According to a report published by investment firm Goldman Sachs, artificial intelligence (AI) might be able to take the place of the same number of full-time jobs as 300 million people.
It has the potential to eliminate one-quarter of work activities in both the United States and Europe, but it might also result in an increase in employment opportunities and overall productivity.
Also, it has the potential to eventually add seven percent to the overall annual value of all the goods and services generated throughout the entire world.
According to the findings of the paper, “a tremendous step” has been made with the development of generative AI, which is capable of producing content that is indistinguishable from the work of humans.
Opportunities available in the labor market
The United Kingdom’s government is eager to encourage investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in the country because, as it puts it, AI will “ultimately drive productivity across the economy.” The government has also made an effort to reassure the general public about the potential effects of these investments.
According to comments made by Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan to the Sun, “we want to make sure that AI is complementing the way that we work in the UK, rather than disrupting it – making our jobs better, rather than taking them away.”
The paper emphasizes that the impact of AI would vary across different industries; for example, it predicts that 46% of jobs in administrative professions and 44% of duties in legal professions may be automated, whereas only 6% of tasks in construction and 4% of tasks in maintenance could be automated.
BBC News has previously reported that several artists are concerned that AI image producers could affect their work prospects.
‘Lower salaries’
“The only thing I am sure of is that there is no way to know how many jobs will be replaced by generative AI,” Carl Benedikt Frey, the future of-work director at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, told BBC News. “The only thing I am sure of is that there is no way to know how many jobs will be replaced by generative AI.”
“For example, ChatGPT makes it possible for more people with average writing skills to publish essays and articles. This is only one of its many benefits.
“If there is not a particularly big growth in the demand for labor of this kind, then the earnings of journalists will most likely decrease as a result of the increased level of competition they would encounter.
“Consider the advent of GPS technology and ridesharing platforms such as Uber: all of a sudden, intimate familiarity with every street in London was of much less value, and as a result, established drivers in the city experienced significant wage reductions as a direct result, on the order of ten percent, according to our research.
“The end consequence was not a reduction in the number of drivers but rather decreased wages.
“Over the course of the next few years, generative artificial intelligence is anticipated to have similar effects on a wider spectrum of creative tasks,”
‘Pinch of salt’
Research that was included in the paper found that sixty percent of the working population currently has jobs that did not exist in the year 1940.
Yet, other data reveals that during the 1980s, technological progress has been responsible for the displacement of workers at a quicker rate than it has been responsible for the creation of jobs.
According to the findings of the paper, generative artificial intelligence (AI) may have a negative impact on employment in the not-too-distant future if it is similar to other developments in information technology.
According to Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think tank, in an interview with BBC News, “any definite projections should be taken with a very huge dose of salt” because of the high degree of unpredictability surrounding the long-term effects of AI.
According to what he had to say, “We Do Not Know How the Technology Will Evolve” nor “How Firms Will Integrate It Into How They Work.”
“That is not to argue that AI won’t disrupt the way that we work; nevertheless, we should focus on the potential increases in living standards from higher-productivity jobs and cheaper-to-run services, as well as the risk of falling behind if other enterprises and economies better adapt to technological change.”
