The question of a diminishing job market has been pertinent in society throughout the span of the industrial era. Every new invention in the industrial era to aid convenience poses the threat of replacing the human previously employed to perform the menial task. For example in the early 1900s, much of the industrial labour was concerned of being replaced after the assembly belt or the conveyer belt was invented. Their fears were well founded as Henry Ford’s invention was revolutionary in its inception and hence became a key tool in factory operations and mass production. A similar situation is cropping up in the modern era, but this time, the ominous role of the conveyer belt is being portrayed by Artificial Intelligence, or AI.
This topic hopped into the spotlight after sources revealed that Google could be looking for large-scale job cuts. According to reports, more than 30,000 of Google’s employees could end up losing their jobs due to AI. The Head of Marketing at Google, Sean Downey revealed that the company is reorganizing its advertisement team although he did not mention any layoffs. Reportedly, the company is completely focused on AI and is ready to make important changes, which may lead to large-scale job cuts. The reports say that these layoffs could be from the advertising sales team at the global level in favor of the new AI ad-tech.
OpenAI was recently surfing the headlines when the Executive Director of the company, Sam Altman was fired in November by the company. The details of his layoff were thin as the company remained hush on the matter. Although it was later revealed that Altman was asked to leave when he expressed his worries about the direction that the AI development by the company was headed in. He expressed fear regarding AI’s prominence in the near future, a sentiment shared by a majority of the employees of OpenAI as more than 700 of its 770 employees threatened exodus unless Altman returned.
Is ChatGPT a threat?
AI became the talk of the town when ChatGPT was first revealed by OpenAI an year ago. ChatGPT is a natural language chatbot that people used extensively to write their emails, poems, song lyrics and college and school essays. Early adopters have even used it to write Python code, as well as to reverse engineer shellcode and rewrite it in C. These actions did beg the question whether the efficacy of the chatbot threatens the writer’s and developer’s jobs the same way the assembly belt and robots threaten to replace the jobs of cashiers and factory line workers.
Thankfully, the chatbot has some flaws because its based on data, and not intelligence as is possessed by humans. It impressed a lot of people because it does a good job of simulating human conversation and sounding knowledgeable. It achieves that by scavenging voluminous amounts of data from the internet including code repositories. But because its not based on intelligence, its sentences can sound coherent but fail to provide critically informed responses. Along with that, there will always be tasks that writers and developers with human cognition can do that machines will never be capable of. Hence according to experts, the threat of AI replacing writers and developers, however small it is, is vastly overstated.
Now, Google isn’t the only corporate giant that plans to shift its focus on AI innovation and development. According to reports, companies like Amazon, Meta and Twitter has also announced plans for layoffs in January. In a survey by online platform Resume Builder, nearly 4 in 10 companies out of the 100 companies that participated in the test said they are likely to have layoffs in 2024. This prompted increased fears of a recession around the corner. More than half of companies also said they plan to implement a hiring freeze in 2024. When asked why the companies were engaging in the layoffs, half said the anticipation of a recession was a reason. Meanwhile, a little less than four in 10 said they are going to lay off employees and replace the workers with AI.
All is not lost however as although AI poses a threat to the existing job market, new positions are also inevitable to be available. It is a major fear that AI may replace human workers but it is a growing perspective that AI can actually create new jobs. AI has the potential to automate and simplify numerous repetitive and manual tasks that require less creativity and critical reasoning. This can enable workers to focus on more meaningful and high-value activities. For example, in the manufacturing and logistics sectors, AI can automate assembly processes, allowing employees to engage in design, quality control and management tasks much like the assembly line. While AI may reduce the demand for some jobs, it can also create new employment opportunities in previously unexplored areas. For example, the creation and development of AI systems require machine learning engineers, data scientists and specialized researchers. Research and Development as well as maintenance of AI opens up a new avenue of employment in the future.
There is no doubt that AI will be responsible for a massive shift in the employment sector but whether it will be hugely positive or negative remains to be seen.