In today’s issue:

  • AI agents here for your jobs
  • Wild AI jobs of the future
  • The Lemonparty

Editor’s note: Today, we bring you a guest piece by Sam Volkering from his publication AI Collision which was first published on Tuesday 27 August.

You can hear from Sam more often at AI Collision and learn more about the latest developments in AI by simply clicking here to sign up for free.

Sam will also be releasing an urgent presentation later today on the very subject of AI. He believes this inescapable trend is the biggest financial opportunity in the world today. Want to know why? And how you could profit yourself? Keep an eye out later today.

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

A friend sent me an article from Australia yesterday about how new “disconnect” laws had just taken force.

These laws mean that bosses can no longer punish workers if they don’t “pick up” (respond) to messages or calls or emails outside of office hours.

These kinds of laws are on the way in the UK too. They’re already a part of the fabric of work in Europe. And soon enough, you’ll just find them as a part of every workplace in every corner of the world (except maybe China…).

My friend argued that it was the end of productivity.

I somewhat disagreed. Meaning that I don’t think it has any impact on the workforce at all. If anything, it’s further evidence of central points of authority regulating themselves and workers into oblivion.

You see my take is that these laws are fine.

If you don’t want to get a message from your boss at some ungodly hour, that’s fair enough. If you don’t want to work outside of 9 to 5, go for you, have at it.

But also, I know someone who doesn’t give a sh*t when you message them or call them.

Also, this “person” will be gunning for the jobs of everyone who’s just had a little bit too much of work and wants a quieter life of leisure.

That person is actually not a person at all. It’s artificial intelligence, specifically in the form of AI agents. But I’m guessing you figured that out already.

AI agents are coming, and they’re coming for the decrease in productivity from white collar workers.

Take a look at this chart:

Source: ons.gov.uk

This is a good measure of productivity in the UK since 1972. It’s simply the output of works, per hour worked.

It looks volatile, and it ebbs and flows. The big decreases are around major global economics events. Black Monday in ’87, the financial crisis in ’08, lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. The subsequent rebound is coming out of those events.

Nonetheless, the trend, in the long term, is down from around 3% to 4% to around 0%. In other words, the UK is not becoming more productive over time, productivity is decreasing over time. Extrapolate that out further and you can guarantee it’s going to head consistently negative.

That’s a bad sign for an economy. It also means if human workers aren’t going to be productive then employers and businesses are going to look to bolster their workforce with technology. And that will be using artificial intelligence.

This is also nothing something that’s going to disrupt industry like manufacturing. This is going to hit the legal profession, accounting, financial services, a whole host of white-collar, middle-income and middle-class jobs.

We know this is on the horizon because big tech companies are making it so.

Last week, Salesforce announced the release of “Einstein Sales Agents”.

This is a huge leap in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into businesses. For now, it’s aimed at sales operations. But make no mistake, this is just the start. This development heralds a new era where AI not only supports but potentially replaces certain white-collar jobs, reshaping the job market.

AI agents are sophisticated programs designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks can range from simple data entry to complex decision-making processes, customer interactions, and predictive analytics.

With Salesforce’s Einstein, these agents are tailored to enhance or automate sales processes, offering personalised customer interactions, predictive sales analytics, and automated administrative tasks.

Salesforce is saying this means its AI can handle scheduling, follow-ups, data entry, and even initial customer outreach. This efficiency could lead to a reduction in the need for administrative support roles within sales teams.

Add to this that its AI agents can analyse huge amounts of data to provide insights, forecast trends, and suggest better outcomes. In other words, kiss goodbye to mid-level analysts whose primary role involves data interpretation and insight.

Then, imagine getting an initial call from a company. For all intents and purposes, it’s human… but really, it’s AI agents now pitching to you in real time, responding to your cues, tone, responses, and even maybe negotiating with you.

This is what is coming.

And yes, it’s somewhat of a double-edged sword. While it promises unprecedented efficiency, personalisation, and business insights, it also forecasts a significant reshaping of the job landscape, particularly for white-collar workers.

Yes, it will replace some jobs, many jobs. But it can also be used to enhance jobs, shift menial tasks and work to AI agents, and enable more time for real human interaction from real humans, maybe even in person.

There will be losers from this, but I think also big winners. Maybe it’s companies like Salesforce, or maybe it is another that we can’t even see yet. We see it with every big technology revolution, and with AI and AI agents it will be no different.

