ChatGPT: The AI Tool That Sparks an Investor Frenzy. Is It a Threat to Workers’ Livelihoods?
The launch of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot created by the startup OpenAI, has become a viral sensation and sparked an investor frenzy for similar AI tools. With claims that ChatGPT can replace coders, paralegals, and even teachers, it’s no wonder people are interested. Yet, despite its high score on the bar exam, ChatGPT is often hilariously incorrect, raising the question: is it a threat to working people’s livelihoods?
To separate the facts from the hype, we need to understand what ChatGPT is really capable of. While it presents the appearance of understanding what it talks about, it’s soon apparent that it generates similar answers over and over again without the capacity for novel thinking. Even its ability to correct itself is a mirage.
The hype around AI is not new. Multiple outlets have said that GPTs will impact 80% of jobs, citing an OpenAI-funded study that did not perform any economic modeling but instead asked ChatGPT itself and human non-experts to guess which jobs GPTs will replace. The hype is working, and OpenAI has netted $13 billion in funding from Microsoft at a time when Microsoft itself laid off 10,000 tech workers.
The reality is that AI tools like ChatGPT will take jobs, but not necessarily those in education, coding, or media as the corporate press likes to claim. Jobs in these fields require social context and sentience, which are beyond the capabilities of statistical models like neural networks.
ChatGPT will likely become a “helper,” generating a “first draft” for humans to look over, answering questions like an advanced search engine or engaging in low-stakes conversation where the company tolerates inaccuracy. It can only do “help” work because it can’t distinguish between what is probable and what is true, and needs human input to correct it.
Nevertheless, even if a worker is not replaced but merely “helped” by AI, the boss still saves on labor. AI can even impact workers without replacing their tasks, as companies like Amazon use computer vision AI to monitor workers on camera and flag them for work violations. AI is also creating a new category of gig work as AI-related ghost work increases.
For corporations to be incentivized to adopt AI, it must be labor-saving overall. The unemployment effects of labor-saving AI can be temporarily masked by economic booms. But during economic downturns, corporations are producing too much to be sold, and the bosses will leverage the crisis to fire workers and introduce labor-saving technologies. However, a strong labor movement, with a backbone of militant rank-and-file union members, can fight against job cuts and deskilling.
In summary, ChatGPT is not a threat to workers’ livelihoods in the way it has been hyped up to be. It will take on some jobs, but others will remain relatively unaffected. It’s important to understand what AI is capable of and what its limitations are, to know how it will impact jobs. A strong labor movement is critical to protect workers against job cuts and deskilling, particularly during economic downturns.
Editor Notes:
With technology advancing faster than ever, it’s important to take a critical look at how it will impact our lives and work. AI tools like ChatGPT may have their place in supporting human work, but we need to be careful not to let them undermine our livelihoods. At GPT News Room, we’re committed to bringing you the latest news and insights on AI and its impact on society. Visit us today at https://gptnewsroom.com.
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