According to an article produced by the BBC, employees have a right to be worried, because Artificial Intelligence, known as AI, has already replaced human beings. What can AI do? What jobs has AI taken over? Is your job safe?
Is AI All That It Is Cracked Up To Be?
Dean Meadowcroft was a copywriter in a small marketing department until recently. His responsibilities included writing press releases, social media posts, and other content for his company. However, his firm introduced an AI system late 2022. Initially, the idea was for the AI to work alongside human lead copywriters to speed up the process and streamline operations. But Mr. Meadowcroft wasn’t impressed with the AI’s work. He felt that it made everyone sound generic, without any unique voice or character, and, as a result, nothing stood out.
You’re Fired!
Though the AI was fast, capable of completing tasks that would take a human copywriter 60 to 90 minutes in just 10 minutes or less, it had limitations. Human staff still had to review the content to ensure it wasn’t plagiarized or copied from elsewhere. Despite this, according to the BBC article, at about the four month mark after implementing the AI, Mr. Meadowcroft’s four-person team was laid off, leading him to believe that the AI had indeed replaced them.
Does AI Really Sound Like a Human?
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, introduced late last year with Microsoft’s backing, brought a new wave of AI capabilities. This technology could provide human-like responses to questions and generate essays, speeches, and recipes within minutes. And as of this writing, there are other AI systems as well, such as through Microsoft, and Google’s Bard.
Could You Be Fired Next?
The widespread adoption of AI is raising concerns about potential job losses. A Forbes article suggested that AI could potentially replace around 300 million full-time jobs. However, the impact would not be uniform across all industries, with administrative and legal professions facing higher automation rates compared to construction and maintenance.
Some Companies Are Retraining Employees to Retain Them
Despite the fear of job loss, some companies have found ways to integrate AI without eliminating human roles. IKEA, for example, retrained its call center staff as design advisers, with an AI named Billie handling 47% of customer calls. Still, the anxiety about AI’s impact remains high, especially among frontline workers who are less familiar with the technology.
What’s Happening at IBM?
The tech giant announced in May 2023 that it would pause hiring for 7,800 positions in its global technology services division, citing the impact of AI on its business. The company said it would use AI tools to automate some of the tasks that were previously done by human workers, such as managing IT infrastructure, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. The company also said it would invest in reskilling and redeploying its existing workforce to focus on higher-value services.
The BT Group Weighs In
The British telecommunications company said in March 2023 that it would cut 13,000 jobs over the next three years, mainly in its back-office and middle-management roles. The company said it would use AI and automation to streamline its operations and improve its efficiency and customer service. The company also said it would create 6,000 new jobs in engineering, customer service, and cybersecurity.
Paralegals Replaced by AI
Yes, there have been some cases of paralegals being replaced by AI, or at least facing the risk of being replaced by AI in the near future. Here are some examples:
- Dle Legal: This is a legal support services company based in Miami, Florida. The company announced in April 2023 that it had replaced 80% of its paralegals with an AI system called Lina. The system can perform tasks such as document review, legal research, contract drafting, and e-discovery. The company said that the system reduced the cost and time of legal work, and improved the quality and accuracy of the results. The company also said that it retained some of its paralegals for more complex and sensitive cases that required human judgment and interaction.
- LawGeex: This is an AI-powered contract review platform that helps businesses review and approve contracts faster and more efficiently. The platform claims that it can review contracts in minutes, rather than hours or days, and provide recommendations based on the user’s preferences and policies. The platform also claims that it can outperform human lawyers and paralegals in terms of accuracy and consistency. In 2018, the platform participated in a study that compared its performance with that of 20 experienced lawyers. The platform achieved an average accuracy rate of 94%, while the lawyers achieved an average of 85%.
- ROSS Intelligence: This is an AI-powered legal research platform that helps lawyers and paralegals find relevant and reliable information faster and easier. The platform uses natural language processing to understand user queries and provide answers from a vast database of legal documents, such as cases, statutes, regulations, and articles. The platform also uses machine learning to learn from user feedback and improve its results over time. The platform claims that it can save users up to 30% of their time and money on legal research.
Which Sectors & Jobs Are At The Most Risk for AI Replacement?
According to various sources, some jobs are more likely to be replaced by AI than others, depending on the level of skill, creativity, and human interaction required. Here are some of the jobs that have been or could be replaced by AI in the near future.
Tech Jobs at Risk
Jobs that involve coding, programming, software development, web development, data analysis, and data science could be replaced by AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. These tools can generate text or code based on user prompts or queries, and can perform tasks such as writing essays, creating websites, developing apps, analyzing data, and answering questions. However, these tools are not perfect and may produce errors or misinformation. They also require human supervision and feedback to improve their performance.
Who Is Watching Your Money?
Jobs that involve financial analysis, accounting, auditing, risk management, customer service, and revenue generation could be replaced by AI tools such as chatbots, robo-advisors, fraud detection systems, and algorithmic trading systems. These tools can provide financial advice, monitor transactions, detect anomalies, optimize portfolios, and execute trades. However, these tools may also pose ethical and regulatory challenges, such as privacy, security, transparency, and accountability.
Customer Service Jobs That Aren’t Human
obs that involve answering customer queries, providing information, resolving complaints, and offering support could be replaced by AI tools such as chatbots, voice assistants, and natural language processing systems. These tools can interact with customers via text or voice, understand their intentions, and provide relevant responses. However, these tools may also lack empathy, emotion, and humor, and may not be able to handle complex or unusual situations.
Voiceover Artists Beware
The fear is not unfounded, as some individuals have already experienced AI encroaching on their work. Alejandro Graue, an Argentinian voiceover artist, found himself unexpectedly replaced by AI for a YouTube channel he was working on. The experiment didn’t succeed, but it left him wondering about the future of his profession and the potential threat posed by advancing AI technology.
