Bill Gates has made an unsettling premonition about the future of AI – and his words don't hold much joy for most working in the creative sector. Gates hypothesised that in the future all but three job roles could be replaced by machines – and only one of those could be considered creative, coding (spoiler: this is at odds with our view on the future of AI in graphic design).
Although a utopian future would have AI taking over the boring, mundane tasks leaving humans free to pursue creativity, speaking across two different interviews Gates shares that he thinks AI has the ability to do "most things" and only coders, biologists and energy experts will remain safe from AI for now. All of these jobs need a human hand to control and advance the AI, he says (though tell that to the proponents of vibe coding).
However, Gates also asserted that it would be up to humans to decide whether or not to exercise the power of AI across all the areas it is capable of taking over – leaving a glimmer of hope for the idea that humans may one day be free from the mundanity of tasks that can be automated but still find purpose (and work) in creativity.
“There will be some things we reserve for ourselves. But in terms of making things and moving things and growing food, over time those will be basically solved problems," he says.
In fact, he also says in another interview that he thinks humans could work "two or three days a week", which would leave time for non-work pursuits. Whether or not that would come with the same wage and living standards is, of course, yet to be seen.
Link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/bill-gates-says-only-3-jobs-will...
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Interesting that he's named two of the jobs he's dipped his hands in Mark Deuce. The problem with "leaving a glimmer of hope for the idea that humans may one day be free from the mundanity of tasks" is that in those "mundane" tasks is the possibility of human interaction that is more valuable than the job itself. Yes, there are jobs I wouldn't want to do but in the meantime, we should esteem the value in human interaction in those jobs. When I'm in a restaurant, I love chatting with the server who tells me about his/her goals and dreams.
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I totallly agree with you Leonardo Ramirez and for me, Ai will always be a tool to help me improve, but not to take over and do everything. Then you are a slave to that system. Hey, that would make a great movie! Have a great weekend!
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Mark Deuce You too my friend.
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if AI is being developed to put people out of work, shouldn't it's development and application in society be reassessed? It's far more productive to develop systems that provide income for people and create jobs and livelihoods for society, instead of approaching business with a Gordon Gekko mindset - you know, like selling everything off including it's 'human resources' for the sake of profit.
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Leonardo Ramirez Does that mean Gates considers screenwriting as one of those mundane tasks? Haha!
This may be the true state of where studio films are headed, but I think it gives the indie filmmakers the greater resolve to keep production as human as possible.
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Mark Deuce “Whether or not that would come with the same wage and living standards is, of course, yet to be seen.” Exactly, this kind of utopian BS is really annoying!
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I think he considers anything he's not doing as mundane Geoff Hall.
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Leonardo Ramirez haha! Pretentious oligarch to the fore, then!
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TL;DR
I’m worried about what these advancements mean for the creative class.
The Longer Version:
I’m mixed on my feelings about AI. On one hand, I’ve been very vocal on here about using it as a co-creator (for research, answering questions, brainstorming, etc.). BUT…I’m also automatically part of the class-action suit against Meta b/c they used my work to train their machines without my permission, and I’m not really cool with that, either.
I teach my composition students to use it to help them with their essay topics (otherwise, I get the essay equivalents of “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”), but I’m also currently researching/writing an article on how these systems are going to homogenize our “creative output.”
But last night I was on X, and I saw a post from a guy who took the trailer from Lord of The Rings, broke it down (shot by shot), and used AI to transform it into the style of “Studio Ghibli.” This apparently took several hours, but the end result was Incredible. So incredible, if I were part of Studio Ghibli, I would have asked him to remove it immediately. In a few hours, one guy had managed to capture decades of blood/sweat/tears and create something that was 100% passable as that studio’s very unique, very original work.
(This, compared to the AI-generated LOTR trailer I saw a couple of years ago, that was so janky it was laughable. No worries on that front.)
I’m worried now, and I don’t have a solution, but I do like discussing/debating as this new frontier unfolds. I feel like Money will win the day (as it usually does), and those of us who have the real desire to create something new ex nihilo will be the minority, and we will be fighting an uphill battle in an over-crowded world filled with the most banal “creative” works you can imagine, with “authors” who are not real writers and “filmmakers,” “photographers,” and “designers” whose sole achievement is crafting a good prompt and letting a machine do the hard (but fundamentally most rewarding part of the) work.
Happy Friday, y’all. ;)
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Geoff Hall haha..oh boy.
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Happy Friday Erin Leigh! I haven't seen that trailer. Will have to search for it. But yes, I agree. I would have asked him to take it down.
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Sadly big business don´t see it that way Topher Neville
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I totally agree Geoff Hall nevertheless, it is coming at us in breakneck speed.
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I hear ya Erin Leigh but we need to stay out in front of this Ai Revolution so that we do not get left behind, and like that studio your said, I saw that amazing video too, can stay relevant as things progress. This is just like the Cassette tape and VCR Tape went to DVD and Cd´s! But mush bigger for sure. Cheers!
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Mark Deuce maybe, but I do think there will be a backlash because of security concerns. Check out this article on Agentic AI.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/02/new-ai-agents-could-hold-...
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Mark Deuce “Then you are a slave to that system.” That would be The Matrix!
I will check it out Geoff Hall and that is where this is all going for sure, the Matrix, Terminator, etc. have a great weekend!
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It is scary and disheartenig to think that writers will no longer be safe putting their original work out there when some studio can 'launder' it through AI and claim it as their own story.
Mark Deuce well, DVDs and CDs I suppose didn’t have any intelligence, whereas AI at least has an artificial intelligence. Sadly, we tend to focus on the intelligence quotient and not the artificial side of things.
Well, well, well! Ain't this an important development!