hmmm...

-

 Scene 11


November 9, 2025


Outside it’s 36° F.

In the news: It is day 39 of the United States Government shutdown — the longest in history. The unemployment rate is at a 3-year high. In Troy, police search for a suspect in a Shell gas station armed robbery.


Every human is fearful of two things: death and the unknown. For me, that “unknown” has a name: AI. It’s strange and intriguing to think that something created by the US could outgrow the US. There is a constant talk about education and how essential it is to our lives. However, isn’t the intended purpose of education is to get a good job in the future? What happens when AI will take jobs?


AI, as it turns out, is a very very very broad term. AI, which stands for artificial intelligence if you didn’t know already, is just a process in which a computer solves a problem by mimicking human behavior. These have been out for a long time (to be specific 1955.) For years there was not that much of a significant impact. However, once OpenAI started training their advanced LLM (large language models), things sped up — fast.

Above is a graph that is a prediction of the predicted IQ of AI in the coming years. One thing though… this graph is quite old. By 2045, AI is expected to have an IQ of around 140. However, it is quite unsettling to see that some of the more advanced models have already gotten there.

Is it likely that AI will replace all our jobs? Not even close. Is it possible that it will replace a lot of our jobs? Not likely. As a society, we are probably too cautious about the development of AI. In many jobs, AI only increases efficiency, meaning that companies will hire less and less new people, which I guess kind of means we are screwed(lol!).


All that talk about losing our jobs to some other people (or in this case: a thing) reminds me of the characters in Sweat. All of them worked in a factory their whole lives, even for generations, confident that their jobs were safe. That all changed when machines came in. The company started replacing people with new tech. Suddenly, their years of experience didn’t matter anymore. They were pushed out. It wasn’t because they did anything wrong, but because they couldn’t compete with a machine. It’s tru that in the long run new technology usually creates more jobs, but what about the short run? That’s exactly what I’m scared of — my unknown.

Comments

  1. Ocean Breeze | Mind at EaseNovember 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM

    I like that you wrote your Introduction this in the same format as the play Sweat. I think it really nice how then you went on talking about the fear of AI. The unknown that is a impact on every human life not just the economic system. The photons really add an illustration, nice easy visuals.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jessica DengNovember 9, 2025 at 3:59 PM

    this is why you gotta find your passion in AI-less things 💀 like be a babysitter trust

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul LeiNovember 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM

      maybe i should walk dogs atp

      Delete
    2. Vighnesh ChandaNovember 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM

      Why do I get this feeling that this blog was aimed towards me Paul; Believe me I will be a great Prompt Engineer ;)

      Delete
  3. Sophia DengNovember 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM

    I think it's interesting to find the IQ of an "AI"? Most LLMs are just just pattern recognition machines and I don't know if that truly classifies as intelligence... I think the picture also shows that an IQ test is really not accurate and should not really mean much. The fear of the rise of AI draws many parallels to the situation of the characters in Sweat. People always fear the unknown, and it's fair to feel that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LANGonardo Da VinciNovember 9, 2025 at 10:30 PM

    I really like how you included the graphs to help show us visually the speed that AI is advancing at. I also would like to agree with you that AI is high key scary. It's developing so quick and with things like sora, im 100% being scammed in the future. Overall, I think your blog was great - it talked about a recent topic that relates to everyone and connected it to Sweat. Good job!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ok rebel

-
Image
I t’s been a rough week. I’ve been stressed, geeked, and tweaked. I also realised that I possess zero self control, Yikes. Part of it is because I realized I am incapable of looking straight at people and holding a conversation, another part of it is watching Lalaland and wishing for a different ending until an ungodly time (6:13am). But most importantly, this week has been a rollercoaster for the seniors.  My tennis coach, who is usually quite apathetic, even said that he felt nervous for the kids because a significant amount of their future will be set. College seems so close but far. In one year, we’ll be opening our decision letters and most likely get disappointing answers. All I want to be next year is normal, to have a quiet year. Yet, I don’t feel like normal, because being normal means you’re also perfect. I mean for normal distributions, it has requirements: it has to be a symmetric, bell shaped curve following the empirical rule. Maybe it’s not even the desire to be norm...
Read more

goldfish go blub blub blub

-
Image
When I think about my childhood (or even what happened last year), I tend to only remember the bad parts. In fact, the only memory I have of the 5-year old me was when I locked my family out of our hotel room… it was embarrassing to say the least. Many of these embarrassing moments still come to haunt me, and I’ve never known why.  Thi’s memoir reflects this almost too well. When she writes about her childhood, she doesn’t begin with the bright parts, or even talk about them much. Instead, she begins with the fear she felt from her father and the distance inside her own home. The bad memories become the base of which the rest of her childhood and novel grow upon.  The Best We Could Do is an interesting book to say the very least. So far, I haven’t been “wowed” by the book, and I also haven’t been able to care so much for the book. Maybe it's the writing, maybe it's my lack of empathy, or maybe it's my lack of understanding. However, I still feel intrigued by this book, beca...
Read more

The Orange Man

-
Image
This guy, Brian Miska, is my version of  Sedaris’s French Teacher.  When being observed by him, the insults and jokes are endless. There is never a day where he will be satisfied. It is not uncommon to hear things like, “What the hell were you thinking?” and “That’s the worst thing I’ve seen all day”. Most memorably, he calls 2nd place (a very respectable ranking) “first place losers” But he’s not the only one like this. My first coach slammed his racket against the cart so many times I dreaded going to lessons. This other tall Serbian coach would mock our form and call us things like “chickens” and “little cat” (i can’t say the actual thing he said). There was always disappointment. Even after doing well, all it took was one tiny mistake to make the day a terrible one. One other coach made us run laps as punishment so much that almost ten percent of our lesson time was running. And worst of all, there were always punishments for losing. If you were lucky, it would be laps or ...
Read more