Justine Bateman Takes to Twitter to Explain AI’s Influence for Actors
From Justine Bateman:
“SAG ACTORS: I want to talk about AI and how it will affect you. I’m a former SAG Board Member and former SAG Negotiating Committee member. I’m also WGA and DGA.
As a coder and someone with a computer science degree I want to tell you where I believe AI is going.
- AI-written scrip(t)s & digitally-scanned actors (image and/or voice). Both already exist. Some talent agencies are actively recruiting their clients to be scanned. You choose the projects and get 75 cents on the dollar. Your digital image can be triple and quadruple booked, so that bodes well for a 10 percenter.
- Films customized for a viewer, based on their viewing history, which has been collected for many years. Actors will have the option to have their image ‘bought out’ to be used in anything at all.
- Films ‘ordered up’ by the viewer. For example, ‘I want a film about a panda and a unicorn who save the world in a rocket ship. And put Bill Murray in it.’
- Viewers getting digitally scanned themselves, and paying extra to have themselves inserted in these custom films.
- Licensing deals made with studios so that viewers can order up older films like STAR WARS and put their face on Luke Skywalker‘s body and their ex-wife‘s face on Darth Vader‘s body, etc.
- Training an AI program on an older hits TV series, and creating an additional season. FAMILY TIES, for example, has 167 episodes. An AI program could easily be trained on this, and create an eighth season. We only shot seven.
AI has to be addresse(d) now or never. I believe this is the last time any labor action will be effective in our business. If we don’t make strong rules now, they simply won’t notice if we strike in three years, because at that point they won’t need us.
Addendum: Actors, you must have iron-clad protection against the AI use of your image and voice in the SAG MBA or your profession is finished. Demand it from @sagaftra and do not accept any AMPTP proposal that does not have it. Needless to say, no @IATSE crew members, no @Teamster drivers, and no #DGA directors will be needed. At first these efforts will be run by software project managers, and eventually even they won’t be needed.”
AI is Impacting Medical Research
AI is unlikely to completely replace medical researchers, but it may change the nature and scope of their work. AI has many applications and benefits for medical research, such as accelerating drug discovery, improving diagnosis and prognosis, and enhancing personalized medicine. However, AI also poses some challenges and risks, such as ethical, social, and regulatory issues, data quality and security, and human oversight and collaboration. Here are some examples of how AI is affecting medical research:
- Drug discovery: AI can help medical researchers discover new drugs or repurpose existing ones by analyzing large amounts of data, such as genomic sequences, chemical structures, biological pathways, and clinical trials. AI can also help design and optimize drug candidates, predict their properties and effects, and test their safety and efficacy. For example, a company called BenevolentAI used AI to identify an existing drug called baricitinib as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
- Diagnosis and prognosis: AI can help medical researchers diagnose diseases or predict outcomes by analyzing various types of data, such as images, sounds, texts, or signals. AI can also help detect anomalies, patterns, or trends that may be missed by human eyes or ears. For example, a study published in Nature Medicine in 2019 showed that an AI system developed by Google could outperform six radiologists in detecting lung cancer from chest scans.
- Personalized medicine: AI can help medical researchers tailor treatments or interventions to individual patients based on their genetic, molecular, or environmental profiles. AI can also help monitor patients’ responses and adjust treatments accordingly. For example, a company called Tempus uses AI to analyze genomic data and clinical records to provide personalized cancer care.
Has The Advent of AI Created Jobs?
Despite these concerns, some workers, like Dean Meadowcroft, have found new opportunities working alongside AI. In his case, he now works for an employee assistance provider that offers wellbeing and mental health advice to staff, where AI plays a supportive role in providing quick access to human-led content rather than replacing human involvement entirely.
The Takeaway
AI is transforming workforces in different industries, creating both opportunities and challenges. AI can automate tasks, enhance productivity, improve quality, and generate insights. However, AI can also displace workers, disrupt labor markets, raise ethical concerns, and require new skills and education. Therefore, workers, employers, regulators, and activists need to collaborate and adapt to the changing landscape of work in the age of AI.
Has AI impacted your job yet?
10 Of The Worst Tasting Drinks People Pretend To Like
Hold onto your taste buds, because we’re about to embark on a flavor-filled adventure through the realm of beverages! Sure, we all need water to survive, but let’s be real – drinks are so much more than just basic hydration. Recently, the question of which beverages people secretly think taste awful sparked a fiery debate. Boozy elixirs, non-alcoholic refreshments, and everything in between were thrown into the mix. Brace yourself as we unveil the truth behind the drinks we pretend to love. Get ready for a wild ride of taste revelations! Read 10 Of The Worst Tasting Drinks People Pretend To Like
17 Of The Most Expensive Foods In The World: Would You Pay This Much To Eat Any Of These?
These days our food budget is not going very far, even for everyday foods. And yet, there are still those who seek out extravagant foods, regardless of price. I guess we can live vicariously through these pictures. Maybe someday someone will bestow a 4-pound white truffle upon us, but until then, this will have to suffice.
Click for 17 Of The Most Expensive Foods In The World: Would You Pay This Much To Eat Any Of These?
19 Of The World’s Most Overrated Foods
We have foods we love, and those we won’t touch. We all have our own likes and dislikes, but what are the most overrated foods? That was the question posed on this Reddit thread by Even_Cause_3478. There were a lot of opinions. Some made sense to us, and some were things we had never thought of before!
What is the most overrated food in your opinion?
Click for 19 Of The World’s Most Overrated Foods
