Richard Askam, Media & Events Director Digital Ink

As a wise man ( Charles Darwin ) once said – “ It won’t be the strongest that survive but those most willing to adapt “.

Q: Is my job going to be taken by AI?

Many jobs are at high risk of being replaced by AI over the next decade. According to the McKinsey report from March 2024, AI is expected to replace 2.4 million US jobs by 2030, with an additional 12 million occupational shifts. A recent estimate ( in a an old fashioned newspaper ) expects that 400 to 800 million people will lose their jobs due to AI.

Now I’m scared….400 to 800 million people will lose their jobs due to AI…!

It may sometimes feel like AI is a recent development in technology. After all, it’s only become mainstream to use in the last several years, right? In reality, the groundwork for AI began in the early 1900s. And although the biggest strides weren’t made until the 1950s, it wouldn’t have been possible without the work of early experts in many different fields. Knowing the history of AI is important in understanding where AI is now and where it may go in the future. The time between when the phrase “artificial intelligence” was created, and the 1980s was a period of both rapid growth and struggle for AI research. The late 1950s through the 1960s was a time of creation. From programming languages that are still in use to this day to books and films that explore the idea of robots, AI became a mainstream idea quickly.

As a wise man ( Charles Darwin ) once said – “ It won’t be the strongest that survive but those most willing to adapt “.

The 1970s showed similar improvements, such as the first anthropomorphic robot being built in Japan, to the first example of an autonomous vehicle being built by an engineering grad student. However, it was also a time of struggle for AI research, as the U.S. government showed little interest in continuing to fund AI research.

Most of the 1980s showed a period of rapid growth and interest in AI, now labelled as the “AI boom.” This came from both breakthroughs in research, and additional government funding to support the researchers. Deep Learning techniques and the use of Expert System became more popular, both of which allowed computers to learn from their mistakes and make independent decisions.

Then winter came….well the AI Winter as it became known. The term describes a period of low consumer, public, and private interest in AI which lead to decreased research funding, which, in turn, lead to few breakthroughs. Despite the lack of funding during the AI Winter, the early 90s showed some impressive strides forward in AI research, including the introduction of the first AI system that could beat a reigning world champion chess player.

This era also introduced AI into everyday life via innovations such as the first commercially-available speech recognition software on Windows computers. The surge in interest was followed by a surge in funding for research, which allowed even more progress to be made.

That brings us up to date in 2024 and the most recent developments in AI. We’ve seen a surge in common-use AI tools, such as virtual assistants, search engines, etc. This time period also popularized Deep Learning and Big Data..

Why am I telling you all this? Over just the past four decades, the world economy has generated more than one billion jobs, more than were created during the previous four centuries. All of these jobs were created as a result of adopting new technologies, new ways of thinking/working/doing. AI won’t take jobs, it will create them and we need to adapt – like we have always done

Richard Askam, Media & Events Director Digital Ink

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