Proponents of artificial intelligence have talked up a quantum leap in industrial efficiency it could bring, while sceptics have painted a grim picture of millions of people being put out of a job. Photo: Reuters
Opinion
Macroscope
by Gareth Nicholson
Macroscope
by Gareth Nicholson
Killer robots or not, AI’s threat to jobs is real – which is why it must be handled wisely
New technologies are often viewed with suspicion, only for humans to later enjoy their immense benefits
Ensuring AI brings similar gains to humanity instead of widespread misery will require effective regulation and oversight
Ever since Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm with its humanlike responses late last year, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved to the centre of the tech stage. Proponents have talked up a quantum leap in industrial efficiency while sceptics have painted a grim picture of millions of people being turfed out of a job.
Fear of AI is not new. Who can forget Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the AI supercomputer HAL that controls the spacecraft goes berserk and tries to kill the crew amid conflicting directives. In the Terminator series of films, the military AI Skynet becomes self-aware and decides to wipe out humanity, fearing that we will destroy it.
On the face of it, ChatGPT is less intimidating. It is a natural language processing tool driven by algorithms, known as a large language model, which allows people to have humanlike conversations with the chatbot. It can answer questions and assist with a variety of tasks, such as composing emails and essays, and writing computer code, among others.
The results have been described by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk as “scary good”. Geoffrey Hinton, widely considered the godfather of artificial intelligence, stepped down from his position at Google in May after a decade at the firm, citing the risks posed by bad actors spreading misinformation and the possibility of large job losses.
Meanwhile, proponents point out that while AI can be deployed in autonomous driving, facial recognition, as a mobile phone assistant or even as a formidable opponent in a game of chess, for the time being this remains a computational exercise as opposed to a conscious experience. While the computer might beat you in a game of chess, it will not feel the excitement of winning.
Human beings will, however, feel the pain of losing their job. In my time working with the Post’s technology team, I chaired various expert panels a few years back on what AI would mean for business. The general optimistic consensus was that it would free up workers from repetitive, manual labour, allowing them to be moved to more creative, value-added jobs.
04:48
Will ChatGPT replace reporters? We asked AI to write for the Post
Will ChatGPT replace reporters? We asked AI to write for the Post
But with the advent of ChatGPT and the rush by many Chinese tech firms such as Baidu, Alibaba, SenseTime and ByteDance to build worthy competitors, the list of jobs that AI can potentially replace has grown substantially. Aside from customer service agents, it appears coders, software engineers, computer programmers, data analysts, journalists, advertising executives, legal assistants, teachers and financial advisers could all be at risk.
It will be no good reducing business costs if lost jobs lead to reduced consumer spending and weaker demand for the goods and services these companies provide.
IT recruitment firm Venturenix released a report in June saying around a quarter of Hong Kong’s workforce could be unemployed or forced to change careers in the next five years as AI takes their jobs. The stakes are equally high in mainland China, the world’s second-biggest economy, which is already experiencing a rise in joblessness among 16- to 24-year-olds.
Hence, many governments are treading cautiously, calling for greater regulation and oversight of the technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman used his visit to South Korea in June to call for coordinated international regulation of generative AI.
“If you study the history of technological revolutions, seems like roughly in two generations, we can adapt to almost any amount of labour market change. But if this all happens in 10 years, that’s a new challenge,” Altman said at an event in Seoul.
China is no exception. Beijing is expected to have a draft of its AI law ready for review by lawmakers within the year as it moves to better regulate ChatGPT-like services. At the same time, state media is talking up generative AI development, extolling its potential to help drive economic growth.
New technologies are often viewed with deep suspicion, only for humans to go on to enjoy their immense benefits. Fire must have been terrifying for early man, and the same went for flight.
In modern times, the internet was seen by many as opening the door to a multitude of social ills and potential criminal behaviour. While this did occur, the negatives have been far outweighed by a revolution in global connectivity and social interaction.
We must hope that AI can bring about similar benefits for humanity. In the short term, just like Francis Bacon reportedly once said about money, we must make sure it is a good servant and not a bad master.
