Professions-Business Assets Gone with the Winds

In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, a Pandora’s Box opened. Surprises. The conspiracy theory is repeated endlessly. Internationally renowned billionaires are being put on the index. They are suspected of having orchestrated everything. They are also fingerprinted for being in cahoots with global masonry, if not being influential members themselves.

Then, by the wave of a magic wand, some of them show an attraction to artificial intelligence (AI). Likewise, true to their reputation as messianic speakers, they lament the fate of humanity. They paint a dark picture of what will soon happen to a world that mixes climate change, hotheads, and dark-scheme designers.

In their narrative, the latter stressed the humanitarian dimension and ruled out any malicious consideration. Some biased opinions would speak of the recurrence of a feeling of repentance that would have arisen after the damage they are suspected of, which was already done. Why does this matter? 

No one has a monopoly on knowledge and interpretation. And for good reason, these personalities, eager for innovation, are cracking under the triumphant advance of artificial intelligence (AI). The progress of AI will unavoidably bring about collateral damage.

It goes without saying that they take the floor to warn against the erosion, or even the disappearance, of most jobs and professions that have so far been considered lucrative for many people around the world. AI will replace humans in many fields. Worse than technical unemployment, this transformation will resemble a programmed suicide.

According to Bill Gates, only carpenters, cabinetmakers, plumbers, and food service workers would survive the carnage AI would cause. On the other hand, office workers, administrative staff, and skilled workers in certain areas of mechanics and electricity will see their share of the job market disappear. This is discriminatory and unfair targeting. But does it matter to those who embark on AI trucks? 

However, this premonition deserves serious debate. For my part, I share the view that professions that make the headlines in the media and intellectual circles will soon be history. Rhetoric is the common denominator that places these professions on the pedestal of controversy—and soon on the path to decline.

Professions on a Spur Truck

We can classify these professions randomly as follows. First, the profession that combines the useful with the pleasant while maintaining a clear conscience: à la carte activism. Here is a profession that allows each person to transform individual — and therefore subjective — demands into supposedly collective demands.

This is a profession that requires perseverance, strong communication skills, and a good dose of conviction-manipulation. It allows individuals, certainly convinced, to stand out within the cultural, political, and ideological community. In most cases, it helps to achieve a meteoric social rise or an equally meteoric descent into hell.

Political and trade union activists are thrust into the spotlight in exchange for arrangements with those in power. They have an agenda whose implementation depends on their ability to navigate the politico-ideological labyrinths with the hope of not getting burned.

That profession is on its way to the history museum. The speed with which information technology is advancing will undoubtedly nail activists to the floor. Their speeches will sound like funeral orations. From compromise to complicity, the link is shorter than the most objective explanations would suggest. The tragedy comes from the denial that activists make their ultimate defense weapon.

Secondly, alter-globalization. Here is a profession that eloquently translates the à la carte activism in its version of excellence idleness. If the initial motivation of the alter-globalists is justified in relation to their fight against wild capitalism and the multinationals that are taking over multilateralism, they become, as their ranks swell, the tenants of a space in which the demands telescope and deviate from the initial objective.

The alter-globalization activists adopt two behaviors that challenge their agenda. On the one hand, they attend major conferences organized by the United Nations, on global issues related to climate, gender, habitat, migration, etc.

On the other hand, they succumb to the temptation to meddle in political issues that pit certain countries against each other and have nothing to do with the status that alter-globalists claim. And that is where idleness, like arrogance, goes from a minor sin to the original sin.

Thirdly, corporate unionism. The unionists belonging to this category do everything but defend the rights of workers. They are seen as service interlocutors for employers and public authorities. Some unionists are elected to various institutional structures. They take advantage of this status to, sometimes, eat at every table.

Like the alter-globalization activists, union activists will see their room for maneuver shrink and soon be worth nothing. Soon, they will appreciate Bob Dylan’s mythical song “The Times They Are Changin’,“ and in our country, they will meditate on Nass El Ghiwane’s Mahmouma song (Lonely and sad).

Fourthly, indexed research. This term refers to academics, investigative journalists, and luxury reporters who operate on unfamiliar ground. These are people who make a living by producing materials that captivate an audience drawn to sensation.

For more than four decades, Western researchers have built the bulk of their careers by poking into the affairs of so-called developing countries. The same supposed civilizing mission drives their efforts. If some have been more flexible and moderate in their conclusions, most have combined stubbornness with arrogance.

The failure of the nationalist left and the Islamists in power in some countries on the Arab periphery has been such that the Arab Spring, although predictable, surprised them and minimized their prospective studies, which were praised in the past.

Like the alter-globalization activists, the initial agenda is part of an honest approach aimed at denouncing the shortcomings, injustices, and indifference that plague the societies in which they live. They are quickly caught up by the desire to punish even if improvements are observed in the countries they deal with. Sometimes, they join their efforts with those of local researchers and journalists to become gravediggers on duty.

One may witness a kind of indirect complicity that transforms the willingness to do well into clashes brought about by shallow conclusions. On the one hand, we have researchers who build their reputation by painting dark pictures in so-called developing countries (or underdeveloped countries).

 Common sense dictates that they should not be blamed for having found a niche that allows them to make a good living. Research centers and think tanks (or intelligence organizations) hire them to offer their services.

They are some sort of explorers who have nothing to envy from the military ethnologists of the colonial era. Even when their findings or paradigms fail to get the appropriate support, they persist and sign to the point of making dogmatism their quintessential analytical compass.

