Many of the industry leaders
behind the rapid AI advancements are concerned that AI poses an existential
threat to humanity. AI tech has grown at such a rate that there has been no
time for the law to catch up; there is no oversight over AI development,
meaning it’s difficult to ensure it is being used ethically. Experts have
expressed their perception of AI as a future extinction risk for the human
race, and the jury is out on exactly why. Reasons cited by AI developers
include making human careers and even the human mind obsolete, and the destabilization of society due to the
rapid, malicious spread of misinformation. This aspect can now been seen on the
social media where all types of nonsense is spread as gospel truth. Ultimately
Social media had brought things to a stage where the dissemination between
reality and fiction becomes blurred.
A significant number of companies
and stakeholders, especially those in the Information and Technology sectors,
have been eager to adopt AI into their companies with a hope to reduce overheads
and get more work done faster and therefore make more profits. Though the
majority of businesses don’t use AI at the current moment, the AI trend seems
to have begun.
A 2023 study by McKinsey estimated that
half of today’s work activities could become automated by 2060, signalling the
potential for drastic changes to the workforce in the coming decades. The
adoption of AI has already been associated with job
cuts. AI advancements have left professionals across a wide range of
industries concerned about the future of their roles, but some sectors are more
vulnerable than others.
In March 2023, Elon Musk, along
with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter by the non-profit
organization the Future of Life Institute urging
AI developers to stop training AI models more powerful than GPT-4 for at least
6 months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity”. Such risks included
flooding our information channels “with
propaganda and untruth”, and the automation of fulfilling jobs that give
humans purpose. Their argument is that the uncontrolled race to develop increasingly
powerful AI systems is dangerous due to the lack of safety protocols and AI
governance systems. With no collective oversight, the power to decide the
future of AI is in the hands of independent companies.
A survey
of 2700 AI researchers predicted
a 50% chance of AI surpassing humans at every task by 2047. And more
immediate worries cited by the majority of surveyed researchers include using AI to manipulate public
opinion and control populations through large-scale disinformation perpetuated
by advanced deep fake technology.
In May 2023, more than 350
executives, researchers, and engineers working in AI - including the CEOs of
Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic - signed
another open letter stating that AI poses an extinction risk for
humans, and mitigating the risks posed by AI should be a “global priority
alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war”.
As per a 2023 report by the Pew
research centre analysis, many of the jobs with the highest exposure to AI tend
to involve getting and analysing data or information. The industry with the
most jobs exposed to AI is professional, scientific, and technical
services, with 52% of workers facing high exposure. So the STEM group(Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) would be hit the
most by AI. Customer-facing roles that involve repetitive tasks like cashiers,
service agents, and salespeople are exposed as well.
According to Business Insider, ChatGPT specifically is likely to
lead to significant disruptions in the job market due to its ability to
generate and analyse content at a rapid pace. Jobs that require content
creation, coding, or data analysis are vulnerable to AI.
Based on the above insights,
roles that are most exposed to AI include:
- Tech jobs, including data analysts and software
engineers
- Sales and customer service representatives
- Media jobs like advertising, content creation, and
journalism
- Finance jobs like advisors and analysts
- Lawyers
- Office support staff such as receptionists and
office clerks
- Accountants
- Budget analysts
- Technical writers
- Web developers
A November 2023 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau found
that only 3.8% of businesses surveyed reported using AI in the production of
goods and services, but some industries were outliers. 13.8% of businesses in
the IT sector reported that they were currently using AI, and businesses in the
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector weren’t far behind,
with 9.1% of businesses in that category reporting AI usage.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg in an interview about
his Company in 2023: "I could easily see 30 per cent of jobs getting
replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period." It may pickup new
recruits, say only about 10% for AI, which means 20% of the jobs would go poof.
There are some people who say
that AI would not replace people in jobs but that is mere hogwash. Most of the
people who are researching AI themselves say it would. Of course, there was the
Industrial revolution in Europe when workers from Agriculture migrated to the
factories and cities where jobs were created. Yes, AI too would create jobs
alright, but only in a much smaller number than it eats up. Those jobs would be
for developing AI, and its security while it knocks off a large number of jobs
in various sectors. And there is a huge difference between the Industrial
revolution and the AI revolution. The Industrial revolution did not eliminate
people from jobs, but actually created more jobs. But this AI revolution would
not do so and can prove catastrophic to many.
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