The advent of ChatGPT, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion, and other so-called AI software has caused many people to predict the upheaval of various industries. They predict corporations firing writers, artists, and even programmers in favor of AI-created work, leading to unemployment on a level those industries have never seen before.
In fact, this week, the Writers Guild of America began a strike, with one of the major points of contention being the use of AI to write TV and movie scripts.
I’m not going to try to assuage any of those fears. New technology will always cause upheavals in the industries in which they are put to use, and this will be no different. Pandora’s box is opening, and we will have to find a way to navigate the future with this technology. Whatever the future holds, there’s no going back. If we try to shun it, it only means someone else will master it first and take that advantage.
This cat is out of the bag, but this science-fiction fan would also like to add a hopeful counterpoint for a future where AI technology eventually becomes a net positive for humanity.
As I’ve grown older and developed in my career, I’ve spent more and more time behind computer screens. It’s reached the point now that I can hardly do anything productive without sitting in front of my computer. And I’m not alone. The average office worker spends 1,700 hours a year in front of a computer. With 50 work weeks in a year and 40 hours in a week, that’s 85% of the work year.
But I’m hoping smarter software will help us reverse this ongoing trend.
After the churn of integration and unemployment have passed, this new level of software allows us to spend less time interfacing with computers, and more time spent working in the real world, being creative, meeting with coworkers, and socializing in person.
These new AI models let us interact with our computers more like we would interact with a human, simply asking it to do things we would otherwise have to guide it through step-by-step. This frees the human in the workflow to do real-world tasks that an AI is unsuited for. One thing humans have that AI lacks is discretion and judgment.
In every use case I’ve encountered, a human still has to judge the work to see if it’s actually usable. Editors, like myself, are likely somewhat safe from being replaced, as ChatGPT has very little discernment between good and bad writing. For every impressive image Midjourney cranks out, there are five with too many fingers, out-of-control hair, or other obvious flaws.
Reporters, too, are relatively safe, as real journalism requires legwork and critical thinking that simply can’t be replicated by a software program, regardless of how well it “learns.”
The jobs that are likely to disappear first are those with repetitive tasks like data entry, customer support, and writing things like marketing copy. This will be a hard transition for the people accustomed to filling those jobs, so we have to make sure to provide opportunities for them to be retrained into jobs that still require a human touch.
There are going to be myriad pitfalls and traps in the coming years. But I hope, that if we’re cautious, caring, and unified, we can turn this technology to the ultimate good.