Biologically yes…I would imagine a machine could do much of the parenting role more consistently and effectively than many humans though. Just like really wealthy people pay professionals to help raise their kids, I can imagine a robo nanny doing some of the heavy lifting teaching and raising kids some day.

You describe exactly the jobs an AI would be superior at. Logic and analysis are things humans are not the best at, we have flawed memories, incomplete info, and emotions cause us to behave irrationally. I would much rather go to an AI doctor that has the entire world’s knowledge at its disposal, it would be the most knowledgeable and rational doctor one could imagine.

As far as fiction, the rudimentary ChatGPT is already capable of creating fiction on demand today and that level is going to look like tinker toys compared to what will be available in a few years.

I think therapists will quickly disappear because it will be easy to create a human facsimile that can talk to you as if you were video chatting a real person. And, the facsimile can respond to you with empathetic expressions and tone that will make the experience feel warmer and more comfortable than a real person. Not to mention cheaper and always available.

I don't think so. What we are doing is creating incrementally more sophisticated algorithms that can operate faster than before on larger data sets than before. It is what we have had for quite some time just now on a bigger scale. The self-improvement is interesting but it's still just a dumb machine doing exactly what it is programmed to do with no capability to expand to something greater.

We currently do not understand how the incredibly complex human consciousness works so we cannot begin to imagine what it will take to someday replicate it. It's a hard problem that is stalled in many ways as evidenced by many competing theories that lack evidence to know which one is correct.

Can a chatbot feel like a human to the average person? Sometimes. Is it the next step to creating a real intelligence that can exceed its programming? Maybe in the way that transistors led to personal computers -- a small step on a very very long journey.

Well...consider some thought everyone would be out of work during the Industrial Revolution. People were actively rebelling and destroying machines.

Expect if 50% of jobs disappear, the same thing will happen now as then -- new jobs will appear that we cannot conceive of today. We will never be satisfied with the level of output machines can provide. The demand for human capital will certainly not disappear in our lifetimes.