AI could replace 300,000,000 jobs, according to economists at Goldman Sachs. The news comes in light of the recent success of the AI generation tool ChatGPT since its launch in November last year.
AI is advancing at an unprecedented rate, and many companies use the technology to reduce costs and improve their services. AI can benefit many industries, but are we ready for the massive job displacement it may cause?
The Rise Of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a large language learning model chatbot which can have human-like conversations, answer questions, write code and produce content such as essays, scripts and emails. In most cases, it generates content indistinguishable from a human.
According to ZDNet, ChatGPT was an instant success and received over a million users in its first five days after launching. In January this year, it had over 100m active users. Even the creators didn’t expect it to be so popular.
Many industries have already incorporated ChatGPT, including tech companies, schools, and healthcare. The chatbot can produce content, enhance sales, provide customer service, and even diagnose cancer.
Even in its infancy, ChatGPT has had a massive impact on the world. As reported by the BBC, Goldman Sachs predicted it could replace 3m jobs – about a quarter of the workforce in the US and Europe.
The move won’t happen overnight, but the report is a stark reminder that we must anticipate and prepare for the human impact of AI on our society.
it’s not all doom and gloom – Goldman Sachs also predicts that AI will create millions of jobs and make many existing roles easier. AI will benefit the economy – potentially boosting global GDP by 7% annually.
Are All Jobs At Risk?
Not all jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI. According to the BBC, AI can’t replace jobs which require out-of-the-box thinking, emotional intelligence or developing new creative ideas.
AI would struggle to replace jobs that depend on interpersonal relationships, such as healthcare and investigative journalism. But poses a risk to creative workers such as writers and graphic designers, however it would be hard for it to replace musicians.
Goldman Sachs says that potentially 46% of administrative and 44% of legal roles could be at risk. The jobs least likely to be replaced by AI are the ones in construction, maintenance, craft and trade, where AI would potentially replace less than 10% of workers.
Should We Worry About AI Taking Our Jobs?
The fear of AI taking our jobs is just one of many worries about system development. AI has also caused concerns about privacy invasion, the spread of misinformation, and at the extreme end, overpowering humanity.
We’re in uncharted territory regarding how AI will affect employment, but there’s no doubt that it will replace many roles.
According to AI business last month, a Sortlist Data Hub survey found that 26% of European software and tech companies plan to cut jobs – as a direct result of ChatGPT.
On the flip side, Fortune reported earlier this week that Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO believes that AI-automated jobs could be a savior for humanity as birth rates plummet – and care positions are getting increasingly hard to fill.
“We are not having enough children, and we have not been having enough children for long enough that there is a demographic crisis where people who are my age are going to be taken care of by younger generations,”
