postings pay $15/hour or more, as long as you have a PhD.
Literary agent for LLMs
Someone will need to connect the big publishers with large language models (LLMs) looking for their big break. That’s where you come in—helping to polish AI-generated drafts for review by top human editors.
Don’t worry, though. While AI writing might eventually consume the fiction market, human writing agents can make up to a 0.6% commission when publishers accept their artificial clients’ manuscript.
Who gets the rest of the money? Your robot clients and the publishers, of course.
Artist assistant for autonomous cyborgs
ICYMI, there’s already a robot that can handle a paint brush, already making more than $1 million from their abstract works. Not only that, but this robot in particular—named Ai-Da—can come up with its own artistic concepts.
That doesn’t leave a lot of room for human input.
However, I can see humans helping a robot Rembrandt refill their paint palette when it runs low, as well as cleaning their used brushes every five hours (which is roughly how long it takes Ai-Da to complete one piece.)
The human assistant will also be required to film these automated painting sessions and post them to their robot’s social media account. Think that’s silly? Ai-Da has almost 100K followers on Instagram.
Matchmakers for humans looking for robot ‘love’ (and vice versa)
With the rise of robot companions that can have deep conversations, there’s also an opportunity to become a matchmaker for the wealthy people who can afford a sensual cyborg that tops $175,000.
After all, there will be a lot of companion robots to choose from soon. Finding the right fit for lonely CEOs will need a human touch. At least until some entrepreneur creates a new Tinder for dating robots by the hour, or for a long-term connection.
I mean, AI is already doing a lot of the matchmaking work on human-only dating sites. So it’s only fair we return the favour.
Robot style consultant
Digitally-generated screen queens, like the ones in this Miss AI pageant, don’t need fashion designers or make-up artists. But physical robots, who have never been trained to assemble a matching outfit, will need your help to be presentable on first meets and at exclusive galas.
That also might mean choosing skimpy skirts and lipstick for your robot client, so they can stand out from the other machines.
By the way, I predict it will only be a year or two before a celebrity brings a scantily-clad robot girlfriend with them onto the red carpet. I also predict Kanye will be the first to do so, judging by his latest partner’s look at the Grammies.
He’s reportedly already scouting lookalikes to replace her… or maybe this one is actually a robot clone?
AI legal defense
I know, you’re trained as a watercolour painter, not a lawyer. But surely AI platforms will need ongoing legal representation as the copyright lawsuits against them pile up. It will only become more necessary as AI is implanted into humanoid forms.
You don’t even need a law degree for this job. You can just claim in court that the video footage of your robot client punching a human is generated, and never happened. Elon’s team already tried a similar approach after the tech mogul made misleading comments about how safe autonomous vehicles are.
We need creative solutions
I’m not quite ready to give up on writing or photography just yet. But I have to be realistic and imagine my best prospects down the road, otherwise I’ll be moving my family into the tool shed.
Unless I dream up a rewarding AI-related job, I might have to settle for a job cleaning dirty companion robots with a toothbrush (as they’ll probably short-circuit in a shower.) And there’s nothing fun or creative about that.
Or, I can just write about AI. Yeah, that works.
What about you, fellow writer/artist? What kind of job do you hope to have after the smoke clears from the AI gold rush?