[Article] How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White-Collar Work

[Synchronice]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/chatgpt-ai-economy-automation-jobs/672767/

In the next five years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers. As the technology continues to advance, it will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill. This could lead to a displacement of workers in certain industries, as companies look to cut costs by automating processes. While it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this trend, it is clear that AI will have a significant impact on the job market for college-educated workers. It will be important for individuals to stay up to date on the latest developments in AI and to consider how their skills and expertise can be leveraged in a world where machines are increasingly able to perform many tasks.

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

I don't know why no one thinks that if the AI does every mental work and there is no need to learn, (yeah, no need because what's the point if I spend years to learn something and I won't be able to use my knowledge?) humanity will degrade. The less you use your brain, the worse your cognitive abilities are becoming. If the AI is on so high level that it's able to perform that tasks that humans are able to do, then definitely it will support itself to evolve without the need of human, I mean, it will absorb the data and filter it automatically.

To be honest, the opinion of AI replacing the humans in near future sounds illogical. This phrase always reminds me when I was hearing back in 2010's that we would be able to build html/css website in software like converting psd to html/css but that has never happened and even for functional basic website, you need a human to type html/css code.

[Lucius]

In sci-fi movies, we can see what the future could look like if artificial intelligence reached such a level that it could be equal to humans, and it is obvious that some people are obsessed with it and invest huge amounts of money to achieve it one day.

Today, slightly more sophisticated robots are already replacing people in production facilities, and I watched a documentary in which a factory that used to employ around 50 people left only 2 people, and everything else is now done by robots. The owner is satisfied with their efficiency, the fact that they work without rest, do not go to the toilet or take annual leave, and do not ask for a salary increase.

If we look at the fact that the population of the world is increasing, and that robots and AI are starting to replace people, the question is where will all these people work and earn a living? Don't get me wrong that I'm against progress and modernization, but people and their destinies should come first, and only then the profits of big companies, which even today are not very sensitive to people's destinies and treat people like numbers.

[bangjoe]

Maybe now there is still doubt about that, but 10 years later maybe you will see that the AI developed by ChatGPT can disrupt human work without the need to standardize education or go through educational stages because it can work immediately after the big data needed for work it has been included in the program, I think this will be the initial stage where everyone will look at AI for the effectiveness of work efficiency from the bottom to the top.

Even though it is only a few points, it will be very scary because there is still a lot of competition between humans who cannot get jobs, especially when new competitors come with AI robots that are able to work tirelessly and learn quickly.

[slapper]

In sci-fi movies, we can see what the future could look like if artificial intelligence reached such a level that it could be equal to humans, and it is obvious that some people are obsessed with it and invest huge amounts of money to achieve it one day.

Today, slightly more sophisticated robots are already replacing people in production facilities, and I watched a documentary in which a factory that used to employ around 50 people left only 2 people, and everything else is now done by robots. The owner is satisfied with their efficiency, the fact that they work without rest, do not go to the toilet or take annual leave, and do not ask for a salary increase.

If we look at the fact that the population of the world is increasing, and that robots and AI are starting to replace people, the question is where will all these people work and earn a living? Don't get me wrong that I'm against progress and modernization, but people and their destinies should come first, and only then the profits of big companies, which even today are not very sensitive to people's destinies and treat people like numbers.

Excellent point. The rapid expansion of AI and other technologies necessitates careful evaluation of their labor market consequences. Even if robots and AI can achieve things humans can't, what happens to people whose jobs will be automated?

Retraining programs that teach new skills and move people into occupations computers can't do may be a solution. Corporations may likewise be under pressure to prioritize employment security over short-term profits. It's crucial to have frank discussions about how to make sure that everyone benefits from technological breakthroughs and the future of labor.

[Lucius]

~snip~
It's crucial to have frank discussions about how to make sure that everyone benefits from technological breakthroughs and the future of labor.

I think that this is a question that does not interest those who should discuss it, because the first place is profit, and people are becoming more and more expendable. In a free economy and an increasingly callous society, no one will be able to prevent private entities from replacing people with robots and AI, just as today no one can prevent global companies from laying off tens of thousands of people because they don't need them at the moment.

If we are already heading in a direction from which there is no return and towards the fact that fewer and fewer people will be able to work and earn a living, then we should have tried to slow down the increase in the number of people on Earth, especially in poor countries that are rapidly increasing their population. If you can't feed one child, where is the logic in having five or six of them?

