Posted on 02/18/2026 10:07:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Elon Musk just identified which jobs go first, and it destroys every assumption about who’s safe.
Musk: “AI is going to take over those jobs like lightning. Anything that is digital, which is like just someone at a computer doing something.”
Not factory workers. Office workers. The people who spent decades assuming education and desk jobs meant security are actually first.
Musk: “Anything that’s physically moving atoms… those jobs will exist for a much longer time.”
Output is a file? Vulnerable. Output is physical? Protected. That’s the entire framework.
Musk: “AI is really still digital.”
AI doesn’t need a body. Doesn’t need an office. Just needs access to the same software you use. Executes faster. Never tires. Costs nothing to scale.
But it can’t weld. Can’t wire a building. Can’t fix pipes or work soil.
Musk: “Literally welding, electrical work, plumbing. Those jobs will exist for a much longer time.”
Trades aren’t the vulnerable jobs. They’re the durable ones. Physical presence, real-world adaptation, manual dexterity provide protection no digital credential offers.
Analyst, accountant, paralegal, programmer, anyone producing files and documents, automates first because digital work is exactly what AI does natively.
Person moving atoms has natural defense. Physics, unpredictable environments, material resistance create friction AI can’t scale past.
Person moving bits has nothing. No friction. No physical barrier. Just software AI already operates better than most humans.
The assumption that desk work and degrees represent safety just inverted completely. College graduate producing documents faces faster displacement than the electrician producing installations.
Society spent generations telling people trades were beneath them. Pushed everyone toward offices and screens. Turns out the people who didn’t listen built the most automation-resistant careers.
Most ironic outcome of the AI revolution. The work society treated as inferior turned out to be the work society couldn’t replace. And the work society valued most turned out to be the easiest to eliminate.
Installing telecommunications distribution systems is safe.
No robot is installing fiber optic cable, or UTP cable for that matter, terminating, testing, fire stopping where smoke tight compliance is required by fire code, etc.
Network monitoring is an area where AI can make great strides. Especially if it can reduce false positive alerts for just about any kind of network monitoring software.
To that end, anyone interested in that field should go to bicsi.org and look at their course offerings. Highly recommended.
Deburr your parts like real machinists used to do- that part ain’t done until a baby can play with it
Sounds a lot like the movie S1M0NE
I would argue this is already a diminishing activity. Competence is not the norm nor is giving enough fucks
Aircraft mechanic pays pretty decently. It doesn’t mean one should have no self control on spending. Hard to feel bad for a guy like that unless there were several underlying circumstances.
Not today, but tomorrow is another matter. It’s only a matter of time.
The bigger question is what are hundreds of thousands or millions of jobless people supposed to do then? Part of the plan to make more people dependent on gov?
(My son said, "Airplanes are flying cars")
Like having a computer acting as receptionist or technical advice.
Me: How do I get a copy of my invoice ?
The Recep/Tech: Do you want to pay your bill?
Me: No,I need a copy of my invoice.
The Recep/Tech: Do you want to pay your bill? Press 1-9 to pay your bill or press 0 to return here. Transferring you to the bill payment section. Please hold.
I know literally dozens of tech workers who were laid off in the last year because “AI was going to take their jobs”. Ai tried, but failed miserably. Now those big tech companies realize their mistake but don’t know how to correct it. THey won’t rehire, they lost a massive knowledge base, and their in deep doodoo. And they deserve all the pain their about to get. Sell your stock in these big tech companies asap: Cisco, Microsoft, IBM. And invest in RotoRooter.
As one working this field, I will express measured scepticism.
Absolutely, if your “job” was taking obvious fact and expressing it in an email, spreadsheet, deck, document, you have some learning to do or a new career to find.
If you’re actually a knowledge worker, not just a bunch of facts and rote skills walking around, you’re in good shape — but you’d also better get up to speed with *using* AI to leverage your mind and in being, effectively, a boss and coach to these tools.
It might, however, resolve the challenges pointy-headed types try and solve with offshore and H1B people. The foreign IT proposition is masses of cheap people led by a smaller cadre of smart people. Now or soon you still need the smart people but you don’t need 10 hour a day cheapos. Before that happens some number of firms will have to learn the hard way. People *will* try and have “it all” and go with AI+offshore and have horrific results.
Yes; those are not very helpful.
But I was thinking more specifically along the lines of surveys I’ve been asked to do. Very little is ever really yes/no or black/white but they don’t allow much latitude.
I was once asked to do an anonymous questionnaire about an employee who was being ‘disciplined’ due to coworker complaints. The way it was worded was so narrow, I quit halfway through and refused to do it.
Your son is correct
Joshua 8:28
And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.
Super Grok just gave me another wrong answer to a simple question.
Yeah yeah but that’s all going to change in a few months.
AI is fantastic at information retrieval; it can "recollect" stores of data and information much faster than any human.
Do not confuse information retrieval with "intelligence." AI is not nuanced enough to reason as well as humans can.
“If an AI document doesn’t give its sources”
1) Objective facts: AI (and everyone) has access to US Census bureau, USPS and other objective lists of cities, counties, states, etc. AI habitually makes objective errors in geography, math, and objective topics.
2) Subjective Opinion: AI quotes SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center as objective fact when it is in fact subjective opinion. Repeatedly AI quotes and bases logic on subjective opinion with no basis in objective facts.
3) Hallucinations: Even when legitimate sources exist, AI does not quote them; but makes up sources and the content of those sources.
4) Partial data: Even when full data on a topic is available, AI often cherry picks only some of that data. And often the data it picks is not the important data. There will be 10 major facts and 20 minor facts about a company, a politician, a celebrity. I will list 5 of the 10 major facts and 13 of the 20 minor facts and totally miss half of the major facts. Example: A celebrity has won major awards. AI will only mention a few of the major awards but then also list insignificant obscure awards and miss half the major awards of the celebrity.
It appears that sources of AI data is data that is not copywrighted, or is free, or where it is thought it can get
away with copywrighted data without consequence It appears AI starts with the limited human subjectivity of its creators and then builds only on that human subjectivity.
I suspect that about 75% of “government workers” jobs can and will be replaced by AI at great savings to the taxpayers. And AI won’t pay union dues.
I also suspect that 40% of teachers can be replaced by AI as of today.
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