Big losers, but arguably even bigger winners.

AI gone wild 🤪

You, me, most people, we’re not stupid enough to believe everything we see or hear. I think taking a sceptical eye and mindset to things is healthy. But there are times when we do believe what we see, hear and read. Sometimes we do take things on face value.

After all, surely part of being human is to have some trust in some people or some things.

But what if we’re fast approaching a world where you simply cannot believe anything?

That’s not supposed to be a grandiose statement, but quite literally we can’t believe anything. What if the primary role of our AI companions is just to help us identify the truth in everything we see, read and hear?

Maybe that’s the real “killer app” for AI – just a thing to help us detect AI.

I say that after seeing this:

Source: Chris Welch / The Verge

This is (as indicated) an AI image. Looks real though. Very real. If it wasn’t AI labelled and not in the context of this essay, it’s hard to distinguish from reality.

It’s part of a release of “Reimagine” which is an AI photo app coming with the new Google Pixel phone.

It’s very good at image creation. The leaps in the last 12 months of AI-generated images has me excited (and a bit worried) for what’s coming over the next five years… I say five years because in one year, things will get a lot better again – but in five years, it’s fair to expect nothing will be like it is today and we will be lightyears ahead.

How far ahead? Well…

What about something like professional life-editors?

The idea of people who will use AI to go back through your entire catalogue of photos from your entire life, to edit and adjust with AI to give you the life that you always wanted.

Seems narcissistic, doesn’t it? Well, look at the explosion of Instagram and TikTok… maybe AI life editing isn’t so wild?

On that topic, how will courts prove criminals are (or aren’t) at certain places where certain alleged crimes occur?

Got a good alibi? Yes officer, I most certainly do (thanks to AI).

This also probably leads itself to the creation of new kinds of law enforcement, the AI police. Think Timecop but with things like photo editing, video editing, the ability to go back and dissect a suspect’s life and what is or isn’t AI adjusted and enhanced.

OK, these are kind of wild scenarios – or are they?

Point is that as AI speeds up in its capabilities, we do have to start to wonder just what is possible and how humans will use it to enhance, or fudge, their entire existence.

What is real is not real, what is not real… is real? It starts to make you philosophically think, what is reality? I guess to some it’s one thing, to others it will be something else completely different and completely WILD!

Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week). [Figures correct at time of writing.]

Boom 📈

  • ai (NYSE:BBAI) up 36%
  • Vicarious Surgical (NYSE:RBOT) up 17%
  • Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) up 32%

Bust 📉

  • Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) down 14%
  • ai (NYSE:AI) down 4%
  • Wearable Devices (NASDAQ:WLDS) down 10%

From the hive mind 🧠

  • This will come to no surprise for you, but it’s nice to see mainstream media finally beginning to catch up on the nuclear theme for AI’s future.
  • AI will take jobs. It will also create jobs. But then when used in harmony alongside humans, it might just unlock some of the mysteries and secrets that continue to evade and befuddle science… like helping cure disease and help us to live longer, healthier and happier.
  • It won’t be long before AI is such a part of our lives that we struggle to remember a time when we weren’t using AI in our day-to-day lives and our day-to-day work lives too. In fact for some, it’s already happening…

Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️

Last week’s poll was based off the video Nick Hubble and I livestreamed to YouTube, talking about nuclear and as Nick puts it…

Even nuclear can’t save us now…

The question of our poll however was, who was closer to the mark? Nick or me? Thankfully (for my sake) I just got the nod.

But only just. And honestly not too many people responded to that poll as normally do, so I’m going to blame the low response number down to a crappy choice of poll.

Weirdest AI image of the day

Vote Lemonparty – r/weirddallee

ChatGPT’s random quote of the day

“The greatest danger we face is not any particular kind of thought. The greatest danger we face is absence of thought.” – Michael Crichton, 2002

Thanks for reading, see you next time!

Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief, AI Collision

PS If you enjoyed this article, remember that you can sign up for free to AI Collision and you’ll receive a double dose each week on Tuesdays and Fridays straight to your inbox. Just click here to sign up for free.

And don’t forget to keep an eye out for Sam’s presentation later today to see how you could potentially make massive returns from the AI mega trend and what could well be the biggest investment opportunity of your lifetime.

[AI Collision is a free email. You can unsubscribe at any time simply by using the link at the foot of each email.]