[Smartprofit]

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

I do not think so.
Yes, ChatGPT will disrupt a lot of things in the world of work, but I do not totally agree that it will have any serious effect on white-collar work.
What I think will happen will is that only those without a college degree or those who do not upgrade their skills that will be affected adversely.
Well, the next five years is not far anymore, we wait to see if we would even become half-robots then.

It won't affect their jobs but it will rather help them to be more productive at work. They can now finish their task faster with the help of the AI or ChatGpt. Those who don't have a college degree has a limited knowledge but they can also use those tools to help them with their designated tasks. In the era that we have today, it's not about the college degree that matters but it's about how skilful or wise you are. Internet and software are now accesible. We can able to use them at our advantage.

I think I am already fine to have on these AI powered tools and I don't want to become a half-robot. That sounds scary lol but that was possible. I heard inventors like Elon musk are now inventing a chip that will be implanted inside a human body.

Yes, Elon Musk is actively working on the creation of neural interfaces.

So far, this technology is planned to be used for the rehabilitation of patients with brain damage.  However, imagine that this technology will be successfully applied and the former patients will acquire superpowers? 

For example, they will be able to interact directly with artificial intelligence intelligence (for example, ChatGpt). 

It can be assumed that in such a situation, all people will want to use neural interfaces.  And this will lead to the fact that people will actually turn into androids.

[slapper]

~snip~
It's crucial to have frank discussions about how to make sure that everyone benefits from technological breakthroughs and the future of labor.

I think that this is a question that does not interest those who should discuss it, because the first place is profit, and people are becoming more and more expendable. In a free economy and an increasingly callous society, no one will be able to prevent private entities from replacing people with robots and AI, just as today no one can prevent global companies from laying off tens of thousands of people because they don't need them at the moment.

If we are already heading in a direction from which there is no return and towards the fact that fewer and fewer people will be able to work and earn a living, then we should have tried to slow down the increase in the number of people on Earth, especially in poor countries that are rapidly increasing their population. If you can't feed one child, where is the logic in having five or six of them?

Technological singularity is exactly what you are talking about. Sadly, I believe the pace will not be slower. As you say, profit is the number one reason. Then, human loves to explore. It is both scary and exciting at the same time. But it is a fact we have to accept. VUCA is also a term to describe the current situation.

Learning is the key. Never stop learning. Sharpening our skills, learning new perspectives, try to open our mind. There will always be issues waiting for someone to solve. So instead of asking, start acting. Each minor good action we made is a foundation for something greater. We can simply help the poor neighbor, or create online resources for others to learn.

Humans have made a lot of mistakes in the past. We will continue to make mistakes, apparently. Nevertheless, I believe in the capabilities of humans. We are all born good, right ?

[Lucius]

~snip~
Humans have made a lot of mistakes in the past. We will continue to make mistakes, apparently. Nevertheless, I believe in the capabilities of humans. We are all born good, right ?

I'm not as optimistic as you, because unfortunately I've personally seen how evil people can be, and on the other hand, how strong their desire is to play God and thus cause new disasters (pandemics, wars, famine) and maybe one day the destruction of all humanity. It is true that we are all born equal in the sense that there is good and evil in us, it just seems that evil is winning that battle more and more and it seems to me that people have some kind of gene for self-destruction.

I just hope that I will not experience the time when robots and AI will be the ones who will decide whether I am sick or not, whether I can buy something or not, or that one day I will be fired because they decided to replace me with AI or some robot.

[Smartprofit]

~snip~
Humans have made a lot of mistakes in the past. We will continue to make mistakes, apparently. Nevertheless, I believe in the capabilities of humans. We are all born good, right ?

I'm not as optimistic as you, because unfortunately I've personally seen how evil people can be, and on the other hand, how strong their desire is to play God and thus cause new disasters (pandemics, wars, famine) and maybe one day the destruction of all humanity. It is true that we are all born equal in the sense that there is good and evil in us, it just seems that evil is winning that battle more and more and it seems to me that people have some kind of gene for self-destruction.

I just hope that I will not experience the time when robots and AI will be the ones who will decide whether I am sick or not, whether I can buy something or not, or that one day I will be fired because they decided to replace me with AI or some robot.

In my opinion, in relation to the diagnosis of diseases, artificial intelligence has very great prospects. 

Artificial intelligence can analyze big data, which, in principle, every specific doctor is not able to do - a living person (even if he does not sleep at night, but reads the medical records of various patients). 

I am more optimistic about the development of artificial intelligence systems.  I believe that we (humans) should be friendly to artificial intelligence and use it to solve various problems. 