A hand, half a brain

On the other hand, we have indigenous researchers who feed off the same recipe. They are convinced they are doing the right thing. They take up, improving them a little, the analysis and findings of their foreign colleagues. Even those among them who claim proven intellectual independence are reluctant to tackle the ills suffered by the populations of so-called advanced countries. They follow in the footsteps of their Western colleagues who feel outraged that some so-called “Southern” researchers dare to examine the status of Western societies in fields pertaining to genuine equality and shared prosperity.

Working alongside each other in the same university settings, research centers, or think tanks, these researchers compete in promoting paradigms that border on universalism without ironically being certain of achieving it.

Fifthly, the dignitaries or former retired decision-makers. Here is a rather special category of people. Like the researchers and academics in the limelight, retired dignitaries will see their popularity ratings fall. They become tarnished mirrors that shine in fits and starts – and end up grating.

There is, indeed, a tradition in some advanced countries of former heads of state, foreign ministers, and parliamentarians delivering speeches or sharing their expertise in exchange for substantial fees. They will soon be out of the limelight. Not that these personalities no longer have anything to communicate, but they will be competing with AI. Because they are aging, AI will eventually defeat them. 

Certainly, AI cannot defeat human intelligence, but the enthusiasm of young people and a large part of the world’s population needs fast-food information which will deal a severe blow to retired dignitaries.

Similarly, AI will soon impact the political future of candidates, manipulate voters, and impose policies conceived and implemented by international decision-making centers. We all remember the suspicion that marred the presidential and legislative elections in some Western countries between 2014 and 2024.

The young people are quick to pull the trigger. They are carried away by a wild modernity, in a way that they lose their sense of restraint in the face of their elders. Therefore, they don’t pay attention to dignitaries who may lecture them about times when they used to be enlightened decision-makers, and impact the domestic and foreign policy chessboards. 

I met dignitaries of this trumpet at conferences where already, they no longer attracted the big crowds. Only the sponsors of the event, who had a different agenda from the one prized at the time these dignitaries made the decision, showed some care about them.

Sixthly, the VIP foreign advisors. Being in the position  of luxury retirees, they offer their services outside their countries. There are those who join international financial institutions or renowned consulting firms. There are others who come to the aid of certain developing countries to advise them on various important issues.

Both categories of VIP advisors are going to have a hard time staying afloat. Not only are the agendas they advocate no longer relevant, but also the quality of the advice they are supposed to provide will be downsized. 

Similarly, the speed at which the world is accelerating eventually causes them to come out of their reserve and make misjudgments. This could be fatal for them if the work they have done in the past was inspired by their government and not by the decision-makers of the country.

Seventhly, the exhibitionist worshipers of business cards. These are people who make bluffing their reason for being. They collect business cards and place them on the same level as their photoposters. Sometimes, they switch roles and become business cards and forget that illusion has limits.

Business cards are seen as proof of social advancement, of acquiring a higher rank in the commonly accepted scale of merit. They are no longer seen as a contact link to strike deals or offer a service. Soon, AI will take care of annihilating them and revealing whether they really have something to offer or not at all.  

The cacophonous sound of incoherence

Eighthly, one-man-show think tanks. For two decades, a phenomenon has been observed in some developed and developing countries. We are amazed by the number of think tanks run by a single person. A presentation that looks more like a blog than a research center or a think tank worthy of the name.

Sometimes, it seems like these bloggers who recently joined the game have a bone to pick with everyone. They are megalomaniacs who think they have perfect knowledge and the most relevant analysis.

The promoters of this type of freedom of expression complain about the lack of financial support, the suspicion of public authorities, and the quality of collaborators accused of having an average knowledge about matters they deal with.

Be that as it may, one-man-show think tanks are set to disappear in the wake of the disappearance of many research centers. A disappearance that is dictated by the transformation of modes of thinking and the challenges to be met. 

Ninthly, those who live off a single achievement. This is the category of individuals, artists, writers, inventors, and politicians who rest on their laurels after achieving one and only one feat. They never tire of repeating it, whether it’s relevant or not. They reduce space, the universe, and knowledge to their sole production. They are outraged that what they deem as a great achievement is outdated.

With AI, some jobs and professions will disappear. Meanwhile, already, a generation of knowledge consumers is set to no longer use their brains. The end of an era, one may be tempted to point out? In the order of things, the answer might be.

If no one has a monopoly on knowledge, then why complain? The contradiction is that in the rush to break records, much energy is expended without any guarantee of a medal.

And what about the saying “He who dares wins!”? The answer depends on the situation and the role that each person plays willingly or unwillingly within society and the circle where they feel comfortable. The list of professions that will soon disappear will continue to grow.

However, of all the professions that will graze, there would be that of bluffers, all categories included. Yes, the bluff of these people who make up imaginary address books. These scholars boast of shooting at anything that moves and arrogate to themselves the right to make good or bad weather according to their intellectual mood and that of their sponsors.

But also some mischievous minds when it comes to imaginary curriculum vitae. Soon, AI will be able to fingerprint them and challenge them to justify the information written in golden letters on their resume. There are, indeed, people who inflate their CVs and put themselves in a false position with respect to the values of honesty that they claim to defend loudly and clearly.

All the professionals of the world who make fun of action. They will all soon find themselves twiddling their thumbs in front of machines that will remind them that the saying “A hand, half a brain” is more real than the bluff they exhibit all day long.

And perhaps, an even more deadly drama: journalists who would no longer have anything to produce by losing the exclusivity of scoops. Soon, the most lucrative scoop would be to see professionals of the word no longer able to recognize the texts they would have written with so much passion and self-denial. The Word that would no longer be conjugated in the time of intellectual honesty and renewed love for Fine Art.