Future AI Shepherds

I shared some graphics that I had AI spin up for me, and it caused quite a stir.

Some thought the accelerating capability of AI was frightening.

Others tried to police me, saying that using it to generate graphics was against my stated values — I’m still waiting for clarification on which values AI use supposedly violates.

I faced the same criticism when I developed our 24/7 staff-less butchery back in 2020.

AI is here, regardless of whether we like it or not. I’ve been using different versions of it, mostly at a surface level, almost daily for a couple of years now.

I use it much like I used to use Google — but instead of searching a phrase, I talk to it, and keep probing deeper as the information I receive prompts new questions.

I’ve used it to create very accurate cash flows for enterprises, saving me many hours. I use it to generate funny photos, AI art, logos — all sorts.

I also have friends using it at a much deeper level to create technologies that are going to be genuinely useful.

People seem less worried about doomsday scenarios and more concerned about job loss. New technologies displacing previously solid employment markets is a story as old as time.

Some transitions are slow; some are brutally fast. The dust eventually settles and the world rolls on. Fortunes lost, fortunes made.

Did you know that refrigeration displaced huge numbers of ice cutters, transporters, and storage workers?

Or that hundreds of thousands of workers — mainly women — lost their jobs as telephone switchboard operators with the introduction of automatic switchboards?

Automatic elevators displaced elevator operators.

These are examples of technologies that displaced jobs that were not really replaced by the new efficiencies and opportunities created in that same space. Those jobs were simply gone.

On the flip side, railroads were a concern as canal workers were displaced and horse-based transport shrank — yet railroads went on to create one of the biggest mass employment booms in history.

Horse breeders, carriage makers, blacksmiths, and stable workers were all displaced by the automobile.

Computers caused panic in the 1980s as typists, clerks, and office file managers saw the writing on the wall.

These technologies destroyed huge employment sectors, and created vastly bigger ones.

So now the question becomes:

Is AI a technology that is going to crush jobs and leave nothing in its wake?

Or is it going to displace work while rocketing productivity, reducing prices, expanding access to goods and services — and ultimately creating more jobs than it destroys?

I believe it really depends on the timeline you use to judge the outcome.

Based on the rate of improvement I’ve experienced in the last 6–12 months, it’s insane.

AI will do your tax for you in minutes. White-collar industries that operate under strict written codes are in for a shock: web design, content creation, data interpretation, problem solving.

When the fires were ramping up, I couldn’t start one of my generators. ChatGPT held my hand and helped me flush the carburettor, pull it apart, and clear it out.

I recorded a video of me trying to start it — it ran for a few seconds — and it identified the issue based on the sound of its splutter.

Based on the model it observed, it gave me a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to fix it. Incredible.

Is this unfair to the small engine repair shop that missed out on my repair?

Am I job-destroying and ruining the economy because I’m now confident enough to tackle small jobs myself?

If we leap forward in time — maybe not as far as we think — we meet the physical manifestation of AI: humanoid robots.

I, for one, cannot wait for them, and I’ll be the first farmer with one if I can afford it.

Think about a humanoid living with your animals and the possibilities.

This is the vision I see:

- Constant animal health monitoring: temperature, limping, body language, discharge

- Super-early diagnosis of emerging health issues

- Predator deterrence — in most cases, a human-shaped presence in the paddock removes predator pressure.

- Continuous monitoring and reporting of rumen fill, dung score, ground cover, feed budgeting, species surveys

- Water quality testing

- Identifying which calves are born to which cows, and when

- Old-school shepherding — think Gallagher e-collars with built-in decision-making and constant surveying skills.

It would be like having the best-educated grazier, vet, agronomist, and wildlife expert living with your animals 24/7, managing exactly to your stated goals, values, and context.

- Birdlife and wildlife surveys.

- Individual real time animal feed consumption, weight gain etc

It's honestly limitless, and is a probable reality in my lifetime. Definitely Otto's,

Not to mention all the footage and content. Incredible!

Wolki Farm, your futuristic family-owned regenerative humanoid robot farm.