Our human mission is not to solve problems (artificial intelligence will eventually learn to solve various problems much more efficiently than a living person). 

Our human mission is to formulate tasks and problems, because no one but us can properly formulate them.  And this is our undoubted advantage over artificial intelligence.

[BigBos]

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

Yes, of course AI will not take over all professional work because it has limitations in its use, only focuses on certain areas, ChatGPT is one of the AI that is projected as a search engine and human helper to facilitate human work.
Yes, today humans have professional abilities at once, but other AI will also be projected for other professional abilities, maybe AI will exist in every business sector to make it easier for business people and reduce costs that employers incur for employees, such as insurance, benefits holidays and others, of course, even someone with professional skills will face this difficult story in the future.

[o48o]

Yes, Elon Musk is actively working on the creation of neural interfaces.
So far, this technology is planned to be used for the rehabilitation of patients with brain damage.  However, imagine that this technology will be successfully applied and the former patients will acquire superpowers? 
For example, they will be able to interact directly with artificial intelligence intelligence (for example, ChatGpt). 
It can be assumed that in such a situation, all people will want to use neural interfaces.  And this will lead to the fact that people will actually turn into androids.

Well i have to step in and correct that Elon Musk himself isn't working on anything related to neural interfaces. He has not capasity to even understand the tech ad he has hired professionals to build what he wants, no matter if it works or is even possible with current knowledge. In fact neuralink has managed to kill 1,500 animals because of rushing. Yet he is insisting that human testing should begin in 5 months or so.

But sure, when the tech is ready, enchantments will be blurring a line between humans and computers. I mean tech could be build in biological form with custom biological code in order not to be rejected by white blood cells, who knows. After that we would have 3 build in systems instead of 2.

[kryptqnick]

Some people regularly lose jobs when technological advancements happen, and we'll probably see it this time as well. I've talked to ChatGPT on specialized topics of the area I majored in at university, and I can say it could pass oral or short written exams, and support a pretty good conversation, the kind not many humans can support on such topics. So I am impressed, yes, but if you take time, you can see the limitations of ChatGPT pretty fast as well. So I think that many people with college degrees will get their jobs, they'll just be responsible for cherry-picking and editing AI-generated texts or use AI-generated texts as a start to write something better, more in the line with the brand's marketing strategy or something like this.

[ChiBitCTy]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/chatgpt-ai-economy-automation-jobs/672767/

In the next five years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers. As the technology continues to advance, it will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill. This could lead to a displacement of workers in certain industries, as companies look to cut costs by automating processes. While it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this trend, it is clear that AI will have a significant impact on the job market for college-educated workers. It will be important for individuals to stay up to date on the latest developments in AI and to consider how their skills and expertise can be leveraged in a world where machines are increasingly able to perform many tasks.

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

Well I think it's important to first note that artificial intelligence, or "AI" does not actually even exist yet, and we are likely quite a ways off from actually having created AI (self learning).  Chap GPT is a pretty cool new program and these types of programs are only going to get better, but they aren't legitimate AI so there upside to replace humans is still quite limited.  Surely this type of stuff will start to replace humans, but for certain things, and I think it'll take a lot longer than many are predicting.

[Fortify]

In the next five years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers. As the technology continues to advance, it will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill. This could lead to a displacement of workers in certain industries, as companies look to cut costs by automating processes. While it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this trend, it is clear that AI will have a significant impact on the job market for college-educated workers. It will be important for individuals to stay up to date on the latest developments in AI and to consider how their skills and expertise can be leveraged in a world where machines are increasingly able to perform many tasks.

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

It's definitely fascinating to see what this form of AI is able to do, but I also am skeptical about the ability for it to replace many jobs. At the very least there will be people needed to validate the output and potentially formulate what actual information/scripting/data extraction is needed to achieve the end job most effectively. At the end of the day it is often just plagiarizing information and combining many different sources to achieve it's end goal. For more up to date information it also needs feeding and much of the important data going in (e.g. news and developments) is being created by people. There will definitely be a few jobs lost to this sort of automation right now but it's hard to judge who will be most affected.

[alastantiger]

ChatGPT will create new jobs and not the other way around as most people may think. I remember when people use to laugh at those with the title prompt engineer and think that they will be paid peanut but just today, I say an opening for a prompt engineer with an annual salary of $250k plus. That is the power of AI. Who is a prompt engineer?

