MADISON. Wisc. (WKOW) – Millions of jobs could be wiped out over the next decade as artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT continue to improve.
“AI is just so powerful that it can do certain everyday things that people don’t necessarily enjoy doing and it has the ability to make things better,” said author and researcher Thomas Fellows.
Goldman Sachs economists put that number at 300 million, and researchers like Fellows note that white-collar workers are most at risk of having their jobs replaced by artificial intelligence.
“Programming should be a profession of the future,” he said. “So now you basically have the future taking away jobs of the future, which is very, very scary.”
Fellows has spent a lot of time researching how ChatGPT could impact the workforce and has worked for a company specializing in AI systems and programs.
He says jobs in finance, accounting and programming are jobs that could be replaced because those jobs focus on convergent thinking that you can use to solve a math problem or learn a language. But these are the kinds of skills that the AI is really good at right now. He says the jobs that require a more divergent mindset will stick around longer.
“If you’re just a convergent thinker and you don’t have strong human judgment, you don’t have practical intelligence and you can’t think outside the box, you’re going to be in trouble,” he said.
However, ChatGPT increasingly has more practical intelligence, which sets it apart from other forms of AI.
“It’s starting to think like a human,” Fellows said.
But he says ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence programs have utility and should be used as tools to make work more efficient.
“If you had a tool that could make you more productive, why not use it,” he said. “But we need to better prepare our students for the job market.”
27 News has reported that some believe ChatGPT can be used as an educational resource.
