August 18, 2023
GEN ST 297 | Future-ish | Summer 2023
The Summer 2023 GEN ST 297 seminar students were once again super engaged and ready to bring creative ideas into discussions. Summer is often a challenging quarter to stay focused and motivated given all the distractions but the seminar students were all-in on seminar discussion sessions. Hot topics were once again Chat GPT, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) across many fields. Immigration and worker rights also came up several times during the quarter.
Seminar Scenarios
The Summer 2023 seminar students chose to look at the nexus of AI and worker rights/experiences. The four scenarios of future states for this synthesis are shared below.
Scenario 1. The Rise of AI in the Workplace (5-10 years from now). AI and robots are more prevalent in workplace. Concern rises about AI impacting human jobs so companies and governments endeavor to project human worker rights. This is accomplished by having campaigns on billboard, social media, etc. to make humans more comfortable with AI ad robots becoming more prevalent. Work weeks are still generally the same as today, but more flexibility in hybrid work and flexible work weeks has started, such as four 10-hour shifts.
Scenario 2. My Boss is a Robot? (25-50 years from now). Increased worker productivity due to increased AI. AI and robots now often supervise humans and other AI. HR chatbots and robots are common but humans still carry out employee relations activities. Work week reduced to 30 hours per week. More parental childcare rights and financial support from companies. With AI taking on more jobs, humans have more time for leisure and hobbies. More children are being born and parents can chose physical, behavioral, and auxiliary attributes (such as art or music skills).
Scenario 3. Talk to My Avatar (100 years from now). Increased AI productivity at workplaces, especially in common task jobs like grocery store checkouts. AI and human VR avatars now common in workplace interactions, a human employee may be working from home but their avatar is active in the workplace. Employees asked/voluntold to work at off-Earth locations (space ships or stations, the moon, Mars, etc.) with appropriate compensation. Worker orientations, professional development, and rights vary by off-Earth location.
Scenario 4. Robots Robots Everywhere (250+ years from now). With AI and robots so prevalent in the workplace now, humans are no longer ‘working’, able to do more things like art, hobbies. Robots are considered equal to humans in the workplace and have their own worker rights. More leisure activities for humans is impacting health and wellness in positive and negative ways. New job or hobby skill sets can be downloaded instantaneously with the new technologies available for the brain-computer interface. Companies offer trainings on what its like to work in space and on other off-Earth locations.