The job description sees writing the prompts necessary to get the best responses from AIs as a skill all of its own. Wrangling ChatGPT requires a deeper understanding of how AI works — hence “engineer” — as well as domain expertise, be that coding, marketing or homework. An online marketplace called Promptbase has already sprung up, where prompt engineers can sell their carefully crafted instructions for image-generation tools such as Midjourney. For a couple of bucks, you can buy pre-written templates for “cute robotic animal pictures” and “3D game renders”. 
Source - Financial times

[Captain Corporate]

I agree that there will be need for someone to manage AI as well to use in a business, which could create business chances, but it would also eliminate a lot of jobs at the same time. Just because it could open up a new job field, doesn't mean that it will not take anyone job, it definitely will be. Our work here is to figure out how we can be on the right side of history and find ourselves that either wouldn't be taken by AI, or it would be basically working around AI to manage something better. This way we could keep being employed for a long time. I am still in my early 30's, and need to work for another 30 years, god knows what would be invented by then, I need to keep being on my toes constantly to get employed.

[zasad@]

This is the biggest step to destroy the middle class. I mean the middle class weren’t alive much anyway but thanks to AI, job-wise whatever was left available for them will be gone soon.

Fear not however.

The Universal Basic Income will come to the rescue.

By 2030, everybody will be driving golf carts, eat insects, have their citizen scores and universal basic income. You won’t have to go to work. You will be at home watching netflix all day and your masters will send you $$$… as long as you keep eating them bugs.

Just don’t ever never demand to eat a damn steak.

Or we will have a problem.

Off to the gas chamber you freak! I zaid no meat!

Are you also a Klaus Schwab fan?
As I understand it, those nations that are used to resisting and not submitting to world leaders are now being destroyed.
And artificial intelligence will set limits for each resident for spending on certain needs.

[lionheart78]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/chatgpt-ai-economy-automation-jobs/672767/

In the next five years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers. As the technology continues to advance, it will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill. This could lead to a displacement of workers in certain industries, as companies look to cut costs by automating processes. While it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this trend, it is clear that AI will have a significant impact on the job market for college-educated workers. It will be important for individuals to stay up to date on the latest developments in AI and to consider how their skills and expertise can be leveraged in a world where machines are increasingly able to perform many tasks.

I'm personally skeptical on the ability of machine learning/neural networks to fully replace humans. I think it's more likely that it will boost productivity by performing the more simple and routine tasks, but there will still be the need for human touch. People will lose jobs because now a professional will be able to do the work of 2 professionals, but AI won't do the work of all professionals.

Ai do have vast information but they are very limited since they don't have any experience and logical adjustment needed in certain kinds of situations.  Indeed AI can give us precise history and events but they will fall behind in analysis especially when there is a given variable that is yet to be known.  they are also somehow poor in application of logic and troubleshoooting complex problem.  I also think they are great in simple tasks and records but I believe the AI industry still needs decades to be able to compete against human's ability to read situations and understand complex circumstances.

[Smartprofit]

Some people regularly lose jobs when technological advancements happen, and we'll probably see it this time as well. I've talked to ChatGPT on specialized topics of the area I majored in at university, and I can say it could pass oral or short written exams, and support a pretty good conversation, the kind not many humans can support on such topics. So I am impressed, yes, but if you take time, you can see the limitations of ChatGPT pretty fast as well. So I think that many people with college degrees will get their jobs, they'll just be responsible for cherry-picking and editing AI-generated texts or use AI-generated texts as a start to write something better, more in the line with the brand's marketing strategy or something like this.

ChatGPT was created quite recently.  Let's ask ourselves a question - what will ChatGPT be like in 1 year?  And after 2 years?  3 years later?

In addition, at present, artificial intelligence does not interact directly with the real world.  He receives information only from people.  However, very soon he will be able to receive the most up-to-date and complete information directly from the real world (as a person does). 

How much will this increase the capabilities of ChatGPT?  How much more effectively can he then solve various problems?  I don't have an answer to this question!

[el kaka22]

It's not about chatgpt doing your work, it's about how we would find money after that. Lets be real, the industry age allowed less people to be employed afterwards, which meant that there would be less people needed in a factory, and the assembly line made it even harder to find a job there, so blue collar work became less and less paid job. Something that you could make a living from commonly, became harder.

But that opened the doors for people who had college degrees to find more and more jobs, and nowadays that is not good neither. Someone who has 2 masters degrees may never be able to buy a house in some cities, and now chatgpt will make it harder. So, where will we find money to survive? Where will our income come?