I think AI is pipe dream that’ll never really materialize. We’ll see increasingly sophisticated algorithms for carrying out specific tasks, but nothing that approaches a thinking, planning, sentient being which can create and direct its own goal-oriented actions.
But I do agree that the growth in automation will necessarily lead to greater wealth for all. Such that it’s possible for a society to institute basic income policies without bankrupting itself. Nevertheless, I remain skeptical of the economic fatalism that we’re going to somehow run out of jobs.
I was thinking more short term, and more in terms of current middle management skills.
Finding and collating data, writing reports, etc.
Also, a lot of the mid-level technology and engineering skills are going to be absorbed into software programs.
Just yesterday I read about an experimental physics software program that, completely on its own, can determine the ideal laser power and firing sequence to create super cooled Bose-Einstein condensates.
Apparently, in the past, this was done mostly by trial and error over a period of many months.