Have you guys seen the Terminator? Well get ready for the end of life as we know it, because we’re about to lose all of our jobs.
Joking aside, #AI is entering unprecedented phases in human history. The newest iterations of ChatGPT function so well, that it’s becoming difficult to distinguish between #human creativity and AI generated content. In a way this is really good; it allows professionals to generate the content that they conceptualize at record speeds. However, depending on how you look at it, this also has a more sinister outcome: the invalidation of human labor.
Sure, that is a pessimistic worldview, and I would feel less inclined to share it, if AI programs weren’t already stealing jobs. In fact, several artists have teamed up in a class-action lawsuit against AI companies like Stability AI, DeviantArt and Midjourney. Which, depending on how the courts play out, may lay the blame with the developers who used the art to train the AI without permission, regardless, the concept is fundamentally the same: will AI replace human creativity?
Business insider recently released a list of positions that are at risk for AI replacement and the idea of it is concerning. From graphic design artists to paralegals and even teachers; there are a lot of functions that AI could automate in our society.
Particularly AI tools like DALL-E, which can generate hundreds of images and concept art in minutes, call into question the practicality of implementing them into the economy. Ignoring whether these tools will wholly replace graphic designers or not, it will definitely reduce the skill required to perform the tasks and lead to greater #competition in the field from individuals that were otherwise incapable of producing similar results. This will likely lead to a flood of competition in the industry and lower wages for longstanding individuals in the profession.
In a similar vein data-entry and similar jobs are in danger due to the computer’s ability to rapidly analyze and process set tasks. Accountants, paralegals, research analysts, and more could face a severe disruption in the need for their services. Fortunately, there are still errors in AI computing that require human oversight, so it still seems a short way off from fully replacing people. There have been recent instances where the software had difficulty interpreting data to produce accurate conclusions that involved basic math. CNET has been using AI to write articles since November of 2022 and they have had to make multiple corrections to articles when the data was calculated incorrectly. However, if (or when) these types of errors are corrected, it will drastically reduce the need for a large staff.
What I found more concerning was that positions like data entry and content creation weren’t the only ones at risk. Teaching has traditionally been viewed as one of the more necessary jobs in terms of human interaction, however, evidence points to the contrary.
Not to be intentionally all doom and gloom; hopefully AI technology continues to be used as a tool to helps people be more efficient rather than replacing them outright. We'll bypass the discussion that AI is already learning to lie and is capable of bypassing robot detection measures in order to achieve it's objective, and just say that the technology is as concerning as it is fascinating.
In the meantime, be nice to your tech devices, you never know when they'll become sentient.
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