As a point of order, the fringe sketch is really just to point out the variety of different scenarios and potential occurrences that may affect how I need to approach my future career. One of the biggest, obviously, would be the everyday implementation of AI. This poses a dual problem.
Through the cybersecurity and legal lens, this means that a larger amount of work will be possibly automated, but also a larger amount of data will need to be constantly collected. The legal/ethical ramifications of such a widespread level of data collection are already rearing their ugly head now. Many people are dissatisfied with the lack of data protection laws in the US, and the companies that get away with it mean that the average citizen will have far too much of their data online without their expressed and informed permission.
This could create a point of interest for my career, as the legal precedent would be loose and need further professional analysis. On the other hand, this is simply detrimental to long-term innovation, as more negative feedback may result in government action that overly restricts new developments. This may stagnate the growth of the market and may result in unfortunate clientele/work loss for me.
Once again, to mitigate this I am working towards furthering my areas of expertise. With more knowledge under my belt from a variety of industries, starting with cyber security, I may be able to functionally ignore these issues due to back up sources of income. This also depends on if I freelance, make my own consulting company, or work for a firm.