AI is developing at a faster rate than the laws can even keep up and it’s fast changing employment opportunities, scientific futurist Dr Catherine Ball says.
Dr Ball, an honorary professor at the ANU School of Cybernetics, told 9News the world is currently in the fifth industrial revolution and with that comes net creation of jobs.
“It will mean the need for speedy mass retraining and radical upskilling,” Dr Ball said.
“Are people ready to retrain in an area that seems off their scope? This is a role for a global call around technology literacy, science communication, and the development of new career pathways.”
These new career pathways sound made-up, but Dr Ball said the trajectory technology is taking will mean we could see these six future jobs could exist very soon.
The jobs she predicts will crop up are creative technologist, data ecologist, algorithm lawyer, human verification nurse, journalism-truther and a digital doppelgänger curator.
A human verification nurse, for example, would be a person trained in identifying real humans in a bid to weed out deepfake and AI imitations.
And an algorithm lawyer would be a legal practitioner trained specifically in AI law and is an expert in using it in the legal profession.
Dr Ball said she is closely watching the evolution of quantum computing and AI, which could work together to create more jobs and social solutions.
“I am most intrigued by the current rise of AQ- AI and Quantum, and the idea of having super fast quantum computing beyond anything we have now,” she said.
“Plus smarter and more adaptive AI, we will have almost daily modern miracles to solve some of humanity’s most pressing problems.”
Dr Ball predicts there will be a fresh focus in the future on developing ways to take societies off earth.
She said climate change will be the biggest driver in future leaders working towards colonising other planets.
“We may yet see humans establish on the moon in the next 20 years,” she said.
“And we will have issues dealing with climate change related famine and mass-displacements, plus the social challenges that then follow.”