Back in 2010, authors Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, Alexandra Whittington, April Koury, and Helena Calle wrote a report for the government called ‘The Shape of Jobs to Come’. Many of the new jobs they discussed now exist.
Updating their ideas from 2010, in recent books include The Future of Business, Beyond Genuine Stupidity – Ensuring AI Serves Humanity, and The Future Reinvented – Reimagining Life, Society, and Business, the group of academics look at the new industries and professions that might be coming next. Here are ten examples:
Independent fact checker
This role already exists to some extent but becomes ever more essential as concerns grow over the proliferation of fake news, companies exaggerate their marketing claims, and politicians argue about the veracity of each other’s statements.
These arbiters of truth will use a swathe of AI systems to check the truth and origin of every claim and fact. Clients will pay them for these services and for a regularly updated assessment of how truthful and accurate their own statements are. Public honesty tables provided by the fact checkers will influence the reputations and fortunes of businesses, politicians, and political parties.
Crypto detective
The spread of crypto currencies and initial coin offerings has led to high levels of fraud and concerns over the scale of crypto-based shadow economy transactions. Specialist detectives backed up by AI will be required to unravel crime in the ‘cryptosphere’.
Personal festival designer
For the super wealthy the next must have experience could be the creation of your own festival (as birthday parties are so 2018). Your designer would craft the perfect combination of entertainment, glamping accommodation, gourmet food, tech support services, and on demand transport using drones and autonomous vehicles.
Inter-AI conflict resolution specialist
AIs will increasingly need to collaborate. Our personal intelligent assistant may need to interact with the AIs of our bank, our employers, and all the vendors who serve us. Not all AIs will be born equal or have common goals, so disputes could arise. Human arbitrators may need to intervene to get the best outcome for humanity in these disputes.
Human enhancement technician
As a society, we are starting to augment the human body with chemical, genetic, electronic, and physical enhancements. Body shops will appear on the high street where appropriately trained technicians will be able to perform these upgrades -–administering nootropic drugs, genetic modifications, 3D printed limbs, and electronic brain stimulation.
Robo-nanny
Replacing the human nanny or au pair, future robotic child carers could become a constant companion to our children at every stage of their development.
Every facet of their character could be selected and tweaked by parents – emotional intelligence, values, ethics, levels of optimism, and even how the bot responds to difficult situations such as the passing of a grandparent. The bot could also be programmed to introduce new learning topics, languages, and life skills as required.
Longevity relationship counsellors
With humans expected to live 120 years plus and technology continuing to blur the line between robot and human, new types of marriage and relationship counsellors may emerge. These lifelong counsellors will help coach and guide individuals and their many partners across all stages and types of relationships, from traditional monogamy to polygamy and possibly even human-robot or human-VR intermingling!
Space junk removal supervisor
Near Earth orbit is increasingly congested by the remnants of old space missions, obsolete satellites, and the results of accidental collisions and losses. At the same time, the space sector is expected to explode – encompassing everything from asteroid mining and space tourism to the establishment of off world colonies.
In response, dependent upon the type of junk being targeted, different fleets of specialised space craft would be controlled, deployed, and coordinated by space junk removal supervisors based at contractors’ ground stations. The experience in low Earth orbit will drive new policies, agreements, and procedures to prevent a similar issue developing around the Moon and Mars.
Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, Alexandra Whittington, April Koury, and Helena Calle are authors of new book Fast Future.
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