In A Decade, Artificial Intelligence Will Be Our New Doctors and Teachers

Teaching is an absolute joy to me, especially on a subject matter I enjoy. But it seems that teaching will be an obsolete profession in about a decade or so, according to Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates. In an interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Gates said that human beings won’t be needed to perform most duties because Artificial Intelligence will perform these tasks. He added that although expert skills in teaching and medicine remain rare, it will become more commonplace to receive tutoring and great medical advice for free through AI technology. In a decade, technology will be more elaborate and sophisticated. AI will serve humanity at little to no cost, so paying for expert advice in medicine and education would be unnecessary. 

It seems to me that there is no turning back. At this point, I don’t think that we could even turn back if we wanted to because everything in our society is so technologically driven. Before we know it, AI will serve as virtual tutors. Medical doctors will be replaced by robotic experts that will conduct complex surgeries that humans normally do. And surprisingly, because companies won’t have to pay human teachers and physicians, most of these advances will be free of charge to students and patients. 

Knowing this, those of us who want to continue working in these fields must prepare ourselves for the future. To continue doing what we are doing and how we are doing it is career suicide. As the technological landscape changes around us, we must be able to adapt to survive and even thrive among these technological advances. 

My best advice to my colleagues in these fields is to learn every facet of AI from managing virtual learning to creative adaptation. Although teachers may not teach or doctors even practice medicine the same way, they will still be able to contribute to the fields they so dearly love. It is all about adapting to change and adopting the skills necessary to serve humanity. As we move closer and closer to an AI based society, we must set aside the time necessary to self-reflect on our place in the work world and develop a plan that distinguishes us from what AI can do. Whether we like it or not, AI will permeate itself throughout most of society before we know it. And when it takes over the fields we once occupied, we will be prepared for its arrival. 

Ethically speaking,

Obiora N. Anekwe