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Experts say ChatGPT and related AI could threaten some jobs, particularly white-collar ones.
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It could do so by automating mid-career, mid-ability work.
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Insider compiled a list of 10 jobs this technology could replace, according to experts.
Since its release in November of last year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been used to write cover letters, create a children’s book, and even help students cheat on their essays.
The chatbot may be more powerful than we ever imagined. Google found that, in theory, the search engine would hire the bot as an entry-level coder if it interviewed at the company.
Amazon employees who tested ChatGPT said it does a “very good job” of answering customer support questions, is “great” at making training documents, and is “very strong” at answering queries around corporate strategy.
Companies are taking notice. Both IBM and British telecommunications giant BT Group cited AI when announcing job cuts — and saying that many wouldn’t come back.
While a 2013 University of Oxford study found that 47% of US jobs could be eliminated by AI over the next 20 years, that prediction appears to have been off-base. A recent Goldman Sachs study found that generative AI tools could, in fact, impact 300 million full-time jobs worldwide, which could lead to a “significant disruption” in the job market.
Still, Anu Madgavkar, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, said that human judgement needs to be applied to these technologies to avoid error and bias, she told Insider. Users of ChatGPT also found that the bot can generate misinformation, incorrectly answer coding problems, and produce errors in basic math.
“We have to think about these things as productivity enhancing tools, as opposed to complete replacements,” Madgavkar said.
Insider talked to experts and conducted research to compile a list of jobs that are at highest-risk for replacement by AI.
Tech jobs (Coders, computer programmers, software engineers, data analysts)
Coding and computer programming are in-demand skills, but it’s possible that ChatGPT and similar AI tools may fill in some of the gaps in the near future.
Tech jobs such as software developers, web developers, computer programmers, coders, and data scientists are “pretty amenable” to AI technologies “displacing more of their work,” Madgavkar said.
That’s because AI like ChatGPT is good at crunching numbers with relative accuracy.
In fact, advanced technologies like ChatGPT could produce code faster than humans, which means that work can be completed with fewer employees, Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who has researched AI’s impact on the American workforce, told Insider.
“What took a team of software developers might only take some of them,” he added.
Tech companies like ChatGPT maker’s OpenAI are already considering replacing software engineers with AI.
Still, Oded Netzer, a Columbia Business School professor, thinks that AI will help coders rather than replace them.
“In terms of jobs, I think it’s primarily an enhancer than full replacement of jobs,” Netzer told CBS MoneyWatch. “Coding and programming is a good example of that. It actually can write code quite well.”
Media jobs (advertising, content creation, technical writing, journalism)
Media jobs across the board — including those in advertising, technical writing, journalism, and any role that involves content creation — may be affected by ChatGPT and similar forms of AI, Madgavkar said. That’s because AI is able to read, write, and understand text-based data well, she added.
“Analyzing and interpreting vast amounts of language…
Read More: ChatGPT may be coming for our jobs. Here are the 10 roles that AI is most likely to replace.