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If you’ve been following the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, you’ve probably come across a familiar script: reader beware – AI is out to steal your job.
Such headlines are reductive, to say the least. Certainly, some jobs – especially those that are repetitive and laborious – may be taken over by machines. But the general consensus among experts seems to be that we should prepare for disruption to the world of work, rather than a complete takeover.
But how do you know your job is safe? As Niusha Shafiabady writes, a good place to start is by looking at where you live. Amid all our conversations about how we can adapt to the advent of AI, we generally fail to mention that some countries are better placed to adapt than others.
Data on technological uptake across the world suggest developing nations could be hit hardest as AI pokes its head into all aspects of life.
These countries don’t have as much of the money, skills and resources required to transition effectively to the AI-driven age of work. And with their relatively large populations, any job losses due to AI are likely to create an ultra-competitive, employer-controlled workforce that certainly won’t favour the average worker.
For those of us fortunate enough to have jobs that require research and creativity, it might help to think of AI not as something that’s going to steal your job, but rather as an assistant who’s willing and eager to help. As Kai Riemer and Sandra Peter point out, chatbots are very good at composing text, but are prone to mistakes and failures of logic (or “hallucinations”, as they’re sometimes called when AI goes really awry). They suggest thinking of AI as like a super-keen grad student, whose work requires careful checking.
Here at The Conversation, we require our authors to disclose in full any time they use AI when writing, and not to use it at all for article research or generating ideas – we think that should be the sole preserve of our human experts.
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