The past few years has showed us how fast Generative AI and LLM’s are developing. With the capabilities of AI, people begin to fear for their own jobs. In recent months, the search for “is my job safe?” has more than doubled. People are getting increasingly more scared for their lives. This is very understandable. Technology is scary. Cars drive themselves now, robots run factories and tools like ChatGPT have made certain aspects of study and work obsolete.
A huge problem we have to discuss is ethics when it comes to the job market and AI. Can we call some people’s jobs more important than others? Of course we can but does this mean that people should lose their jobs because of this? I am not here to put my opinion on the readers of this blog but we can look at cases where this is already happening. In America and other 1st world nations, fast food workers are losing their jobs to AI in quite large numbers. The ‘Drive Thru‘ system has evolved and people don’t speak to an actual employee to order their food but an AI model that recognises the menu items and creates the order. At the end of 2021, nearly 24% of fast food workers were teenagers. We often look at fast food workers as less important due to their jobs naturally but does this mean that the people working there are easily dispensable?
A Positive Example
The Dawn Cafe in Japan has revolutionised the use of AI while keeping human workers. At this cafe, the waiters are robots who drive around and deliver orders straight to customers. But are these robots fully autonomous? Actually not at all. This cafe hires disabled people who usually struggle to find a job. They are able to control these robots from anywhere around the world. These robots also have language models which allows the pilots to communicate with the customers. I think this is an amazing idea and more companies should take inspiration from this. The project was created by a man named Kentaro who got inspiration for it during his childhood struggles with illness.
Now let’s look at jobs that are more “valued” in society. For example the finance market is heavily at risk. AI can handle and analyse data much faster and more efficient than any human. Customer service tasks are made much easier and fraud detection is practically flawless. In the legal market, AI-driven tools like contract analysis software and predictive analytics are automating tasks traditionally performed by paralegals, legal researchers, and even junior lawyers. These tools can process massive volumes of data, identifying relevant case laws or drafting legal documents with unprecedented speed. As AI systems become more sophisticated, routine legal tasks are increasingly being handled by machines, raising concerns about job cuts, particularly in entry-level positions. Similarly, in marketing services, AI is transforming how businesses approach consumer engagement. Automated content generation, predictive analytics, and AI-driven campaign optimization allow companies to target audiences with precision, often reducing the need for large marketing teams. Chatbots, AI-powered ad platforms, and machine learning tools streamline processes that once required manual effort, like customer support, campaign analysis, and personalized content creation.
From what we can see, AI will replace jobs that can be done better and faster by technology. On the other hand, the development of AI creates a lot more jobs and benefits. Thank you for reading.
References
- https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/ai-impact-on-job-market/
- https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/study-teens-make-up-nearly-a-quarter-of-limited-service-restaurant-workfor/610830/
- https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0dvbjpr/dining-with-robots-operated-by-disabled-workers-in-tokyo#
- https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/06/15/ai-is-not-yet-killing-jobs?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=18151738051&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-response.anonymous&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADf4AbZ2FVtow6QeLmDPB-Sqlty_3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4Oe4BhCcARIsADQ0csnjeAZems2RkXGEBqTpjDmBFfe51Cmu9RrbM11P0q4rmbzkWu2MpOMaAi_3EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
- https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/ai-impact-on-job-market/?
Generative AI used – DALL-E