Robots, computer automation threaten stability of high-paying jobs

The job title “Wall Street trader” once evoked sleek suits, martini-soaked lunches and chaotic offices — a gateway to prosperity at a relatively young age. But earlier this year, Marty Chavez, the chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, revealed that some of the investment bank’s well-paid humans were being replaced by unpaid robots.

Over the last 17 years, the number of stock traders at the firm has plummeted from 600 to two, he told a Harvard computer science symposium in January.

“We are rapidly transforming the business model,” he told the crowd, according to an event video.

Chavez’s talk offers a cautionary tale to the next generation of job seekers: As technology advances, a fat paycheck doesn’t necessarily guarantee job security. In fact, a report on lifetime earnings across college majors suggests the lowest-wage jobs are actually more likely to withstand the digital revolution.

Researchers at the Hamilton Project found that students who studied finance, engineering and computer science tend to make the most money after graduation, while those who majored in counseling, social work and early childhood education saw the lowest wages — but in fields computers aren’t likely to dominate.

“The hardest activities to automate with the technologies available today are those that involve managing and developing people,” noted the authors of a recent McKinsey study.

Robots can’t feed toddlers or break up disputes among cranky 4-year-olds. Their grip isn’t gentle enough to lift a crying child. Preschool teachers, who earn an average of $35,000 annually, can’t be replaced by the machines of today or the near future.

“A lot of child care has to do with taking care of physical and emotional needs, like changing diapers or providing food,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

Caring for children demands nurturing instincts, such as knowing when to wipe away a tear or spotting a child who isn’t interacting with others. Artificial intelligence isn’t great at reading emotions or helping to regulate them.

The top-paying work in the Hamilton Project’s report, on the other hand, demands less of a human touch, said Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, a technology consulting firm.

“Investment banking is next on the chopping block,” Webb said. And engineering isn’t off the hook, either. “The next iteration of artificial intelligence,” she said, “is artificial intelligence creating software for itself.”

In one Google Brain experiment, software became better at teaching itself tasks than the engineers who were charged with making it smarter.