ChatGPT’s fire got out of the circle, giving so many people more room to imagine the future of AI. OpenAI, a company that researches AI, released the most advanced AI chatbot of our time on November 30, 2022. It can ask for information, have daily chats, write articles and papers, letters, program code, and even assign poems and lyrics, and it can do all of this without missing a beat.
ChatGPT supports dozens of languages from around the world. This change will affect all people’s daily work lives since ChatGPT’s efficiency, knowledge, and “intelligence” are on par with those of even average white-collar workers. ChatGPT is the application tool that has grown the fastest in history. Since its launch at the end of November last year, more than 1 million people have signed up in just five days, and more than 100 million have used it.
People who have tried ChatGPT have said that it is “excellent” at answering customer support questions, “pretty good” at making training documents, and “very powerful” at answering questions about company strategy.
Even the writer Liu Xuan said that ChatGPT’s results are “good enough.” There is still room for improvement, but most people already have the skills and standards of “good enough.” Robots will soon replace humans if their work value and skills are only “good enough.”
This sounds pessimistic, but the development of technology can also make us more evolved. Every time there is a revolution, there will be pain, and more and more people are worried that the sudden drop in AI will cause a wave of unemployment.
According to data from the Layoffs website, since the start of 2023, more than 103,000 people have been laid off in the global technology industry. This is already two-thirds of the total number of layoffs last year. More releases are coming soon. In January, alphabet, the company that owns tech giant Google, said it would lay off 12,000 workers in the biggest round of job cuts the company had ever done. Microsoft, based in Washington, also said it would lay off 10,000 people. In February, Disney said it would lay off 4,000 people, Zoom said it would fire 1,300 people, and Yahoo said it would cut 20% of its staff.
What kinds of jobs will AI robots take over? ChatGPT and experts gave similar answers. Experts think that content creators, customer service specialists, programmers, media workers (advertising, technical writing, news), financial analysts, market researchers, software engineers, data analysts, graphic designers, and other positions have the highest risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence.
The jobs that are least likely to be taken over by machines require manual, emotional, and physical skills that computers can’t do. For example, plasterers, electricians, mechanics, etc., as well as hairdressers, chefs, doctors, nurses, and other service workers, or jobs that deal with emotions, like psychological counseling, therapists, etc., will not go away as the world changes.
Cheng, a lecturer in the Journalism Department at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, said that jobs related to data, such as machine learning and AI technology, will shine in the AI era. At the same time, repetitive and data-organizing work will still have an effect.
“For example, a lot of text work, especially in the media, can be done by AI. This includes reports on stock market prices, sports results, weather forecasts, etc. ChatGPT is also very good at editing text and voice transcription. Help them be more creative and productive.”
He said that ChatGPT can be very helpful in media, translation, and copywriting. For example, news reports can be changed to fit the needs of different platforms, translated, and even summed up. All of these things can generate content in a short amount of time. This can also be used in advertising by giving ideas for AI to help with and then asking each other to change them.
Cheng said that no matter how advanced AI gets, it will never be able to replace human creativity and cultural understanding. This means that as long as you are creative, have experience, and know how to use AI to improve your efficiency, you don’t have to worry about losing your job.
He thinks that if someone does general text editing, especially editing and publishing workbooks, it should be easier to eliminate these jobs.
“And to serve well in the AI era, so that they can be competitive, each person needs to keep their strengths, know how to analyze customer needs and cultural background, and let themselves first fill up with books, understand the arteries of the market, so that they can use AI technology better. AI is a powerful tool, but it’s useless if you can’t use it or ask questions about it.
And he thinks the technological change will also lead to a change in how universities teach. “There wasn’t a course on data analysis in the past, but as the market demanded it, universities started offering similar courses. The classes that fell through the cracks because not enough people signed up for them will also be canceled.”
Cheng said that future students should think about studying equipment tools and other jobs because, in the future, more things will be automated, and many high-tech machines will need to be fixed. People who specialize in liberal arts will need to be more creative, and studying traditional subjects will be replaced by technology.
“Also, an aging population is a trend for the future, so nursing and caregiving have a good chance of doing well. However, AI won’t take over the medical, tourism, or food fields.
