There is a school of thought that we will ultimately need to become fully integrated with intelligent machines, or we are basically screwed.

The image that calls to mind for me is worrisome.

Today, I pay a telecom for the privilege of using this brain augmenting device I am holding in my hand. I use it to access all human knowledge, culture, and so forth, and it gives me an extra edge that I didn't have before. The moment I stop paying, it stops working. I can live without it, but it is something I have come to depend on. Not having a phone can be a real hassle.

So, what happens when nanobots in my brain are connecting me to my phone, essentially making me an internet node? Am still I paying T-Com for internet access, or is internet access a basic human right, at that point? If I suddenly find I cannot pay... it could be a serious life altering issue - debilitating, even, in a more technologically advanced culture.

... Or it means you can take on bigger jobs.

A more interesting phenomenon is how AI art users are already making "deepfakes" in established artists' style. Tech savvy concept artists like Greg Rutkowski, who was conscientious about tagging his online art with clear descriptions, became overnight reluctant AI art gods. It remains to be seen if the glut of online art with his name attached will help or hurt their sales.

It takes about a generation to go from technological breakthrough to large scale deployment of these types of innovation.

There are a lot of nuts-and-bolts R&D, medical safety testing, manufacturing, supply, and logistics issues to consider when looking at how new discoveries will broadly impact society.

So, from the initial Crispr breakthrough to actually seeing the effects of this revolutionary tech, you are looking at 15 - 25 years for some of the most important innovations to be noticeable for those of us outside the laboratory.

AI isn't there yet.

We can't just hand wave and say "AI" and suddenly another profession (that has not yet even been created) has been replaced.

In 2011, smart phones were just becoming powerful and ubiquitous enough to finally run some simple augmented reality programs. So a few friends and I organized the first AR art exhibition in the country where I was then living. We got some decent corporate sponsors, threw a great party, picked up a few bucks, and just generally had a good time of it. Got international press attention, and our art manifesto was published by one of my favorite science fiction writers on his blog on WIRED magazine. At the time, I remember thinking how as a teenager in the 1990s I could not have imagined having that gig "when I grew up", or that there would some day be jobs for artists designing goofy digital AR selfie apps.

The technology underpinning many jobs of the near future hasn't even been invented yet.