Jobs that won't be replaced by automation easily

Allow me to be self-absorbed for a moment, since I'm a comedy writer. For now, AI is not good enough to write great jokes, although there seems to be decent progress on that front. Check out Witscript, it's an AI joke generator created by award-winning comedy writer Joe Toplyn.

Maybe AI will soon get to the point where it will be as competent as humans at joke writing, but we will still want to read and hear jokes from actual humans, because of a natural desire for human connection.

And that's just joke writing. Writing humor pieces, sketches, and narrative stuff like novels and screenplays might be more of a challenge (I assume).

A stronger example of the reason I mentioned above: we want to connect with humans expressing who they are. I would probably pay to see a robot perform stand up comedy, but once the novelty factor wears out, I'll choose the humans over the robots.

Same. Apparently there are already some very impressive AI softwares. I'm sure these are already replacing jobs; I could see myself using this instead of hiring a musician for some types of projects. But I don't see it replacing the main ways in which we enjoy music: listening to it when you're sad because of a breakup or because a loved one died, going to concerts with friends, etc. Even movie soundtracks; I like knowing that the music was made by a human. Are you familiar with Max Richter? His music is BEAUTIFUL, and it just wouldn't feel the same if it was written by a robot (except if you didn't know).

It's not just about comedy. A depressing novel wouldn't feel the same if you know it wasn't written written by a bearded, alcoholic womanizer with three ex-wives.

I want the human interaction!! Surely I'm not the only one. People are happier when they're interacting with strangers (this seems to have been proven by positive psychology). Even if robots start replacing waiters, there will still be human waiters left because a significant proportion of the population will prefer them.

Same with bartenders. I've had so many fun interactions with them.

I hesitated to say cashiers... While I usually prefer to go to the human cashier rather than use the machines (partly because I value human interaction and partly because I often get confused by the machines and I find them annoying), I could see myself living without human cashiers. But the supermarket experience will still be better with at least some human workers there to help you out or at least welcome you.

This is all assuming people still go grocery shopping and it hasn't all been replaced by drone deliveries (which I think won't be the case, because people still want to go out and do something, talk with people, etc.).

Yes, most of them might get replaced by AI; there are already chatbots to answer people's questions and things such as Jasper and Chat-GPT to write content. But again, I'd rather interact with a human.

I don't want to listen to a robot having a conversation with a human, much less two robots having a conversation. Well, I would, but I can't see it replacing my favorite podcasts. I want the elk and sauna-obsessed Joe Rogan and the friendly and curious Tim Ferriss. I know there are now great AI-generated conversations (like between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs; still needs work but it was pretty impressive), but it's not the same.

Plus, we already have Lex Fridman.