Robot-Proof: How we need to prepare ourselves and our children for AI disruption

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Stephen Grootes talked to regular book reviewer Bronwyn Williams, trend translator and future finance specialist at Flux Trends.

She reviewed Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People.

It's written by American theoretical neuroscientist and artificial intelligence (AI) expert Vivienne Ming, adviser to some of the world's top companies. She's also a mom, concerned about how to robot-proof the kids of the next generation.

Williams herself has co-authored a book on business transformation titled Survive the AI Apocalypse: A Guide for Solutionists.

RELATED: The AI revolution and jobs: We ALL have to become 'solutionists', says author

Robot-proof is described as a book that helps readers grasp the ugly and the amazing of how individuals, companies, and societies will respond to the changes that are already taking hold due to the advent of AI.

The central question is: What human qualities go up in value as machines become more smarter?”

"This book is as much about how to robot-proof yourself for this coming wave of technological disruption, as about robot-proofing your kids. At this point there IS going to be disruption of our job market, particularly of the knowledge working classes. I term it the 'privilege apocalypse'; she speaks of very similar things."

"it's the idea that technology and AI in particular, is having this separating effect on our workforce: It's separating people in replicable, legible jobs from those who are in irreplicable or undefinable roles."

"Legible is a task that is repeatable. If it's repeatable it is programmable, and if it is programmable it is digitisable. Illegible or unreplacable careers add value in such a way that they cannot be replaced by something else."

"Think of a caregiver for the elderly in the service economy - there is a demand for that, but it is is not well paid and not the answer to replacing your law career I'm sorry to say; nor is it an aspiration."

"Those of us who've paid for lots for expensive educatio for ourselves or for our children, will be most scared to realise the truth is, much of that education is preparing us to become legible - legible to competition, legible to machines and therefore at risk of technological displacement."

"Or if not at risk of outright unemployment, at least certainly the deprofessionalisation of our careers - this is where you spent decades becoming an expert in a particular niche topic which now basically anybody in the world, including your teenage child, can access with the touch of a button."

"This, of course, is demotivating if youre trying to encourage someone to study something, and is very confusing if you're trying to tell them what to study."

Bronwyn Williams, Future Finance Specialist - Flux Trends

Description on Amazon:

In Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People, Dr Vivienne Ming, “a force in AI unlike any we have seen before” (Mark Minevich, Forbes), helps readers grasp the ugly and the amazing of how individuals, companies, and societies will respond to the changes that are already taking hold due to the advent of AI. Rather than a wonky textbook on machine learning or a utopian/dystopian (take your pick) screed, Robot-Proof is a book about people, exploring what it means to be human in an increasingly automated world.

This book presents, then answers, pressing questions that readers may or may not have thought to themselves, such as:

• What predicts long-term life outcomes across millions of little kids?
• What drives career success in both hyper-networked salespeople and hyper-nerdy programmers?
• Why is the Informational-Exploration Paradox the most terrifying phenomenon you’ve never heard of?
• What predicts the smartest team and how will AI change it?
• Why are ill-posed problems the future work, education, and a robot-proof humanity?

With poignant insight and delicate care to keep us grounded in the human perspective, Robot-Proof is an entertaining and thought-provoking read for all individuals seeking to understand the next steps in a new and completely unprecedented world.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Williams' review